Dubrovnik to Ston: How to Visit the “Great Wall of Europe” in Ston

If something is given the title, “world wonder”, it’s destined to bring fascinated travelers from all around the world to gawk at its splendor. 

But of the seven wonders of the world, perhaps the most fascinating is the architectural feat that spans over 13,000 miles. The Great Wall of China, the longest wall in the world, is one of the most unique structures ever built.

What if I told you that the Great Wall of China has a “little brother” in Europe?

The Walls of Ston – a similar architectural feat to that of the Great Wall of China – fortify a small city on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. 

Originally built to protect the valuable salt pans in Ston, one of the greatest sources of Croatia’s wealth in the 14th and 15th centuries, these formidable stone walls ascend over the hillside from Ston to Mali Ston.

Though not nearly as long as the Great Wall of China, the “Great Wall of Europe” – the Ston Walls – are a wonder to see and walk among. Located in the quaint village of Ston, in the heart of the Pelješac Peninsula, these monumental walls are the perfect day trip from Dubrovnik. 

This Croatia travel guide will explore the wonders of the Pelješac Peninsula, beginning in the fortified village of Ston, which features the longest wall in Europe. Ston is the BEST day trip from Dubrovnik, whether you plan to rent a car, or visit using local transport. 

Read on to discover how to spend a perfect day in Ston and the surrounding villages of the Pelješac Peninsula!

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Where is Ston?

Ston is a beautiful fortified village along the Southern Dalmatian coast of Croatia. Located just 1 hour by car or bus from Dubrovnik, this local village is one of the best day trips from Dubrovnik. 

Mali Ston and Ston

Croatia’s Oyster “Gold Mine” and the Longest Wall in Europe

Mali Ston is a small village home to the famous Ston Oysters. This is a great place to get fresh seafood and local oysters, farmed in cerulean waters that surround it. The Ston Walls extend to Mali Ston, but if you want to discover the salt pans and walk the “Great Wall of Europe”, you’ll want to head to Ston. 

Ston is a 14th century historic town that once served as important village to the Republic of Ragusa, a maritime republic with Dubrovnik at its heart that stood powerful in Eastern Europe for over three centuries (14th – 17th centuries).

This fortified village once contained the main source of Dubrovnik’s wealth: salt. Produced by allowing seawater from the Adriatic to flow to the salt pans, this valuable resource is then dried into salt crystals by the Mediterranean sun. The Walls of Ston were built to fortify this valuable resource.

Though salt is no longer the main driver for Dubrovnik’s wealth, the monumental pans are still in use today with the Walls of Ston guarding the historic local resource.

A day trip from Dubrovnik to Ston is a great way to explore these historic villages in the Pelješac Peninsula!

How to Get from Dubrovnik to Ston

There are multiple ways to get from Dubrovnik to Ston. Renting a car is a convenient way to explore the local villages in the Pelješac Peninsula on your own time. Local buses are the most affordable option for traveling to Ston from Dubrovnik, but require a bit more planning around the local bus schedules. A guided tour is a hassle-free way to discover Ston and the charming local villages around it, with no planning necessary.

Here’s a detailed look at each option, including my experience and recommendations for visiting Ston from Dubrovnik!

By Car

Renting a car in Dubrovnik is one of the best ways to explore other local villages outside Dubrovnik without having to navigate the local bus network. I rented a car for a day with MACK Car Rentals, a local rental company just outside Dubrovnik Old Town that I stumbled across on my walk to a charming Croatian restaurant nearby.

Since I was traveling in the shoulder season (early October – a GREAT time to visit Dubrovnik), I was able to reserve and drive the rental car the same day I planned to visit the Walls of Ston. However, if your Croatia travel plans align with Croatia’s peak season, June to early September, you might want to reserve a car in advance to ensure a choice that aligns with your budget.

The best way to compare rental car options in Dubrovnik is to use a cost-comparison tool and booking platform like Discover Cars. Or go with what you know, like Hertz and Enterprise, which are also available in Dubrovnik.

If you plan to rent a car for a day trip to Ston, keep it at that: A DAY TRIP (one day car rental ONLY!).

Parking in Dubrovnik is quite the hassle and cars are not allowed in Dubrovnik Old Town so you’ll have to find available parking nearby if you want to use the car for multiple days. Parking in Dubrovnik is a frustrating task for travelers who want to relax and enjoy the sapphire gleam of the Adriatic, hassle-free. Avoid multi-day car rentals if you can. 

Local ferries and bus transport can bring you almost anywhere on the Dalmatian coast for an affordable price (depending on how far you travel from Dubrovnik), so only keep the car rental for the day you visit Ston and the Pelješac Peninsula. 

