Отых удался! The rest was a success!

Vacation turned out great! I went to rest with my daughter of 16 years from 28.07. to 11.08. 2012. Teenagers are quite specific people at this age, therefore, in order not to spoil my vacation, at the beginning of spring I suggested to my daughter to think about where she would like to relax in the summer. It should be noted here that a child under 16 was practically not allowed to travel abroad due to the difficulty of obtaining permission from the second former parent, so this year, after turning 16, we were already able to safely consider going to the sea, but so far only to visa-free countries ( up to 18 years of age). Of the proposed alternatives (Croatia, Turkey, Montenegro), the child chose Croatia, but on the condition that we settle near Dubrovnik or in it, in order to combine business with pleasure. In 2010, we already traveled to Croatia, to Sibenik (Solaris Ivan complex), and although our train did not go quite smoothly then, nevertheless, only the most pleasant memories of the Adriatic remained.
As always, the site helped me a lot. I carefully studied the possible options for hotels in the Dubrovnik area and settled on the Valamar Lacroma Dubrovnik 4 * hotel. There are not many reviews for this hotel, but all of them were only positive. In addition, the hotel is new (it was opened in 2009 +/-). As soon as the possibility of early booking arose, I immediately arranged for us a room with a balcony and sea view.
We flew from Kyiv to Dubrovnik on a UIA charter. The flight took 2.25. Departed on time, arrived in Dubrovnik at 19:25. At the Dubrovnik airport, which was strange for me, they don’t put entry stamps on the passports (unless you ask for it yourself), I was a little worried about the return flight, but everything was OK. We found a representative of our host company (Valanta), she showed where the bus was, where we waited a bit for other vacationers and went to take them to hotels. Because our hotel would be the farthest, it is located about 20 km from the airport on Cape Babin Kuk, then the road took about an hour. But this did not bother us, it was even interesting to survey unfamiliar places. We were the only ones from our plane at the Valamar Lacroma hotel. In general, in the hotel, probably, only 5% are Ukrainian-Russian-speaking audience, the rest are foreign citizens of different image and language. Even the Japanese were noticed (not to be confused with the Chinese!: ) ) in a fairly large number. The hotel itself is made in hi-tech style, externally and internally we really liked it. I also want to note that there are few children in this hotel (up to 10%), there is no animation for them, there are no slides. In the evenings it is always very quiet and calm, if there is music, it is only live and only until 11 pm from the bar on the first floor. During our stay, this music was maybe three times. Babin Kuk is the outskirts of the city of Dubrovnik and therefore the road is some distance from the hotel and behind the trees; Since our room faced the sea, we did not see or hear any traffic at all. In general, who wants to relax in peace - you are here. On Babin Kuk there is another hotel of the same chain - Valamar Club 3 *, which is not aimed specifically at family vacations, there are all the amenities for children and animation is different. Valamar Lacroma is still a hotel more for an adult audience.

We got a room on the 4th floor with a balcony and a fantastic sea view, which we appreciated exactly the next morning.
The room is spacious, comfortable with silently working central air conditioning. There is a kettle in the room, a constantly replenished set of coffee, different teas and sugar (white, brown, light), a minibar with filling for an extra charge of course (reasonable). There is plasma on the wall, the only Russian-language channel is RTR Planeta, i. e. there was practically nothing to watch in our native language, but there were many English-speaking channels, which helped us brighten up the sultry day time (the heat this year turned out to be notable up to +39 during the day). There is also a hair dryer, in-room safe (free of charge), iron and ironing board. The furniture is new, the built-in wardrobe is very spacious.
A large bathroom with a bathtub and everything with it: a set of towels and various branded gels, soaps, shampoos, shower caps in duplicate.
They cleaned well, bath towels were changed on demand (if you throw them on the floor in the bathroom), for the face and legs - daily, bed linen also had to be changed on demand (if you put a special sign on the bed), but they were changed every other day even without this tablets. I left a 10 kuna tip, but that's up to you.
The child was delighted and crushed by the hotel, well, I felt relieved from the soul, which means that the rest was already half a success!

