I’m going to be honest — I was getting tired of Game of Thrones questions around season seven. Four times a day, every day, someone on the boat pointing at Fort Lovrijenac asking “is that where Cersei lived?” Yes. Yes it is. For the nine hundredth time.

But then I actually rewatched the show during a slow winter and I get it. I get why people care. They did something remarkable with this city. Dubrovnik wasn’t a backdrop they dressed up — it was King’s Landing. The walls, the fortresses, the harbours, the way the stone catches afternoon light. They picked it because it already looked like the capital of a fictional empire, and they were right.

So fine. I’ll give you the real guide. Not the walking tour version — the version from the water, which is where the best stuff is anyway.

Fort Lovrijenac is the obvious one. The fortress sitting on a cliff just outside the western walls, looking like it’s daring the sea to come get it. That’s the Red Keep. Every establishing shot of Cersei’s balcony, every wide angle of King’s Landing from the harbour — that’s Lovrijenac. You can visit on foot, sure, entry’s included with the walls ticket, I think it’s around 35 euros now for the combo. But the angle the show used over and over, the iconic one, is from the sea. The fortress rising from the rock with the city walls sweeping behind it. I’ve watched hundreds of people round that corner by boat and their reaction is always the same. Jaws drop. Phones come out. Silence for about three seconds, then everyone talks at once.

The small harbour directly below Lovrijenac — Pile harbour — that’s Blackwater Bay. They literally set boats on fire in that water for the Battle of the Blackwater. Season two, episode nine. The wildfire sequence. The beach area where Stannis’s forces come ashore is right there. I think about that every time I pass it, which is multiple times daily, and it still hasn’t gotten old. From a boat you see the full panorama: harbour below, Lovrijenac above, walls extending east. It’s arguably the most dramatic viewpoint in the whole city.

Bokar Fortress, the round one guarding the western approach, shows up in a bunch of scenes where characters stare out over the bay looking contemplative. Tyrion did a lot of contemplative staring from angles that had Bokar in them. The walls themselves were everywhere — every rampart walk, every “characters talking while soldiers march past” scene was filmed on the actual city walls between Minceta Tower and Bokar.

From the water, you can see the entire southern wall face rising straight from the Adriatic. That’s the approach Davos Seaworth would’ve had sailing into King’s Landing. I mention this to guests sometimes and the ones who know the show go quiet for a moment.

Minceta Tower — the big circular one at the highest point of the walls — was the House of the Undying. Season two, Daenerys retrieving her dragons. Interiors were studio work but every exterior approach shot is Minceta. Looks exactly the same in person as it does on screen.

Now the one most people miss: the abandoned Hotel Belvedere southeast of Old Town. Perched on the cliffs above the coast. That’s where the Oberyn versus The Mountain fight happened. Season four. Still makes me uncomfortable thinking about it. The building’s fenced off from the land side and it’s deteriorating, which gives it this extra layer of creepiness. From the water you can see the whole structure and its clifftop position. It’s one of the most requested stops on our coastal runs and I have mixed feelings about this because the scene traumatised me.

Lokrum Island, ten minutes straight out from the Old Port, doubled as Qarth in season two. The Benedictine monastery and its gardens stood in for the merchant city where Daenerys spent all that time being frustrated. There’s actually a replica of the Iron Throne still on display at the monastery during summer months. Every single person sits on it. Every single one. I’ve never seen an empty Iron Throne at Lokrum.

Trsteno Arboretum, about twenty kilometres northwest, was the Tyrell gardens. Lady Olenna scheming among five-hundred-year-old trees. The approach by boat is gorgeous — this wall of ancient vegetation tumbling down to the waterline. Not sure if they still let you anchor there or if the rules changed, but you can definitely admire it from the water.

The Walk of Shame route from season five runs down the Jesuit Staircase and through the streets near Stradun. That’s a walking tour thing, I won’t pretend the boat adds anything there. But understanding the geography from the harbour — seeing how exposed and public that walk would’ve been — gives it a different weight.

What the walking tours won’t tell you, and what took me a few seasons of running these trips to fully appreciate, is that something like forty percent of Dubrovnik’s GoT locations either look better from the sea or can only be seen from the sea. The showrunners chose this city partly for how it reads from water level. The walls growing out of the Adriatic, the fortresses on their cliffs, the natural harbours. That’s cinematic Dubrovnik, and the Ragusans who built this place six centuries ago already knew it.

We do a sunset cruise that passes the major coastal locations in golden-hour light, which is genuinely how many of the show’s exterior shots were filmed. Whether you can recite every episode title or you vaguely remember there were dragons, seeing it from the water puts you where the cameras were. And that changes things.