7-day Dubrovnik itinerary with guided tours

A full week of Dubrovnik packages: walls, kayak, Elafiti, Mljet, Montenegro or Mostar, and a food farewell — with live product cards.

A week of guided Dubrovnik packages opens with a walking tour through the Old Town and City Walls, then works through a kayak or boat tour, a full-day Elafiti Islands trip, a longer Mljet National Park excursion, a choice between Montenegro’s Kotor Bay and Mostar’s Ottoman bridge, a Pelješac wine tour (or a soft day), and a farewell food tour on the way out. Every headline experience becomes a single confirmed booking instead of a ferry timetable, a wind-dependent kayak call, or a rural back road to navigate yourself. It parallels our 7-day Dubrovnik self-drive itinerary but trades independent pacing for hotel or central pickup and fixed departure times. Live cards throughout pull current Viator Dubrovnik inventory so you can compare inclusions and cancellation windows before peak dates fill.

Booking order

Lock the Old Town and City Walls walking tour and the Elafiti Islands boat tour first — both are among the most in-demand products in Dubrovnik and the best-reviewed departures sell out days ahead in July and August — then the kayak or boat tour, then Mljet, then decide between Montenegro and Mostar for your one border-crossing day based on whether Kotor Bay’s scenery or Mostar’s Ottoman history appeals more. Keep the Pelješac wine tour and the farewell food tour flexible; both have wider availability and can shift a day or two if weather or energy levels call for it.

• Priority: Old Town and walls tour → Elafiti Islands → kayak or boat tour → Mljet → Montenegro or Mostar → Pelješac wine tour → farewell food tour
• Confirm pickup points — some tours use central meeting spots near Pile Gate rather than hotel pickup from Lapad or Babin Kuk
• Bring a passport for Montenegro or Mostar, even on a day tour — both cross an international border
• Screenshot vouchers offline; connectivity inside the Old Town’s stone walls can be patchy

The itinerary at a glance

• Day 1 — Arrive; guided Old Town and City Walls tour
• Day 2 — Sea kayak tour, or a boat cruise along the coast
• Day 3 — Elafiti Islands boat tour
• Day 4 — Mljet National Park tour
• Day 5 — Montenegro (Kotor Bay), or a Mostar tour
• Day 6 — Pelješac wine tour, or a soft day
• Day 7 — Farewell food tour; depart

Day 1 — Arrive; guided Old Town and City Walls tour

Check in near Pile or Ploče Gate for the shortest transfers to most meeting points, then start the week with a guided walk through Stradun, the Franciscan Monastery’s cloister, the Rector’s Palace, and Sponza Palace, before climbing onto the City Walls themselves. A guide’s context does real work here — which stretches took direct damage during the 1991–92 siege, how quickly Dubrovnik restored its terracotta roofs afterward, and where in the Old Town’s lanes Game of Thrones filmed key King’s Landing scenes. Booking the earliest available slot matters most on this day, since the walls fill quickly once cruise-ship passengers disembark mid-morning.

• Book the earliest available slot; timing beats the cruise-ship crowds only if the tour starts before mid-morning
• Comfortable, grippy shoes matter — the walls have real elevation change and Stradun’s marble gets slick when wet
• Ask whether your City Walls ticket is bundled into the tour price or purchased separately at the gate

Day 2 — Sea kayak or boat tour

A guided sea kayak tour paddles beneath Fort Lovrijenac and Fort Bokar, into small coastal caves, and often across to Lokrum for a swim break, with an instructor handling pacing and currents. A boat tour or sunset cruise covers similar water from the deck of a small vessel instead, pairing a coastal run past the walls with a swim stop and, on evening departures, views of the Old Town lit up as the light fades — a genuinely different perspective on a city most visitors only see from land.

• Morning kayak departures avoid the stronger afternoon winds common on this stretch of coast
• Bring reef-safe sunscreen and a dry bag; most tours supply life jackets but little else
• Sunset boat departures book out first in peak summer — reserve a few days ahead

Day 3 — Elafiti Islands boat tour

A full-day Elafiti Islands boat tour hops between Koločep, Lopud, and Šipan, usually with lunch on board and a swim stop at Lopud’s Šunj Beach, a genuinely sandy crescent bay on an otherwise mostly pebble-and-rock coast. A guided tour removes the public ferry’s biggest limitation — its handful of daily departures — and typically fits all three islands into one well-paced day rather than watching the clock for the next boat.