Driving yourself from Dubrovnik to Ston is quite easy once you navigate the narrow one-way street away from Dubrovnik Old Town. The best advice I could give from driving in Dubrovnik is to trust Google Maps. Once you get out of Dubrovnik, you’ll drive along the scenic coastal highway towards Ston and the Pelješac Peninsula.

The drive to Ston is approximately 1 hour from Dubrovnik. As you get closer to Ston, you’ll see signs for both Mali Ston and Ston. Visit both! You’ll have time to explore Ston and Mali Ston in a single day trip from Dubrovnik.

By Bus

Dubrovnik’s local bus system is a convenient and affordable network of buses that connect Dubrovnik Old Town to Port Gruž and beyond. 

If you purchase the Dubrovnik Pass for your time in Dubrovnik, your pass includes a bus pass for use within the city limits. Traveling Beyond Dubrovnik by bus, including to nearby villages like Cavtat, Trsteno, and the Pelješac Peninsula, will require you to purchase a bus ticket to these destinations. 

Tickets for bus travel beyond Dubrovnik city limits can be purchased at the bus ticket office just outside the Pile Gate, on the bus with a credit card, or using exact change. 

Traveling to Ston by bus is a convenient way to visit the Walls of Ston without having to rent a car and drive yourself (no parking necessary!). However, you’ll need to keep an eye on bus timetables to make sure you can get to and from Ston in a single day. In shoulder and off season, the bus to Ston departs twice per day, in the morning and in the evening. 

Regardless if you choose to rent a car or take the bus, I recommend getting the Libertas Bus App, which contains bus schedules for all buses within and outside the city of Dubrovnik. 

If you need to get from Dubrovnik Old Town to Port Gruž for island hopping (to visit Elaphiti Islands, Korčula, or Split) you can easily take the bus from the station outside the Pile Gate. This bus ride is free with your Dubrovnik Pass. The Libertas Bus App makes navigating the local transport EASY.

By Guided Tour

A guided tour from Dubrovnik to Ston is the perfect activity for travelers who don’t want to rent a car or navigate local transport in Dubrovnik. 

Most Ston tours will depart from Dubrovnik and include transport to and from Ston and other locations in the Pelješac Peninsula. This guided tour from Dubrovnik to Ston is the perfect way to discover the city walls, experience local oyster harvesting, and indulge in local wines from nearby wineries.

My Recommendation

For your day trip from Dubrovnik to Ston, I recommend renting a car for the day. Though this option is slightly more expensive than taking the bus from Dubrovnik to Ston, it gives you flexibility to explore Ston and beyond.

There are so many incredible places on the Pelješac Peninsula including the vast Croatian wine region just beyond Ston. With a rental car, I was able to spend half a day exploring Ston and Mali Ston, then drive into the lush wine region, stopping at local wineries for wine and olive oil tastings.

Top Things to Do in Ston

Walk the Ston Walls (the “Great Wall of Europe”)

What better way to walk through history than to traverse the magnificent Ston Walls?

The largest wall in Europe, or as I like to call it “the Great Wall of Europe”, can be explored on foot by paying the $10-15 entrance fee. Your ticket to the Ston Walls includes entry to the walls and entry to the Kaštio Fort. 

This uphill trek along the Walls of Ston gets more and more impressive the higher you climb. As you ascend the rocky pathway of the Ston Walls, you’ll discover Ston’s salt pans and the surrounding countryside.

As you walk along the Ston Walls, you’ll have the option to cross over the mountain to Mali Ston, a seaside village home to fresh Mali Ston Oysters. 

Visit Kaštio Fort

After discovering the monumental Walls of Ston walk through the small village to the Kaštio Fort, a historic stone fortress perched at the edge of the village, originally used for defense during the 14th century. 

This well-preserved fortress is a great place to get a closer look at the Ston salt pans and view the Ston Walls.

Visit the Ancient Salt Pans

While the Ston salt pans were one of the most valuable resources in the 14th and 15th centuries for Dubrovnik, these salt pans are still functional today. 

The production of salt in Ston begins by flowing seawater from the Adriatic into the salt pans just outside the village. Through the summer season, the seawater evaporates leaving a layer of dry sea salt that is harvested using shovels and wagons, traditional techniques still in practice today. 

The Ston salt pans produce over 500 tons of salt every year. While they may not be the most valuable resource in Croatia today, they are certainly an income source for the local village. Tourists visiting Dubrovnik travel to Ston to see the salt pans and the walls that fortify them, hoping to bring home a small piece of Croatia to flavor home cooked meals!

Try Fresh Oysters in Mali Ston

When you indulge at local restaurants around Dubrovnik, there will be one consistent appetizer across all menus – Ston oysters. 

