Lokrum island: how to visit from Dubrovnik

Lokrum lies about 600 metres off Dubrovnik’s Old Port, a nature reserve of pine and holm oak with a ruined Benedictine monastery, a botanical garden and peacocks on the paths. It is the easiest island trip from the city.

Sunset CruiseSee the tour →

Getting there

The official Lokrum boat leaves from the Old Port, by the Luža ticket office, and crosses in about 10–15 minutes. The boats run through the day in season; the timetable is on lokrum.hr. Private boats and water taxis may also land on the island.

When the boat runs

The reserve runs its own boats from the Old Port, called the City Harbour on the timetable. The timetable changes several times a year, so check the current one on lokrum.hr before you go: it lists the departures, the returns from the island and the last boat back.

• Main season: the timetable from 28 March 2026 had a boat every day, every half hour from mid-morning to late afternoon.
• November: the timetable from 1 November 2026 has about one boat an hour and an earlier last boat back.
• Winter: the island closes for several weeks. The last sailing of 2025 was on 14 December, and Lokrum opened again on 31 January 2026 for the Feast of St Blaise. After that, until the end of March, the boat ran on Saturdays and Sundays only.
• Bad weather: the boat does not sail. The reserve posts cancellations on its Facebook and Instagram pages.

Nobody may stay on the island before the first boat arrives or after the last one leaves, so plan your walk and swim around the last boat back.

Tickets

One ticket covers the entrance to the reserve and, on the official boat, the return crossing. Buy it online at shop.lokrum.hr or at the Luža office in the Old Port. If you arrive by your own boat, you buy the entrance ticket at the Forester’s House when you land; coming by private boat does not lower the entrance fee. Prices change by season, so check the current price before you go.

Tickets bought online are print-at-home tickets. Print yours and bring it: the terms of sale allow showing it on a phone only if you cannot print it, and it is scanned when you enter the reserve. Online purchases are final and cannot be cancelled, changed or refunded, so if the forecast is uncertain, you may prefer to buy at the Luža office on the day.

What to see

• The Benedictine monastery, founded in 1023, with its cloister and a replica of the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones.
• The Mill House on the ground floor of the monastery: the old olive mill, now an interpretation space on olive growing and oil making, with its original parts.
• The Church of the Annunciation, a Gothic-Renaissance church near the entrance to the botanical garden and the only church on the island where Mass is still said.
• The botanical garden, founded in 1959, with about 500 species, mostly trees and shrubs from Australia and the Americas. It is the only island botanical garden in Croatia.
• The Path of Paradise, an avenue laid out in Maximilian’s time that climbs from the lower part of the island towards Fort Royal. Cypresses once lined both sides.
• Fort Royal, begun by the French in 1806 on the island’s highest point, 96 metres up, with a view back over the Old Town.
• The Dead Sea, a small salt lake on the south side. It was once a sea cave whose roof fell in, and a channel about 15 metres long through the rock still links it to the open sea.
• The peacocks, brought to the island in the mid-19th century, most likely during Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg’s time.

Local legend says the monks cursed the island when they were made to leave it, which is why Dubrovnik people tell you never to spend the night there.

On the island

Lokrum is small, about 72 hectares, and forest covers roughly nine-tenths of it, so the paths inland run mostly under Aleppo pine and holm oak. It has been protected as a special forest reserve since 1948, and the island with a belt of sea about 150 metres wide around it is a Natura 2000 site (Lokrum Reserve: natural values).

• The Forester’s House: the visitor centre in Portoč bay. Visitors who come on their own boat buy their ticket here.
• A walk with a ranger: a ranger leads an educational walk of about 45 minutes from the Forester’s House, in Croatian or English, on request. Ask the reserve in advance through its tours page.
• Wildlife: besides the peacocks, 52 bird species and 12 bat species have been recorded on the island, and several kinds of bat raise their young in the monastery. Hermann’s tortoises and two harmless whip snakes also live on the island, though the snakes are rarely seen.
• Skalica: the island’s oldest pier, with a view of the city. Legend says Richard the Lionheart’s ship sheltered here in 1192, on his way home from the Crusades.

The paths are marked, and visitors must keep to them. For the history of the monastery, the gardens and Maximilian’s summer residence, see the reserve’s cultural heritage pages.

Reserve rules

Lokrum is a protected reserve with a short code of conduct. Within the reserve you may not:

• smoke, light a fire or use an open flame;
• fly a drone without permission;
• leave the marked paths and visitor areas;
• feed, catch or disturb wild animals, or pick plants and take anything else from nature;
• leave rubbish anywhere except the marked bins;
• enter without a ticket;
• stay on the island before the first boat or after the last one, or visit while it is closed in winter.

The ban on smoking and fire covers the whole reserve, the swimming rocks included. The rule on the last boat, more than the legend of the monks’ curse, is why nobody spends the night on Lokrum.

Swimming

The shore is rock, with flat ledges and ladders rather than beaches. The Dead Sea lake is the calmest swim, with gentle edges for children, though it gets deep in the middle; the south-facing rocks have the clearest water for snorkelling. Bring water shoes, a towel and something to sit on. See our quiet coves guide for other swims near the city.

How long to stay

Three to four hours is enough for the monastery, the garden, Fort Royal and a swim. A half-day visit in the morning, before the midday boats, is the quietest. The island closes in the evening, so plan to be on one of the last boats back; the time of the last boat changes with the timetable.

Lokrum by private boat

On our sunset cruise and the half-day tours we often anchor off Lokrum’s quiet south side for a swim, without landing. If you would like to spend time on the island, the boat can drop you there and you buy the entrance ticket on arrival.

The same goes for any other way of coming on your own, by private boat, water taxi or kayak: buy the entrance ticket at the Forester’s House in Portoč bay when you land (the price is the same as with the official boat), and leave the island before the last reserve boat departs.

Keep reading

• Quiet coves near Dubrovnik: where we swim when the main bays are full.
• Dubrovnik sunset cruise: Lokrum and the walls in the evening light.
• Elaphiti Islands guide: the three inhabited islands for a longer day.

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