For the next portion of my Four Seasons Yacht via Turkmenistan and Saudi Arabia adventure, Ford and I had a quick stay at Hotel Villa Dubrovnik, given that this is where our Four Seasons Yachts journey ended.
The 55-key property has been around for decades, and is typically regarded as the best hotel in Dubrovnik, a city that otherwise doesn’t have many great options (especially ones affiliated with major hotel groups). Villa Dubrovnik is independent, but it is part of Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), so there is a points angle here (which I’ll talk more about in the “booking” section).
While Villa Dubrovnik is pricey, it’s a gorgeous property, with amazing views, nice facilities, excellent dining, and very friendly staff. It even recently underwent a full renovation, so is better than ever. If you can swing it, I think this is absolutely the place to stay in the city. There were a couple of quirks that I’ll get into in the “service” section, but nothing that would impact my recommendation to stay here.
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Booking Villa Dubrovnik
Villa Dubrovnik is open seasonally, typically from late March until early November. Dubrovnik can be lovely in winter as well, but as you’d expect, tourism demand is heavily concentrated on the summer months, and given the rates being charged at Villa Dubrovnik, I imagine demand in winter would be very low.
Rates typically range from around €600 per night to over €1,200 per night, depending on exactly when you’re staying. The nightly rate for our stay was around €1,000. Ford booked our stay through Virtuoso, which offers extra perks, including a room upgrade subject to availability, a complimentary three course lunch for two people, and more (ordinarily breakfast would be a perk as well, but it’s available with all rates at the property).
I think it’s worth pointing out the points angle here, as both Amex Membership Rewards and Citi ThankYou let you transfer points to LHW Leaders Club at a 4:1 ratio. Leaders Club points are typically worth around eight cents each, meaning that each point can potentially get you around two cents toward the cost of a stay. For many people, that could prove to be a lucrative option.
Villa Dubrovnik location
What’s so cool about Villa Dubrovnik is that you sort of feel like you’re in a serene and secluded area, while actually being within walking distance of all the action.
Villa Dubrovnik is set on a cliff in the Sveti Jakov residential area, yet it’s only around a 15-20 minute walk to the heart of the historic city center. If you’d prefer not to walk, the hotel also has an hourly shuttle service to town in the afternoons and evenings, which runs from 3PM until 11PM.
The hotel has a rather dramatic yet unassuming exterior. As you pull up to the hotel, you’ll only see an elevator, which might confuse you at first, and make you wonder where the hotel is.
But when you look down, you’ll see the property and sea below, as it really is built right into a cliff. This makes for some incredible views.
After taking the elevator down, you’ll find a nice garden and seating area, and that then leads to the lobby.
Villa Dubrovnik lobby & check-in
Villa Dubrovnik has an intimate lobby, with some breathtaking views of the sea. The front desk staff were super friendly and welcoming, and very thorough in explaining the property’s features to us.
As you’d expect, just about everyone checking in on our day seemed to be getting off the Four Seasons Yachts ship, while half of the guests on property were going to board the Four Seasons Yachts ship that day, so our room wasn’t ready for an early check-in, and there also weren’t any upgrades available. Still, our room was ready by check-in time, so that’s fair enough, and in line with expectations.
To give a sense of the property’s overall layout, the hotel covers levels one through five, and reception is located on level four, so that’s where you arrive. The hotel’s rooftop bar (Galanto Bar) is located on level five, the fitness and spa area are located on level three, the restaurant and bar are located on level one, and then guest rooms are located on levels one through four.
Villa Dubrovnik guest room
Villa Dubrovnik has four categories of rooms and five categories of suites, and we were staying in an entry level superior sea view room. It’s really nice how all rooms here have a sea view, since at so many hotels that’s something you have to pay a big premium for.
We were assigned room 304, located on the third floor. All floors are connected by an elevator or a couple of staircases, so there are options for moving around.
Superior sea view rooms here are marketed as being 35 square meters (377 square feet), so they’re a decent size, though nothing huge. The room featured an entryway with closet space to the right, the bathroom to the left, and the rest of the room straight ahead.