The Pelješac Peninsula is a “gold mine” for oysters, owing their successful cultivation to the bay’s unique mixture of fresh and saltwater from the Neretva River and the Adriatic Sea. There’s no better place to indulge than in the very place where they’re harvested, Mali Ston!

Discover the Pelješac Peninsula Wine Region

The warm Mediterranean climate, the proximity to the Adriatic Sea, and the ideal growing conditions of the stony soil makes the Pelješac Peninsula the ideal region in Croatia for cultivating grapes and olives.

After you discover the historic villages of Ston and Mali Ston, drive northwest along the peninsula through the inviting wine region.

There are a variety of local wineries specializing in intimate wine and cheese tastings. My favorite of this region is Milos Winery, which harvests both grapes and olives, producing some of Croatia’s finest wines and olive oils. 

Best Time to Visit Ston

The best time to visit Ston is in late September and early October, Croatia’s shoulder season, when the weather begins to cool and fewer crowds flock to the Pelješac Peninsula. 

I visited Dubrovnik in early October and the coastal Croatian city welcomed me with (mostly) sunny skies and warm weather – I only experienced one afternoon of rainy weather. 

Shoulder season is a great time to visit the Dalmatian coast when fewer cruise ships dock at Port Gruž. You can expect crowds year round in Dubrovnik Old Town, however traveling during shoulder and off-season guarantees cooler weather and fewer crowds in the nearby villages and on the islands. 

At times, 75F and sunny felt unbearably hot (though the locals would say otherwise), but I couldn’t imagine how scorching peak summer weather would have been. Traveling to a place during its peak season is RARE for me, and I hope you’ll feel the same after reading my blog posts!

When I took a day trip from Dubrovnik to Ston, the weather was hot, which made climbing the wall a difficult task (but worth it!). Plan your trip to Dubrovnik in late September for an enjoyable day trip to Ston!

Dubrovnik to Ston Day Trip: How to Spend One Day in Ston

Start your morning at a local bakery in Dubrovnik before picking up your rental car or departing with your guided tour. 

If you’re planning on renting a car, there are several options in Dubrovnik including MACK Car Rentals (just outside of the Ploce Gate) or Enterprise Car Rental (a short walk from the Pile Gate). 

Otherwise if you book a guided tour to Ston like this one, your guide will have recommendations for pickup locations. Large group tours usually depart from the bus station outside the Pile Gate while smaller tours or private tours will depart from a pickup location near your hotel. 

Navigate out of Dubrovnik following the one-way road from Dubrovnik Old Town to the coastal highway heading towards the Pelješac Peninsula. Google Maps will help you navigate the roads in Dubrovnik!

On your way to Ston, you’ll pass by other scenic villages including Zaton and Trsteno, other incredible day trips from Dubrovnik. 

As you approach the Pelješac Peninsula you’ll see signs for Ston and Mali Ston. Head to Ston first to explore the Ston Walls and discover the historic salt pans still in operation today. 

Tickets to the Ston Walls are approximately $10-15 USD per person and include entry to the Kaštio Fortress along with the walls. Depending on how much climbing you plan to do (most of the walk along the Ston Walls is uphill) you’ll spend 45 minutes to 90 minutes exploring the Ston Walls. As you climb higher, the salt pans will reveal themselves and the scenic wine region becomes visible. 

After climbing the Ston Walls, the “Great Wall of Europe”, head to the Kaštio Fortress to discover the historic defensive fort used to protect the city in the 14th and 15th centuries. Spend some time discovering local architecture in the village of Ston.

By this point, you’ve worked up an appetite. Hop in your car or walk from Ston to Mali Ston along the pedestrian footpath to enjoy fresh seafood and oysters from Bota Sare. This is a great place to try Mali Ston oysters or indulge in fresh sushi.

After lunch, jump in the car and drive through the Dalmatian Coast’s abundant wine region – home to Croatia’s best local wines! Milos Winery is a great stop for an afternoon wine tasting. 

Once you’ve had your fill of local wines, curated cheese selections and fresh olive oil, head back to Dubrovnik. Along the way, stop in Trsteno, one of my FAVORITE local villages outside of Dubrovnik. Trsteno is home to the Trsteno Arboretum where many Game of Thrones scenes were filmed. The Trsteno Arboretum is the best place for a relaxing stroll with scenic views of the Adriatic. NOTE: cash is required for entry. 

Drive back to Dubrovnik and drop off your car rental. That concludes an epic day exploring Ston and the Pelješac Peninsula!

Is Ston the Best Day Trip from Dubrovnik?

Ston is one of the best day trips from Dubrovnik. How often do you get to climb the second largest wall in the world?

Frequently Asked Questions

Quick Answers to Common Questions

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