Here's my review of our week's holiday to Cavtat (pronounced Savtat), which is a pretty village located about 10 miles south of Dubrovnik. We travelled with the UK tour operator, Holiday Options, who specialise in trips to this area of the world. Just to pre-warn you, my trip review is very long, but I hope you find it interesting. I'm more than happy to answer any queries you may have...

Croatian Airlines

We flew with Croatia Airlines from Nottingham East Midlands Airport to Dubrovnik in mid-July 2006. Being at the height of the summer season, we were amazed to find that there were only 38 of us on an Airbus 320 that held nearly 200 people. Coming home a week later, there were only 53 of us.

We travel quite frequently and the food/service on Croatia Airlines has to be amongst the worst we've ever experienced. (The worst was when I went to Bulgaria on Air Via (?) about 10 years ago). I'm not a fussy eater, but the food really was awful - feta cheese for a starter, which was way too salty to eat; cold meat and cold veg for the main course; a dry bread roll; and a very dry pastry for dessert. If you're flying with Croatia Airlines, I'd definately recommend eating before you get on the plane or bring something to eat with you. Also, we didn't find the staff very welcoming/friendly, and the planes don't have any inflight entertainment - on the journey out they had a few TV screens dotted thoughout, but they only showed a safety/tourist video.

On the plus side, with so few of us on the flight, it was nice to spread out and the legroom was good compared to charter airlines. Also, you get free drinks, which included alcohol.

Iberostar Albatros Hotel, Cavtat

We stayed for one week at the Iberostar Albatros Hotel in Cavtat. It's only a few miles from the airport, and we arrived at the hotel only 30 minutes after touching down on the runway!

Even though the hotel is located on the final approach into the airport, we didn't find it disturbing. In fact, we enjoyed watching the planes coming in (most of the planes take off in the other direction, so you won't see/hear them).

There are two accommodation blocks in the hotel, with the Reception / restaurant in the middle of them. We given a room in 'B' block (B357), which gets the sun on the balcony in the morning. 'A' block gets the sun in the afternoon. If you want to get a view of the sunset from your room, you'll need to be in 'A' block.

The room was satisfactory - quite spacious, with a balcony overlooking the pool/sea. I'd recommend getting a pool/sea view if you can - it's a pretty special view. The bed was very comfy and they had all the usual mod cons you'd expect from a 4 star hotel. The air conditioning is switched on in July and August and was a welcome relief from the blistering heat.

There is a big restaurant and a terrace outside, where we ate our breakfast and dinner. They serve breakfast from 6am until 10am, and dinner from 6.30pm until 9.30pm. The food is very good and there's a huge variety to choose from. We don't usually like to go half board because we like dining in local restaurants, but we were pleasantly surprised by the food here.

The entertainment was okay - it was geared up for kids really, which isn't surprising at this time of year. The staff run an entertainment programme during the day, which we didn't get involved in, and at night they have a kids disco at 8.30pm, and at 9.30pm the adult entertainment starts (two shows per week and other things such as quizzes on the other nights). Everything wound down very early and most people had disappeared from the bar by 11pm.

Immediately next to the hotel are a few bars/restaurants. Our favourite bar, where we watched the amazing sunsets from 'our table', was Caffe Eve, which was located adjacent to the Domizana restaurant. A large beer (half a litre) here cost 15 kuna - approx. £1.50. For a more lively bar, head to Beach House Cool a few yards further towards the Iberostar Epidureus, which had live bands and attracted the younger, trendy tourists/locals (maybe our scene a few years ago!).

There's a water sports centre located within the Iberostar Hotel Epidaurus - a few minutes walk away - where we hired a small boat for the day for 450 kuna (about £45). We went along the coast to Plat / Mlini and then across to Supetar, an island off Cavtat, around the peninsular at the back of Hotel Croatia and finally around the harbour where the centre of Cavtat is located. It was nice to get away from the crowds for a day!

You can get a boat from outside the hotel to the centre of Dubrovnik. The first boat from Cavtat was at 9am (this was often full as it started from the centre of Cavtat). They run pretty frequently during the day and last one left at 7pm. The cost of 50 kuna single (£5) and 80 kuna return (£8). The boats were extremely busy and some people had to stand for the journey (just over one hour). There's also a tourist bus which runs from outside the hotel to Pile Gate in the centre of Dubrovnik - this left at 9.15am and 10am, and returned at 3pm, I think. There's also the number of 10 bus, which runs from the centre of Cavtat to Gruz Harbour, where you have to change to get to Pile Gate. It was blistering hot when we were there, so we used the boat and got a taxi back one evening (200 kuna one way).