I really liked the room’s design, between the exposed stone and the pops of color. The room had a very comfortable king size bed, as well as a couch and a desk with a chair along one of the walls. Then there was an additional chair and a coffee table in the opposite corner of the room. For an accommodation of this size, I appreciated just how much furniture there was, as so many rooms barely give you anywhere to sit.
The minibar setup was near the entrance, and included Nespresso coffee, a kettle, and a variety of drinks and snacks for purchase.
There was also a nice little welcome amenity consisting of an Orancello liqueur, crafted specifically for the hotel.
The bathroom was also impressive for a standard room, with double sinks, a soaking tub, a walk-in shower, and a toilet in a separate room.
The room’s terrace was lovely as well, and had a couple of chairs and a table, plus gorgeous views of the Adriatic Sea.
One other thing I should mention is that tech in the room was really great, I guess thanks to the hotel undergoing a renovation that wrapped up in 2025. For example, there were even conveniently located USB-C outlets by the bed, which is far too rare. I also liked how there were exterior shutters, so it was easy to make the room really dark.
Villa Dubrovnik spa & pool
Villa Dubrovnik has an extensive wellness area and spa, which starts on level three, and goes all the way down to level one. While we didn’t get any spa treatments during our brief stay, there are five treatment rooms, and you can find the treatment menu here.
The wellness area has the property’s only pool, which is indoors, and is 18 meters (57 feet) long. There’s also a hot tub next to it.
The spa also has a relaxation area, a sauna, and a steam room, which can be used by guests, even when not getting a treatment.
There’s also an outdoor deck, right next to the indoor pool, which is a popular place to lounge around.
Villa Dubrovnik seaside “beach”
Villa Dubrovnik doesn’t have a “real” beach, given that it’s built into a cliff. That being said, the property does have a seaside platform (I guess it’s called a “lido,” or something?), where guests can lounge around during the day, and enter the sea.
At least during our stay, the water here was really rough, so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend swimming here. However, it’s a lovely area to lounge around.
Villa Dubrovnik gym
Villa Dubrovnik has a 24/7 gym within the wellness area, which is modern but nothing memorable. The cardio equipment is solid, and there’s also a dedicated area for yoga and stretching, though my main complaint is that the free weights were all quite light.
This is minor in the scheme of things, but endlessly confusing to me. It’s so common to see hotels only have rather light free weights, when you’d think a good set of free weights is one of the cheaper and more useful things you could put in a hotel gym, no? Is it just me?
Villa Dubrovnik restaurant & bar
Villa Dubrovnik has three food & beverage outlets:
- Restaurant Pjerin is the all-day dining restaurant, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner
- Libero Bar is the casual all-day lounge and bar, serving drinks, snacks, and light meals
- Galanto Bar is the rooftop bar open in the evenings, serving cocktails and light bites
Let me start by saying that across the board, I found the quality of the food and drinks to be very good. I also thought pricing was rather high, given that we’re talking about Dubrovnik (admittedly the hotel is expensive, but often food & beverage prices don’t “track” in the same way when you’re outside of London, Paris, the South of France, etc.).
Anyway, both Restaurant Pjerin and Libero Bar are located on level one, and are next to one another. Libero Bar is open from 7AM until 11PM, so you can grab a coffee, cocktail, or whatever else here, as there’s both indoor and outdoor seating.
We stopped here in the evening for an excellent glass of Croatian wine, which was served with a generous helping of snacks.
Then there’s Restaurant Pjerin, serving breakfast from 7AM until 11AM, lunch from 1PM until 4PM, and dinner from 6:30PM until 11:30PM. The restaurant has an indoor seating area, but as you’d expect, outdoor seating was definitely more popular, given the beautiful summer weather.
The idea is that breakfast and dinner are served in the area shown above, while there’s a terrace one “tier” down, which is where lunch is served, weather permitting. No matter where you sit, the views and vibes are great.
Breakfast at Villa Dubrovnik consists of an unlimited a la carte concept, so there’s no buffet, but instead, you can order as much as you’d like from a menu. You can find the menu below.
To drink, I had an excellent iced coffee.
Then we split a few different dishes, including the berry & granola crunch, avocado toast with smoked salmon, traditional Istrian frittata, and french toast. All were really great.