After checking in and having dinner, we went to look for the beach. It should be noted that the hotel is located on the second line, which was clearly written in the reviews, and you need to go to the beach through another hotel of the same Valamar President chain, having previously received a key card at the reception. However, in terms of class, our hotel is higher than the President. The whole journey in search of the beach took about 10 minutes. There are signs everywhere, so it's hard to get lost. We walked along the olive avenue, crossed the path, went through the President's reception, went down on the elevator (I would call it more like a small funicular) and here we are on the night beach. The beach is not wide, but long enough. I had doubts about whether there would be enough space, whether there would be a crowd, but there was nothing like that the next morning.
For residents of the Valamar Lacroma complex, the use of sun loungers, umbrellas, beach towels (all of very good quality) on the beach of the Valamar President Hotel is free of charge, having previously received a special Towel Card per person. And although our audience is also small at the Valamar President Hotel, it’s still a habit to take a place on the beach at 7 in the morning, and come to 10, or even 11 of them, you just can’t knock it out. So it was here, since there were plenty of places on the beach and sun loungers even at the peak of the season. However, it should be noted that the beaches in Croatia are municipal, so the local population is always present, which modestly settles down on their mats next to the sun loungers, because. renting 2 sun loungers and an umbrella will cost 60 kunas (the beach worker begins to walk between the sun loungers and collect tribute from the "left" from 10 am).
In the heat of the day, if you want to go to your room to rest, you can “book” your sun loungers, leaving towels and some personal items on them, for example, a pareo, a cap, a book, etc. Nobody will take anything.
The sea is beautiful, transparent, the entrance is gentle with large pebbles, but there is also a concrete slab (for lovers). Special footwear is not required, but recommended.
There is also a paid bar on the beach. From 11:30 you can also have lunch there, they cook right in front of you. We had the HB system, once we also ate there - pretty decent, but still "fast food". Prices are reasonable.
Food.
Breakfasts (buffet) were always the same, but the choice was very large, so we didn’t get bored in 2 weeks, you could always find something new.

Dinners (buffet) - excellent and very varied, often themed, often with live music. We preferred to dine on the open terrace, yet the room is quite noisy. It should be noted that for dinner all drinks are paid, including regular water (except tea), but the prices are reasonable. A glass of dry wine from 9.90 kunas per 100 ml. Juice - 23 kunas for 200 ml (it's a little expensive). On the menu table, the waiter takes the order, pays in cash or by card or writes to the number.
There is no "all inclusive" system in the hotel. You can dine in an a la carte restaurant (expensive, dishes from 150 kunas), in a snack bar by the pool or by the sea, or in many restaurants with very affordable prices on the shopping street (very close to the hotel). On average, a hearty lunch for two (without alcohol) will cost 200 kunas (+/-).
The hotel features indoor and outdoor pools. They are not big, but, again, there was enough space for everyone. We went swimming in the pools a couple of times, but it is very noisy there, there are a lot of children, and in general, we came to swim in the sea, and not to splash in the pool.
Excursions.
Because during our stay there was an atypical heat for this region (+36 - +39), we took only one excursion - Montenegro Blue for the whole day (470 kunas / person with lunch). We left the hotel at 7 am, returned at 20:00 (in the department we pre-ordered dry rations, because we didn’t have time for breakfast, breakfast from 7 am). Because along the way, we stopped by for vacationers in other hotels, then we were on the border with Montenegro at about 10 in the morning. The 50-seater bus was completely filled. The tour was almost along the entire coast of the Bay of Kotor and to Budva with stops in Perast (with a visit to the island and the Orthodox Church on it), Kotor and Budva, respectively. The guide all the way told interesting facts about the country, about the area where we were passing, but when we found ourselves in the cities of Kotor and Budva, we were simply dropped off the bus and given free time, i. e. as such, there were no more excursions in these cities (somehow strange)! It was very hot, and therefore it was very difficult to spend 1.5 hours in Kotor and 2.5 hours in Budva of free time on the street in the middle of the day. This is probably why this excursion seemed very tiring to us and we didn’t go far anywhere else.

To the center of Dubrovnik (Old Town) 10 minutes by city bus number 6. The final stop is a 5-minute walk from the hotel, near the Valamar President Hotel. The bus runs very often and until one in the morning. The fare is 15 kunas/ticket from the driver or 12 kunas/ticket at the soyuzpechat kiosk right in our hotel in the lobby (they call it TISAK). The second bus stop is 100 meters from the hotel entrance to the right and slightly up. We didn’t take an excursion to Dubrovnik, it didn’t make sense, because. everything is described in detail in the guidebooks, and it is more pleasant to wander around the old city on your own.
By chance, on the way to the beach, at the bus stop, we noticed the Open Tour Dubrovnik tourist bus with audio guides in many languages, including Russian. Such a bus runs along a certain route, and at a certain time drives up to our stop and takes 1.5 hours to different parts of Dubrovnik, including 2 stops for photo breaks in places where very beautiful views open up. Such a tour costs 50 kunas / person. We enjoyed riding it.
They also climbed the fortress wall of the Old City themselves and went around it all around the perimeter (70 kunas / person). We ourselves went to the top of Mount Srd by funicular - a beautiful view of Dubrovnik opens (87 kunas / person in both directions).
In addition, we walked a lot just around the city in the evenings, since the bus service is very good. We tried to shop, but were very surprised that there were no shopping malls in Dubrovnik, but only small shops in the Old Town and a couple of weak shopping centers (it’s hard to even call them as such) within the city.
Conclusion - we had a very good rest!
The price of questions for two is 3400 euros + with you for entertainment, etc. 350 euros.
There will be questions, please contact.