Getting to Southern Dalmatia is relatively straightforward – helped by the fact that one of Croatia’s largest airports, Dubrovnik Airport, is located here! Do take a look at our Getting to Dubrovnik section for details of all airlines that fly to Dubrovnik from the UK and elsewhere in Europe.
Getting to Southern Dalmatia – Cavtat, Plat or Mlini
Getting to Cavtat, Plat or Mlini from Dubrovnik Airport
Because of how close these three towns are to Dubrovnik Airport, all are very easy to reach when flying into this part of Croatia. In almost all cases, it is probably easiest to simply get a taxi from your airport to your final destination – it’s about 6km/10 minutes to Cavtat from Dubrovnik Airport; 8km/15 minutes to Plat; and about 10km/20 minutes to Mlini.
You could technically also try and reach some of these towns by public bus from the airport. Buses stop on the main roundabout outside the airport, and buses 11 and 27 go to Plat and Mlini, whilst bus number 31 goes to Cavtat. All in all, however, it may well be better to get a taxi to one of these towns from the airport as it’s unlikely to break the bank!
Getting to Cavtat, Plat or Mlini from Dubrovnik
There are a number of local buses from Dubrovnik that travel to these towns and others in this region of Croatia. You can see details of these routes on the Dubrovnik Bus Station website – this will show you both timetables and a map of which routes operate where.
Getting to Southern Dalmatia – Peljesac Peninsula
Getting to the Peljesac Peninsula from Dubrovnik
If you’re travelling from Dubrovnik, there are again local buses to the town of Ston. Bus number 15 travels from Dubrovnik to Ston, at the base of the Peljesac Peninsula, and beyond – you can see the timetable on the Dubrovnik Bus Terminal website.
Depending on your exploration plans on the Peljesac Peninsula, however, it may well be easiest to either join an organised tour or hire a car for a day.
Getting to the Peljesac Peninsula from the local islands
If you’re managed to reach the island of Korcula, there is a multiple-times-a-day, year-round ferry from Korcula Town (technically, Domince on the outskirts) to Orebic on the Peljesac Peninsula; journey time is only 20 minutes. This ferry is useful to know if you have a car and want to hop over from the Peninsula to Korcula and back – obviously, foot passengers can also use the ferry! Because of the frequency of the ferry, you could definitely use it to make a day trip to Orebic from Korcula (or vice versa).
Likewise, if you’re on the island of Mljet, there’s another daily car ferry from Sobra to Prapratno at the base of the Peljesac Peninsula, close to Ston.
Both of the above ferries are run by Jadrolinija.
Getting to the Peljesac Peninsula from elsewhere in Croatia
If you’re driving down towards southern Dalmatia, you may well like to make use of the Ploce to Trpanj car ferry. This 60-minute ferry, which runs several times a day, year-round, takes you direct to the Peninsula from the “mainland”. The ferry also avoids the Neum corridor section of Bosnia and Hercegovina that you need to pass through to reach Dubrovnik and towns south of there – not only may you avoid possible border queues during busy times i.e. summer.
If you’re travelling by bus, buses from further north along the Croatian don’t turn to travel up the Peninsula. Your best bet is to either get off at Ploce and make use of the above-mentioned ferry to Trpanj, or travel further along the coast to Ston raskrizje (meaning Ston crossroads) which isn’t actually in Ston, but a stop on the main coastal road (basically, the bus doesn’t turn off up to the Peljesac Peninsula).
Take a look – for example – at bus schedules to either Ploce or “Ston r.” on the Split Bus Terminal website.
Getting to Southern Dalmatia – Ploce
Ploce is a fairly major port in this part of Croatia, although the town itself isn’t perhaps the most interesting of places to visit. Nevertheless, because of the town’s size, it has good transport connections to a number of other towns and cities – there is even an international train service!
By Bus
As Ploce is located close to the end of the A1 motorway, there are numerous buses running to the town, even from quite far away. (For example, there are daily buses from Zagreb which take around 7-8 hours.)
From the south – Dubrovnik – most buses tend to stop in Ploce on their way north along the coastal road. It is just under 2 hours from Dubrovnik to Ploce.
By Train
There exists an international train service to Ploce, running from Sarajevo and Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This year-round train takes 1 hour 30 minutes from Mostar and 3 hours 30 minutes from Sarajevo. Take a look at the Bosnian Railways website for more details.
By Ferry
There exists a car ferry service from Trpanj on the Peljesac Peninsula to Ploce, run by Jadrolinija. This service was often utilised by those wishing (or needing) to bypass the small section of Bosnia and Herzegovina on their way down the Croatian coast. Nowadays, with the opening of the Peljesac Bridge, this ferry route isn’t utilised as much!
Running several times a day year round, the ferry takes one hour.