Three Days in Dubrovnik

Pile Gate before the first groups. Big Onofrio's Fountain, the gate, and the length of Stradun with nobody on it. This is the photograph.

Up onto the City Walls at opening — €40 in the high season. The walls are a single uninterrupted circuit with no re-entry — once you leave through any gate, you would have to buy another ticket to go back up. Walk the whole lap in one go. The multi-day window on the ticket applies to the Fort Lovrijenac portion, which you can use on a different day. Allow ninety minutes to two hours. Take water; there is no shade, and by eleven the stone is punishing.

Straight on to Fort Lovrijenac, which your walls ticket already covers. Best light of the day looking back at what you have just walked.

Lunch two streets back from Stradun, not on it. Black risotto or grilled fish, and ask the total price if the fish is priced by weight.

The heat hour. Either swim from the rocks below the walls, or take the indoor route: the Rector's Palace at €15, or €20 for the ten-museum ticket if you expect to use two or more.

A drink at one of the Buža bars through the gap in the sea wall, then dinner in the back lanes. Bring cash for the bar.

First boat to Lokrum from the Old Port. The €30 reserve ticket includes the return crossing. Monastery, botanical garden, the saltwater lake called the Dead Sea, peacocks you should not feed.

Back for lunch, or stay on the island and eat there. Whatever you do, note the last boat: the current schedule says 19:00, an earlier-season timetable said 20:00, and nobody stays overnight.

The Cathedral, free, with the Titian above the altar — avoid Mass times — and Sponza Palace, where the free Memorial Room to the defenders of the 1991–92 siege is the twenty minutes most visitors skip and should not.

The cable car to Mount Srđ, €30 return, and the Homeland War Museum in Fort Imperial at the top for €5. It closes in winter and stops running in high wind, so keep this flexible rather than booked.

Bus 10 to Cavtat, €4 and about half an hour, or the seasonal boat from the Old Port. A harbour, a mausoleum on the hill, konobas with nobody hurrying you, and a boat back in the late afternoon.

Jadrolinija's line 807 to Lopud — about an hour — for a car-free island and Šunj beach on the far side.

Ston's walls run for about five and a half kilometres of a seven-kilometre original — one of the longest preserved fortification systems in Europe, and startling for a town this size. Take the €6.40 bus to Ston and Mali Ston for the walls and oysters at the quay. Or take a guided run into Pelješac wine country, which is the only practical way to reach the Dingač slopes without a car.

Back for the Stradun at dusk, when the day-trippers have gone and the limestone goes gold. It is a different city after seven.