Lokrum Island - Croatia

Swimming and cliff jumping on Lokrum Island near Dubrovnik

It was another steamy hot day in the Adriatic, and since we had wandered through the Old City of Dubrovnik yesterday, we decided to do a little excursion today.

I looked through a few options, but decided that the simplest, cheapest and most flexible one was to take a ferry to nearby Lokrum Island.  The ferry leaves from the Old City about every 15 minutes during the high season - it's a bit pricey (27 euros!) but it turns out kids under 18 are only 5 euros each, so that made it a bit more reasonable. So off we went down the stairs again. 

No one in Dubrovnik will ever need a stair master 

Lokrum is a nature preserve - the southern end of the island is quite park-like with fields, a playground, restaurants/bars and a ton of places to swim.  The northern end of the island is a bit wilder - if we'd had more time there today I would have loved to explore the north end, but the kids were having so much fun that we ended up just staying on the south.

Cute paths on Lokrum Island

The ferry ride from Dubrovnik is very quick - only about 10 minutes.  The arrival at the island is well signed, with lots of maps (and bathrooms!).

Game of Thrones fans would love this excursion because apparently some famous scenes from the series were filmed there, and there is also a replica Iron Throne in the 15th century benedictine monastery ruins.  Both kids posed on the throne (but neither has seen GoT).

After checking out the monastery, we made our way to an inland lake dubbed "The Dead Sea" due to how salty it is.  The kids loved how easy it was to float around and we swam around and checked out a small sea cave and the kids did a little cliff jumping too.  All the while, curious peacocks were checking out our bags and shoes (the entire island is covered in wandering peacocks).

"The Dead Sea" on Lokrum Island

This peacock is keeping an eye on Rosie

Peacocks everywhere!

After a good amount of time at the Dead Sea, we made our way to the coast for a little ocean swimming.  There are tons of small bays and inlets on the island - so much choice for where you want to go.  We ended up at a really awesome spot that had cliff jumping options for the adventurous, a big ladder to help the less adventurous in and out, and beautiful crystal clear turquoise water for swimming.  We spent the rest of the afternoon in this little bay - the kids jumped off some pretty crazy high cliffs (not me!) and I enjoyed floating and swimming around.  The water felt amazing.

Spot the flying Rosie

Zoe watches Rosie jump (Zoe jumped right after)

With growing confidence comes double jumps!

Obviously we finished with a family selfie

It would have been nice to have actual water shoes for this part, but the kids had pretty good luck with their (hideous) crocs - Rosie even figured out a little system of elastics to keep hers on her feet during these big cliff jumps.

Cliff jumping was definitely out of my comfort zone but it was great to see the kids build their confidence through the afternoon and they both had a TON of fun.

We had to cut their fun short though - we wanted to make sure we made it back to Duvrovnik for dinner and before the last boat back at 8pm (you can't stay on the island past 8pm).

Once we got back to the Old City, we were initially going to make our way to a beach bar we had spotted from the water, but we got distracted by the picturesque patio of Bistro Revelin, just outside the Old City gate.  We had a very tasty dinner, made even more enjoyable with some great live music and the fabulous scenery.

Yummy pasta with truffles and prawns

After dinner, we grabbed a quick gelato and headed back up the 330 stairs to our AirBnB.  We are now packing up to head to Montenegro (Kolasin) tomorrow.  Dubrovnik has been absolutely picturesque, but it's pretty busy and very pricey, so we're looking forward to a more low-key, laid-back pace in the mountains of Montenegro for the next week or so.