• Elafiti Islands tours typically run six to seven hours with lunch included — check whether drinks are extra
• Confirm which islands and beaches are included; some shorter tours visit only two of the three
• Bring a swimsuit under your clothes — most tours build in two or three swim stops

Day 4 — Mljet National Park tour

A Mljet National Park tour crosses to the island by boat and covers roughly a third of it protected around two saltwater lakes, Veliko and Malo Jezero, usually including a short boat ride to St Mary’s Island’s 12th-century monastery in the middle of the larger lake and free time to swim or cycle around the shore in dense pine forest. A guide handles the crossing timing and the park logistics, which matters given how limited the DIY ferry schedule is, and typically works in a lunch stop either on the boat or in one of the small villages near the park.

• Mljet day tours run long, given the crossing time each way — build in a relaxed evening after
• Bring swimwear and a light layer for the boat ride, which can be breezy even on warm days
• Ask whether cycling around the lakes is included or an optional add-on

Day 5 — Montenegro (Kotor Bay), or Mostar

A Montenegro day trip crosses the border to Kotor Bay, a fjord-like inlet ringed by steep mountains, with time to climb Kotor’s Old Town walls and usually a stop in Perast, the small Baroque town facing the artificial islet of Our Lady of the Rocks. A Mostar tour instead heads into Bosnia and Herzegovina to see the rebuilt Ottoman-era Stari Most bridge and the old town’s cobbled bazaar, sometimes paired with a stop at the turquoise Kravice waterfalls. Both are long full-day excursions with a border crossing, so having a guide handle the paperwork, timing, and driving is where these packages earn their price the most.

• Bring a passport regardless of nationality — both tours cross an international, non-Schengen border
• Montenegro tours usually spend more time on scenery and the bay; Mostar tours lean more into history and architecture
• Check departure times carefully — both are among the longest single-day tours available from Dubrovnik

Day 6 — Pelješac wine tour, or a soft day

After a long border-crossing day, a Pelješac wine tour makes a gentler but still guided outing: a driver-led route to the Dingač and Postup wine regions, where Plavac Mali grapes produce a bold red found almost nowhere else in this concentration, usually paired with a stop in Ston to see the "Walls of Ston" — Europe’s second-longest defensive wall system after the Great Wall of China — and a tasting of the oysters farmed in the calm waters of Mali Ston Bay. If a full tour day feels like too much after Montenegro or Mostar, keep day six deliberately soft instead: a slow morning at Banje Beach or Lapad, and an early night before the final day.

• Pelješac wine tours usually include tastings at two or three wineries plus a Ston oyster stop
• A driver-led tour removes the only real headache of visiting Pelješac independently: navigating its rural back roads
• A soft beach day is the lower-effort choice if day five left you tired

Day 7 — Farewell food tour; depart

Close the week with a guided food tour through the Old Town’s market stalls and side streets, tasting Dalmatian specialties like crni rižot (cuttlefish-ink black risotto), local pršut and cheese, and a last glass of Pošip or Plavac Mali before you fly or ferry out. Build in real margin for the transfer to Dubrovnik Airport, roughly twenty kilometers from the Old Town, which can back up with traffic around peak departure banks in summer.

• Food tours typically run three to four hours with multiple tasting stops — a good lighter alternative to a full sightseeing day on departure morning
• Leave extra time for the airport transfer in peak summer, when traffic around departure banks can be heavy
• Confirm your food tour’s finish time against your flight departure before booking

Where to stay for this itinerary

A base near Pile or Ploče Gate keeps transfers to most tour meeting points and Old Port departures short, which matters after long tour days. Lapad and Babin Kuk suit travelers prioritizing beach access and value — confirm your accommodation is inside the standard pickup zone before booking any tour that offers hotel collection.

Tickets and timing

Peak summer (July–August) brings the heaviest cruise-ship crowds to the Old Town and the walls, so book early tour slots and reserve Montenegro or Mostar seats a few days ahead, since longer coach tours sell out faster than city-based ones. Boat-based days — the Elafiti Islands, Mljet, and any kayak or cruise — can shift with wind and sea conditions, so favor a flexible cancellation policy outside the calmest summer months. Late spring and early autumn bring noticeably thinner crowds and often better tour availability.

Guided vs DIY

Packages shine on the Elafiti Islands’ and Mljet’s limited ferry schedules, Montenegro and Mostar’s border logistics, and Pelješac’s rural back roads — all genuinely annoying to arrange yourself. Independent pacing still works well on soft days — see the Dubrovnik destination guide. For the same geography without packages, use the 7-day Dubrovnik self-drive itinerary. Shorter on time? See 5-day Dubrovnik itinerary with guided tours.