The historic town of Korcula

The locals refer to this town as the "mini Dubrovnik" and despite it's very small size, it's easy to see why. With the town fortifications lapped by the clear waters of the Adriatic it does bear more than a passing similarity. That's where the comparisons end for me, Dubrovnik has become a victim of its own success. Overrun with tourists and Game of Thrones fans the city is too crowded and too expensive to be enjoyable anymore whereas Korcula, with its shaded alleyways, quiet squares and waterside restaurants is the antithesis of its big brother.

Having been lucky enough to visit countless towns and villages all over the Mediterranean, I would venture to put Korcula in my top 5 prettiest coastal villages, it really is that nice.

The fortifications and the town walls are impressive structures and it's easy to see why the site was nominated for inclusion.

The old town of Korcula is the major town of the homonymous island, it occupies a small elliptic peninsula of about 300 meters length and is surrounded on three sides by water. The old town is surrounded by walls, has narrow, steep streets, a cathedral with a bell tower etc. Quite nice, but nothing that is not already represented by other Croatian WHS. Korcula claims to be the birth place of Marco Polo, you can visit his alleged birthhouse, but there is no valid historical proof for that.

We reached Korcula after an hour drive from Mali Ston to Orebic through the sparsely populated peninsula Pelješac, and then from Orebić by ferry to the port of Korĉula (photo: view from the ferry).