Getting from Dubrovnik to Bari

Dubrovnik and Bari face each other across the Adriatic, about 200 km of water apart, and the crossing between them is one of the oldest trade routes in Europe. For a traveller it is the neat way to join Croatia to southern Italy without backtracking to an airport.

The overnight ferry

Jadrolinija runs the Dubrovnik to Bari crossing, and it is an overnight sailing taking somewhere around eight to ten hours. You leave in the evening and arrive in the morning.

The service is seasonal and does not run every day even in summer, typically a few sailings a week with more in the high season and a reduced or suspended timetable in winter. Check the current schedule on Jadrolinija before you build a trip around it, because this is exactly the sort of route where the frequency moves year to year.

You can travel as a deck passenger, in a reclining seat or in a cabin. Take a cabin. It is an overnight crossing and the difference between arriving in Bari rested and arriving wrecked is worth the modest extra.

The ferry takes cars, which makes it genuinely useful if you are driving a loop through the Balkans and Italy.

Flying

There is no useful direct flight for what is a short hop. Connections go through Rome or another hub and take most of a day, which defeats the purpose.

If you need speed rather than the crossing, flying from Dubrovnik to Rome and taking the train south to Bari is usually quicker than the indirect flights, and the Rome to Bari train takes around four hours.

What Bari gives you

Bari is the capital of Puglia and is usually treated as a transit point, which sells it short. The old town, Bari Vecchia, is a dense knot of lanes where women still make orecchiette pasta on tables in the street, and the Basilica di San Nicola holds the relics of the saint who became Father Christmas.

More to the point, Bari is the gateway to Puglia: Alberobello and its trulli, Matera's cave dwellings just over the regional border, Lecce's baroque, and the Gargano peninsula. The trains and buses out of Bari are good.

Paperwork and money

Both countries are now in the Schengen area. Croatia joined on 1 January 2023, which means there are no routine border checks on this crossing any more, though the ferry company will still want your passport or ID at check-in.

Croatia adopted the euro on the same date, so for the first time this journey does not involve changing currency at either end.

Arrive at the port well before departure. Ferry check-in closes earlier than you expect, typically an hour or two ahead, and Dubrovnik's port at Gruz is a few kilometres from the old town.