On account of booking through Virtuoso, we also received a complimentary three course lunch once during our stay, and it even included non-alcoholic drinks. Given that the Virtuoso amenity is typically worth $100, this was significantly more valuable than that, compared to the standard menu prices.
You can find the menu below, and the idea is that you can select from any of the three course sets (though you can’t mix and match). I chose the “garden” menu, while Ford had the “land” menu.
My starter consisted of burrata & citrus, while Ford’s consisted of a traditional Croatian platter.
For mains, mine consisted of homemade cheese ravioli, while Ford’s was grilled marinated chicken.
Lastly, for dessert, mine was the selection of homemade ice cream, while Ford’s was the dark chocolate & olive.
In the evenings, Restaurant Pjerin turns into more of a fine dining affair, and you can find the menu here. There’s a five course tasting menu for €175, or you can go a la carte, but you need to order two courses for €95, or three courses for €135. The food quality was also very good, and you can find some of the dishes below, including the prawns, beef tartare, wagyu striploin fillet, and sea bass.
Lastly, Galanto Bar is located on the fifth floor, and is the rooftop bar open nightly from 7PM until 12AM, weather permitting. We didn’t have the chance to have a drink here, but talk about a lovely setting!
Villa Dubrovnik service
The staff at Villa Dubrovnik were genuinely super kind and hospitable, from the front office staff, to the restaurant servers, and more. They were all professional, so I give them high marks.
There was one quirk to the service, which isn’t a big deal in the scheme of things, but which I think is worth bringing up. I tend to think that if you’re charging the highest rates in a city and are trying to offer a true luxury experience, flexibility for meeting guest needs should be part of that.
I loved the restaurant setup at the hotel in general, but found them to be oddly inflexible when it comes to eating what you’d like, where you’d like. I of course understand that some hotel restaurants are run independently, operate from separate kitchens, etc.
That’s not the case here, though, since both the main restaurant and lounge are in the same area, they use the same kitchen, etc. With that in mind, they just weren’t very flexible.
For example, on the second day we were having lunch (again) at the standard lunch spot, given what a pretty setting it is. Ford wanted to order off the standard menu, while I really just wanted something basic from the bar menu (they have burgers, club sandwiches, etc.). I asked if I could order one of those dishes there, while Ford would order from the main menu. They said it wasn’t possible, even though there’s no actual good justification for that.
Similarly, when we had dinner at the main restaurant, they have both the standard menu, and then they also have the bar menu. They’re fine with you ordering off the bar menu, but only if everyone at the table orders off the bar menu.
We had traveled with a group on Four Seasons Yachts, and they also stayed at the hotel, so we had dinner together. I totally get if anyone in our group were doing a five course tasting menu (where that’s totally different), but we just each wanted to order two courses, with some coming from the restaurant menu, and some coming from the bar menu. Again, I’d get if the restaurant were super crowded or they were short staffed, but the restaurant was quite empty, and they didn’t seem to have any sort of a staffing shortage.
They initially insisted it simply wasn’t possible. Someone in our group had more liquid courage than I did, and kindly asked them to ask the manager to make an exception. They then did, but said in advance that they weren’t sure they could coordinate things correctly. Go figure they did coordinate it correctly, and everything was great.
Anyway, this was just a small point of friction in an otherwise frictionless stay. A true luxury hotel is supposed to feel like a home, and that’s supposed to include making reasonable accommodations. We weren’t at a hotel with a Nobu and Carbone, where we’re asking to eat one cuisine in another restaurant, when they’re run fully independently. But when everything comes from the same kitchen, is run by the same hotel, has the same servers, and things aren’t super busy, I would’ve appreciated a little more flexibility.
Bottom line
Villa Dubrovnik is an excellent luxury hotel in Croatia. I love how this property is close to all the action, while also feeling removed and private, with incredible sea views from all over the place, including all rooms. Villa Dubrovnik has modern and stylish rooms, nice facilities, excellent dining, and friendly staff. Admittedly it’s not cheap, but if you can swing it, I’d highly recommend this hotel.
What’s your take on Villa Dubrovnik?
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