Banje Beach is overrated. There, I said it.
Every summer I watch tourists drag themselves down those concrete steps, pay €50 for two sunbeds, and sit shoulder-to-shoulder with three hundred other people photographing the same angle of Lokrum. Meanwhile I’m anchored in a cove ten minutes away where the only company is a seagull who won’t shut up.
I’ve been driving boats around the Dubrovnik coastline for over seven years. The beaches I keep going back to — the ones I actually take my own family to on days off — you can’t drive to any of them. No road, no parking, no beach bar charging €9 for a Sprite.
Here’s my honest list. Some are well known, most aren’t, and all of them are better than fighting for towel space on Banje.
My favourite beach near Dubrovnik, full stop. It sits south of town, carved into the cliff face between Sveti Jakov and the Lokrum channel. The cave isn’t deep — more of an overhang — but it traps heat, so the water’s always a degree or two warmer than anywhere else nearby.
That turquoise colour inside doesn’t look real. Afternoon is best because the cave throws shade across half the swimming area while the rest stays in full sun. We stop here regularly on our Blue Cave tour and private boat trips.
How to get there: By boat only. No land access. About 8 minutes from Old Town Port.
The only real sandy beach near Dubrovnik, and it earns every bit of its reputation. Wide crescent bay, shallow water that goes out forever — kids can wade for thirty metres before it gets past their waist. Caribbean-looking. In Croatia. It doesn’t make sense but there it is.
The trick is getting there before the Jadrolinija ferry dumps its crowd around noon. I’ve been taking groups to Sunj for seven years and the move is always the same: arrive by 9:30, anchor off the south end, and you’ve got two hours of near-empty beach before the herd shows up.
Read the full Sunj Beach & Lopud guide for everything you need to know.
How to get there: 30 minutes by speedboat from Dubrovnik, or ferry + 20-minute walk. Our Blue Cave tour includes 1.5 hours at Sunj.
Most people know Sveti Jakov as the locals’ beach — the one with the brutal staircase and the jaw-dropping view of the Old Town. But if you keep going east by water, there are three, maybe four pebble coves hidden below the cliffs. Can’t see them from the road at all.
I stop here regularly because the snorkeling is genuinely excellent — octopus, sea urchins, little reef fish everywhere. The water is deep, clear, and undisturbed because almost nobody knows these coves exist.
How to get there: By boat only. 10 minutes from Old Town. Bring water shoes — the rocks aren’t forgiving.
The dramatic one. About forty minutes south by boat, sitting at the bottom of a cliff that’s maybe 200 metres straight up. It won some “most beautiful beach in Croatia” award a while back, and honestly, fair enough.
There’s technically a path down from the village above but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who values their knees. By boat you just pull up and swim in. The cliff creates this amphitheatre feeling that’s hard to describe. Photos never capture it properly.
How to get there: 40 minutes south by private boat or speedboat rental. Worth combining with Cavtat.
The sheltered bay between Kolocep’s two villages has water clarity that’s hard to beat. Five metres down and you can still count the stones on the bottom. The pebble beach is small, but the swimming area is huge — deep water surrounded by pine-covered hillsides.
This is the first stop on our Elaphiti Islands tour and it sets the bar impossibly high for the rest of the day. I’ve anchored here hundreds of times and I still look down and think it’s absurd.
How to get there: 20 minutes by speedboat. Included in all Elaphiti tours.
Everyone who visits Lokrum Island goes to the east side swimming platforms. But on the western shore, facing back toward Dubrovnik, there are these little pebble inlets that the public ferry crowd never sees.
The views of the Old Town walls from water level are something else. We usually anchor here for twenty minutes during our coastal runs — it’s one of those spots where everyone reaches for their camera.
How to get there: 5 minutes by boat from Old Town. Or take the taxi boat to Lokrum and walk to the west side (most people don’t).
Daksa freaks some people out. It’s that small wooded island you pass leaving Gruz harbour — ten minutes by speedboat, that’s it. The place is uninhabited and has a dark history from WWII.
But the swimming cove on the east side is sheltered, deep, clean water, surrounded by pines. Surprisingly easy escape for something so close to the harbour. On a windy day when the coast is choppy, Daksa’s east cove is usually dead calm.
How to get there: 10 minutes from Gruz by rental boat or speedboat.
South of Cavtat there’s a cove called Supetar with ruins of a small chapel and absolutely nobody around. Mix of fine gravel and flat rocks. Deep blue water — not that light turquoise, but that intense Adriatic navy.
On full-day boat trips it’s become one of our go-to lunch spots. Bring your own food — there’s nothing to buy here. That’s the point.
How to get there: About 30 minutes south of Dubrovnik by boat. Best on a full-day charter.
Below the village of Trsteno — the one with the old arboretum they used as the Tyrell gardens in Game of Thrones — a freshwater stream runs down and hits the saltwater at a tiny beach reachable only from the sea.
The temperature contrast is genuinely bizarre. Cold patches, warm patches, sometimes in the same stroke. Strange and wonderful. The beach itself is small gravel with some flat rocks for sunbathing.
How to get there: 25 minutes northwest of Dubrovnik by boat. Only accessible from the water.
Sipan is the kind of place where time works differently. The pebble beach at Sipanska Luka faces a quiet harbour where the konobas serve whatever the fisherman brought in that morning.
You anchor right off the beach, swim in, and immediately start questioning why you live the way you live. It’s the furthest beach on this list from Dubrovnik, which is exactly why it’s the most peaceful.
How to get there: 50 minutes by speedboat. Included in 6 and 8-hour Elaphiti tours.
Most of these spots don’t show up on Google Maps. And even the ones that do — you still need someone who knows where the underwater rocks are, where the current pulls, and where to anchor without dragging.
Three ways to do it:
Whatever you choose, bring reef shoes and a snorkel. You won’t regret it.
Maro Slade is the founder of Mala Mara and has been running boat tours along the Dubrovnik coast since 2018. He lives in Mokosica and still hasn’t found a beach better than Betina Cave.
Tours and activities mentioned in this article
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