Some 27 km northwest of Dubrovnik lies the village of Slano. Home to fewer than 600 locals, its population swells in the summer months. Boats of all kinds berth here, from small sailboats to larger cruise liners. Thursday night is a busy night, with a fair few of the round-trip Split-Dubrovnik smaller cruises docking overnight. I counted two stacks of five in all.
Accommodation is difficult to find, so book early. It ranges from the five-star Admiral hotel down.
[We thought we’d booked a ground-floor two-bed apartment right across from the town square, mere metres from the water. But it appears that Booking.com has a glitch. Even if you select a ground-floor apartment, as advertised, this message doesn’t get through. You need to write to the rental and specify. This happened twice this trip – and it was annoying.]
Our top-floor rooms had shuttered windows that facilitated a quintessential Mamma Mia moment when opened with a flourish just after sunrise.
The beach was minutes away. And this time of year (September), no one came looking for money; a plus, as Croatia is on the expensive side and these things all add up. The local shop wanted €11.07 for a jar of instant coffee!
Of the two bars we visited, I’d give Fast Food Riva a miss in favour of Cafe Bar Džara. Their house white is a delicious Pošip. It’s a local hangout with unobtrusive service and reasonable prices. And there’s a great little bakery next door.
We dined out twice. Maestral is central, close to the bar and bakery. It gets quite busy and seems to get repeat visitors, judging by the familiarity between diners and wait staff. I enjoyed my squid, and himself’s sea bass was delicious, both served with the ubiquitous potatoes and swiss chard. And the tuna carpaccio is a must-have.
Farther out the road, over at the marina, Pool Aka is the place to be when the sun sets. Mesmerising. The service was so good that we went back the following morning for breakfast. Restaurant Kolarin also does breakfast, but it’s a one-dish menu – omelette, coffee, juice and croissant; Pool Aka offers real choices.
The No. 12 bus runs every other hour into Dubrovnik. And given that we had come this far, it would have been silly to miss the opportunity to see what all the hype is about. We stayed on till we got to the city but made note of several places worth stopping at along the way.
The drive along the Dubrovnik ‘Riviera’ is gobsmackingly gorgeous. Croatia knows how to do scenery.
While I wouldn’t move to Slano, I can see renting a place here for a couple of weeks in the shoulder season and doing nothing but eating good food and enjoying good wine in between daily swims and waterside walks.
It’s on the return-to list.
And I learned a new term.
The monastery and the church of St Jerome in Slano were founded by Bosnian Franciscans to suppress Bogomilism.
Bogomils ‘condemned those functions of man that bring him into close contact with matter, especially marriage, the eating of meat, and the drinking of wine’.
Who knew?
