Visiting Dubrovnik’s Elaphiti Islands on a Private Boat Trip.

Recently, my long-time blogger friend, Aftab, and I spent a long-weekend in the Balkans. It was somewhere we’d both been wanting to visit for years, and we decided life is too short to wait any longer!

Our trip started in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, and our favourite experience of our 3-days in Dubrovnik was a private boat trip to Dubrovnik’s Elaphiti Islands (also known as the Elaphites).

We were incredibly fortunate with the weather as it had been forcasted to rain and thunderstorm our entire trip, and we ended up having brilliant sunshine and blue skies instead the whole time we were in Dubrovnik.

So, let me take you on our boat trip to the Elaphites…

Booking a private boat trip to the Elaphiti Islands

You can have a private boat trip to the Elaphites arranged for you if you book your Dubrovnik holiday with Original Travel (who kindly gifted us our boat trip on this occasion).

They’ll do all the planning and organising for you, so you don’t have to worry about a thing! However, if you already have your trip planned, you can book a private boat trip through Adriatic Explore.

We chose a 4-hour half-day trip, on an Atlantic Open 670 boat with a skipper. They picked us up from our hotel, Hilton Dubrovnik, and whisked us down to the harbour, dropping us right by the boat.

The experience was seamless, and made us feel even more excited for the morning ahead.

Visiting Koločep

Our first stop was the island of Koločep (locally known by some as Kalamota) as it’s the closest island to Dubrovnik. We jumped off the boat onto the deck and walked around the bay. It was breathtaking – just absolutely beautiful!

We couldn’t get over how picturesque it was. The azure water glistened and sparkled in the sunlight, with the pretty buildings lining the shoreline and the roads free from traffic and cars.

There are plenty of coves and beaches to explore and swim off. Just watch where you step if you go into the water – there are sea urchins galore on the rocky parts.

If you have more time than we did, make sure you stop by The Blue Lake!

Visiting Lopud

Lopud was our second and final stop, and the island we spent the most amount of time on. We started by motoring round into Sunj Beach, and quickly ditched our clothing to jump into the inviting aquamarine waters.

I was in heaven being back in the ocean, and loved every minute of it.

Surrounded by small blue fish, we swum from the boat into the beach and flopped onto the sunbeds. A man came up to us and told us you had to pay for the sunbeds, but they only accepted cash, and as we’d swum in we only had Aftab’s apple watch with us. So off we went back to the boat to have more of a swim and then relax on the boat instead.

The skipper of the boat handed us bottles of iced tea, and we sat at the front of the boat sipping our drinks and basking in the gloriously warm sunshine.

In need of some ice-cream, our skipper took us round to Lopud Marina. As we approached the bay we were in awe of the Church Holy Mary of Spilice standing proudly on the water’s edge.

We hopped off the boat and practically ran to the little ice-cream stand! Ice-creams in hand, we wandered up to the Church and had a look inside, before taking the steps down towards the water.

Then disaster struck. Thankfully I’d eaten my ice-cream already, but as I walked along the waterfront I didn’t realise the patch of flooring I’d stepped onto was covered in algae…I went flying, my bag went flying, and suddenly I was on my back laying there wondering what on earth had happened.

And then the giggles started, and I couldn’t stop laughing at the situation while Aftab stood there in shock asking if I was okay.

I had a few cuts and grazes on my leg and foot that were bleeding, so I rinsed them in the seawater and then we walked over to the main village to find some plasters in the little grocery store. All fixed up, I then needed to wash my dress because the back of it was covered in disgusting, smelly algae!

Thank goodness for Sezane, because I had one of their oversized white shirts in my bag as a spare beach shirt, so I threw that on and rinsed my dress in the sea. We then got a punnet of strawberries from the little market on the seafront, and got back onto the boat as it was time to head back to Dubrovnik, my dress hanging over the side of the boat, drying in the breeze.

Just as we got into the marina thick black clouds appeared out of nowhere and reminded us how lucky we had been with the weather. And as promised, our driver from earlier was ready and waiting for us right where he had dropped us off!

Don’t miss a visit to the Elaphiti Islands

Our boat trip to the Elaphiti Islands was pure magic, and you really can’t visit Dubrovnik without seeing them. We had the best morning and it was absolutely a highlight of our trip to Croatia.

As well as private boat tours, there are also ferry’s to the islands if you’re watching your budget, but you won’t be able to get to the smaller bays and beaches unless you walk across the islands to them.

A huge thank you to Original Travel for giving us such an incredible experience!