The Best Swimming Spots Near Dubrovnik by Boat

The water around Dubrovnik is gorgeous everywhere, but the best swims aren’t the ones you can walk to. The town beaches fill up by ten in the morning, while a short hop offshore there are caves, sandy bays and coves where the only sound is the boat’s wake settling. Here are the spots we keep coming back to — all of them reached, or simply done better, from the water.

Blue Cave & the Green Caves, Koločep

Koločep is the closest of the Elaphiti Islands, about 20 minutes from the harbour, and its southern shore hides a string of sea caves. The Blue Cave is the famous one: sunlight bounces off the pale seabed and fills the chamber with a luminous blue glow. You moor outside, slip on a mask and swim in through the low mouth. Nearby are the Green Caves, named for the way the light filters through the water there.

Practical notes: the cave is only reachable by water, so there’s no entrance fee — just the boat. Mornings are calmest and least crowded, and the blue is brightest from mid-morning to early afternoon when the sun sits high. It’s deep right up to the entrance, so it suits confident swimmers; nervous ones can hang back with a float. This is the centrepiece of our Blue Cave & Elaphiti Islands boat tour.

Šunj beach, Lopud

Most of the Dalmatian coast is pebble and rock, which makes Šunj a rare treat — a wide, shallow bay of actual sand on the far side of car-free Lopud. The water stays waist-deep a long way out, so it’s a favourite with families and anyone who likes to wade in slowly rather than leap off rocks.

Practical notes: Šunj faces south-east and warms up early in the season, but that same exposure means it can pick up a swell on a windy afternoon. From the village it’s a 15-minute walk over the island’s spine, or your skipper can anchor off the bay. Bring water shoes if you’re tender-footed near the sand’s edge, where it turns to seagrass.

Quiet coves on Šipan

Šipan is the largest Elaphiti island and the least visited, which is exactly its charm. Between its two sleepy villages, Suđurađ and Šipanska Luka, the coastline folds into small coves where you can drop the anchor and have the water to yourself. The seabed is clean and rocky, the visibility excellent, and on a weekday you might not see another boat for an hour.

Practical notes: there are no facilities at most of these coves, so this is a swim-and-snorkel stop rather than a beach day — pack water and shade. Šipan is part of the full-day itinerary, which gives enough time to lunch in a village taverna between swims.

Lokrum’s rocky swims

Lokrum sits just 15 minutes off the Old Town, a forested nature reserve ringed by smooth rock ledges that make natural diving platforms. The “Dead Sea” is a small saltwater lake near the south end, sheltered and warm — a good spot for less confident swimmers — while the open rocks on the eastern side give deeper, cooler water and fine snorkelling along the drop-off.

Practical notes: Lokrum is a protected reserve, so take everything away with you and use reef-safe sun cream. There’s no overnight stay allowed and the last public boats leave in the early evening, but on a private swim stop you can linger in the quiet after the day-trippers have gone.

Open water off the Elaphiti

Some of the best swimming isn’t at any named spot at all — it’s the open, glass-clear water between the islands, where the skipper cuts the engine over a sandy bottom and you simply jump in. With nothing around but blue in every direction, this is where the snorkelling gear earns its keep: shoals of small fish, the odd starfish, and visibility that can run to 20 metres on a calm day.

Practical notes: these mid-channel stops depend on the wind, so the exact spots shift day to day — that’s the advantage of a local skipper who reads the conditions. For more on what you’ll see underwater and how to get the most from a mask, read our snorkelling near Dubrovnik guide.

Making a day of it

You can string several of these together in one trip. We supply snorkelling gear and drinking water on every shared tour, leave the skipper to pick the calmest coves on the day, and keep groups small so the swim stops never feel like a scrum. When you’re ready to dive in, check availability and book your seats — the clear water is waiting.