After several days in Montenegro, we drove to Dubrovnik, enjoying breathtaking views approaching the Old Town as you drive along the coast and descend to the city perimeter. We stayed at Sun Gardens Dubrovnik, an expansive, family-friendly resort about a 20-minute drive north of Old Town Dubrovnik. Visiting in mid/late-April had both pros and cons. The pros were: comfortable temperatures; the resort was less than half full (we got upgraded to a wonderful 2-bedroom suite); and fewer crowds in the vicinity. The cons were: outdoor pool temperatures were too cold for swimming (we’ve found most outdoor resort pools in Europe are not heated); and the kids club wasn’t open until end of May (which we didn’t find out until arrival 
). Nevertheless, since you can easily cover the compact Old Town Dubrovnik in a day, we enjoyed relaxing at the resort and exploring more of the Dalmatian (southern Croatia) coast.
For off-the-resort meals, we were pleased to discover Konoba Danby, a waterfront restaurant featuring Dalmatian specialties and excellent service in a beautiful setting, with an adjacent playground; though like in many of the places we visited in Croatia, the younger kids weren’t speaking English, so it was more challenging for Jacob to be included in their play. We ended up eating dinner at Konoba Danby twice, it was that good!
In the Old Town we took a Game of Thrones-themed walking tour with Dubrovnik Walks. This was an entertaining activity to get to know the city and history since for better or worse, GOT-driven tourism is a thing across many of the filming sites in Croatia but particularly Dubrovnik. Many of the best views came from Fort Lovrijenac (Fort Lawrence), where many scenes of the so-called Red Keep were filmed; we also were regaled with animated anecdotes from our guide, who met many of the cast members during filming, and shared a lot of interesting “behind the scenes” details about how the series was produced over 10 years of filming. We skipped the exorbitantly priced “experience” of walking the city walls; it didn’t seem worth it when we captured epic views from the GOT walk.
The highlight of this part of Croatia was the Pelješac Peninsula, known for its wineries and nature (this was the birthplace of Grgich wines, founded by Miljenko “Mike” Grgich, and one of our family’s favorite wineries – Grgich Hills Estates – also in Napa, CA). We wished we had more time on the Pelješac Peninsula; in hindsight we would’ve continued driving up the coast to reach Split and later taken a ferry over to the island of Hvar (which was our next stop after Dubrovnik). We visited the Marlais Winery, where we were treated to a private tasting experience with the owner, who lives and works on the property. His ancestors actually came with Napoleon’s troops in the 19th century, hence the French name. The only visitors that day, we toured the cellar, learned about his wine making process, and sampled delicious white, rose, and red wines paired with local cheese, along with delectable olive oil produced from the property’s trees. This was one of our more memorable and special wine tasting experiences. Meanwhile Jacob played with the owner’s daughters and menagerie of pets, including donkeys.
We then explored the small town of Ston, known for well-preserved, medieval town walls scaling the mountains behind it (similar to Kotor), salt works, and seafood. Fresh oysters and even more refreshing Croatian white wine on the square rounded out a too-short day on Pelješac, but this is a region we would definitely return to again.