The hotel's located about 20 minutes walk from the centre of Cavtat, which was really pretty. At night you can sit in one of the many bars/restaurants opposite the huge and very expensive yachts moored up there and people watch. Our favourite bar was Ancora, where the wine was only 120 kuna (£1.20) a glass. One evening we ate at the Dalmacija and the food/service was very good.

We had hoped to dine at Konavoski Komin or Konavosik Dvori, which came highly recommended by donalog (thank you), but unfortunately we just didn't have the time. Maybe next time...!

Dubrovnik

We visited Dubrovnik a few times - once in the morning to walk the city walls, and again one evening to have dinner there. It cost 50 kuna each (£5) to walk around the walls. We got there at 10am and it took us about one and a half hours to walk all the way around. The views were spectacular, and it's well worth doing. However, a few tips:

Get there as early or late when there are fewer crowds and it's not so hot
Check to see how many cruise ships are in town and try to visit when there are as few as possible in. I found this website very useful: http://www.cruisecal.com/dnn/Default.aspx?tabid=102
Take plenty of water with you and wear cool clothes and a hat
Wear comfortable shoes that have plenty of grip on the soles. The cobbles are VERY slippy - I nearly fell over a few times!

We also visited Dubrovnik one evening, when the city is lit by lanterns and is very romantic. As it was so busy, we struggled to find a table for dinner, but eventually we ate at Konoba Penatur, just off the Stradun. The food was good and reasonably priced - 215 kuna (£21.50) for two main courses and three drinks. To end the evening, we had a drink at the Hard Jazz Cafe Troubadur. It was very expensive - about 500 kuna / £5 for two beers - but we enjoyed listening to the live music there.

We are planning to return to the city in outside the main summer season. It was too hot/busy to really appreciate the beauty of the place. Even in the evening, when we thought that it would cool down a bit, the heat was radiating off the cobbles and because it's walled, there's no sea breeze. It really did get quite unbearable.

Mostar, Bosnia

We booked a day trip to Mostar, which cost 360 kuna each (£36). We had planned to travel with Atlas but I was unable to book online, so we ended up booking the trip with our tour rep and we travelled with Elite Travel. We're really pleased we went with them, as there were only 13 people on the bus, which meant that we could spread out on the bus and have a more personal service. There were a lot of tour buses in Mostar that day and most were full/nearly (including the Atlas buses we saw).

It was a very long, hot day - we were the first to be picked up at 6.50am (a taxi took us to Gruz Harbour in Dubrovnik to pick up the main bus) and we got back at about 7.30pm, but I'd thoroughly recommend it. We found it particularly fasinating to hear about the recent war and how it had affected the city/its people. It was very sad to see so many derelict buildings on the outskirts of the city and in the countryside.

Just one word of warning - wear comfortable shoes that have plenty of grip. The cobbles and bridge are VERY slippy! I dread to think what they're like in the rain!

As well as the local currency, you can pay in kuna or euro in Bosnia. You just need to ask them to convert the price for you (but basically you times by four to get the kuna price or divide by two to get the euro price).

Montenegro

Again we booked a day trip with Elite Travel, which cost 380 kuna each (£38). This time there were 14 people on the bus which holds about 40/50 people. Once again, it was a long day - we were the last to join the bus at 7.50pm, and we got back to the hotel at 7pm. This was my favourite day of the holiday - Montenegro is a stunning country and it's left such an impression that I think we'll return to holiday there. First we drove around the Bay of Kotor, which was breathtaking. We stopped briefly in the walled town of Kotor before driving up into the mountains to get the most spectacular views of the coastline. We stopped for a basic lunch (cheese/ham sandwich and a drink for 3 euro, I think). We then went to Cetinje - the old capital of Montenegro - and had a tour around the National Museum, before heading to Budva for a few hours. Budva has a lovely walled town. Just watch your bags/purses walking around - there were a few gypsy children around who looked up to no good. The beach area was really busy and loud. It reminded me of Sunny Beach in Bulgaria.

You have to pay in euros in Montenegro. Our first stop was in Kotor and there were plenty of ATMs there to withdraw cash.

Final words

This is our second trip to Croatia (we visited Istria about five years ago) and we love the country. Overall we found the people to be friendly, but don't expect the same level of service you'd get in the US or UK for example. I wouldn't visit in the height of summer again - it was just too hot and too busy. We'd like to return to Dubrovnik and Montenegro - perhaps in the same trip - but next time, we'll come back in the spring/autumn.