December 2015 – A Few Miles More

A River Runs Through It – the cabin that set our benchmark

We’ve been lucky enough to stay in some pretty good vacation accommodation over the years, but back in August 2010 we booked a three-night out-of-town stay at a small family-owned riverside property in the U.S. state of Washington (WA), and we’ve tended to compare cabins to this great experience ever since.

The Sol Duc Riverside Cottages lie alongside the eponymous river, downstream of the Sol Duc falls, on Olympic Highway 101 in the north of Washington state between Forks and Port Angeles.

Having travelled over to Clallam County on the ferry from Vancouver Island this was the perfect location for a few days exploring the northwest of the Olympic Peninsula, and we would have booked four nights had there been availability (we started our enquiry and booking process the previous November/December). The first tip for Sol Duc Riverside Cottages is therefore to plan ahead, and check that you can get in. If you can’t, change your vacation dates.

The Sol Duc Riverside Cottages website provides everything you’ll need to know about dates and rates, and an easy direct reservation enquiry form.

The website also lists the extensive array of amenities that are provided with each cabin, and there’s a good selection of images in the slideshow gallery.

So what else can I tell you…

We arrived from the Forks direction in the late afternoon after a day spent visiting the nearby Hoh River rainforest and First Beach at La Push in the Quileute nation tribal lands. There are three cabins on the property. Cedar Breeze is the original cabin, and the one we stayed in. There’s also the smaller Loft Studio, and the newer Riversong cabin (the family of five from Minnesota who were staying in Riversong at the time of our stay were the first guests to do so. We both eagerly inspected each others cabins, and while I’d stay in either, I still think we picked the best one).

Cedar Breeze and The Loft cabins at Sol Duc Riverside Cottages

We parked up – plenty of space – and entered using a pre-arranged key code…

Olympic Peninisula luxury accommodation — First view of Cedar Breeze.

…and that was pretty much the end of our travels until it was time to leave. That might sound unremarkable for a vacation. However, we’re a family who might occasionally plan a ‘chill out day’ or two, but we generally tend to find a base and then head off to the surrounding world. “Shall we just stay here instead of going out today?” just doesn’t enter our normal vacation vocabulary. Once my wife and daughter had walked through the door of Cedar Breeze that was it. I was even sent off on my own to buy some steaks for the BBQ from Forks Outfitters.

Don’t get me wrong; the Hoh River and rain forest were great, La Push is worth the effort, and I wouldn’t have wanted to miss our arrival day drive up to Hurricane Ridge or our departure day detour to the Upper Sol Duc and lakes along the 101. They’re all recommended, and places I’d like to see again. I could also imagine spending some future time in the dozens of other places in easy reach of the Sol Duc Riverside Cottages… but I’d make sure that I had enough time to just hang out at the cabin too.

Owners Brenda and Ted Abrams have spared no effort in creating the most comfortable and extraordinarily well equipped vacation retreats at the Sol Duc Riverside Cottages, and the properties are maintained both inside and out with exemplary care.

The interior of the Cedar Breeze cabin from the front door

Cedar Breeze cabin interior view from the kitchen area.

The separate bedroom in the Cedar Breeze cabin

Cleverly fenced and screened, the Cedar Breeze cabin also appears to be remarkably private whether you’ve retreated to the open-plan interior or are spending your time on the large covered deck.

The view down to the river across the Cedar Breeze cabin deck. The hot tub is to the left. I’ll have to use a wide angle lens next time.

The weather was also a winning factor during our stay . We visited in early August when the temperatures ranged from a maximum high of between 63°F to 66°F (17°C to 19°C) in the day time to a low of between 51°F to 54°F (10.5°C to 12°C) – you might get lucky as for the same date range in 2015 the high was 72°F to 75.9°F (22°C to 24.5°C) while the low was about the same at 48°F to 55.9°F (9°C to 13°C) – and there was a fair bit of fog out on the coast, but the c. 3000ft (900m) coastal strip of the Northwest Olympics rising above the cabins in the valley seemed to hold back the mist, at least for a couple of days…

Looking back from the river, the Sol Duc Riverside Cottages in the August sunshine.

There's a reason these forests are so green and vibrant. The River Song cabin under the mist on our departure day. — There’s a reason these forests are so green and vibrant. The River Song cabin under the mist on our departure day.

We were certainly warm enough whether simmered, toasted or roasted:

The Cedar Breeze hot tub at Sol Duc Riverside Cottages. There are other pictures of me in there with sunglasses on but I'll spare you those. — The Cedar Breeze hot tub at Sol Duc Riverside Cottages. There are other pictures of me in there with sunglasses on but I’ll spare you those.

Toasted toes with wifi in the Cedar Breeze cabin at Sol Duc Riverside Cottages

The fire pit at Sol Duc Riverside Cottages

Maybe it was the rich (and sometimes entertaining) wildlife that kept our company around the cabin. There are several interesting terrestrial mammals in the area worth keeping your eyes and ears open for (see a full list here), including

Black Bear (Ursus americanus)
Blacktail Deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus)
Cougar (Puma concolor)
Douglas Squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii)
Fishers (Martes pennanti) – since their 2008 reintroduction
Olympic Marmot (Marmota olympus) – you’d need to climb to mountain meadows above 4000 ft (1200m) to spot this endemic species
Olympic Yellow-pine Chipmunk – Tamias amoenus caurinus
River Otter (Lutra canadensis) – listen for their barking from the river in the night
Roosevelt Elk (Cervus canadensis roosevelti)

This was a close as we came to a Cougar. They apparently favour raking Maples to mark the limits of their territorial range.

Chipmunks were frequent visitors around the cabin

My wife enjoyed playing hide-and-peek with Douglas Squirrels inquisitivly running around tree trunks — My wife enjoyed playing hide-and-peek with Douglas Squirrels inquisitively running around tree trunks

Birds were also prolific around the Sol Duc Riverside Cottages, and while we were only treated to a couple of brief sightings of American Bald Eagles calling along the river just after our arrival, good numbers of smaller avian species were present throughout our stay. We saw American Dippers (Cinclus mexicanus) on the river, Pine Siskins (Carduelis pinus) on the feeders. and Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) and American Robins (Turdus migratorius) around the lawns.

As for the Sol Duc itself, with a 400 ft (120m) stretch flowing westward along the southern border of the property, it is the jewel in the crown of the natural setting here. The name is derived from the Quileute name which means “sparkling water”…

The river looking upstream at Sol Duc Riverside Cottages

Looking downstream, the Sol Duc at low summer levels

Fabulously clear, we found dozens of intricate and varied Caddisfly larvae cases in the river, which were brought back across the lawn to inspect on the deck in the belief they were empty. Once placed on a glass table surface they invariably proved to still be inhabited, prompting a quick dash back to the river.

The crystal clear water of the Sol Duc river teams with tiny life — The crystal clear water of the Sol Duc River teams with tiny life

Watch where you step! There is an abundance of Caddisfly Larvae in the Sol Duc River attesting to its biological cleanliness

Despite the fact that the Sol Duc is the only river on the Olympic peninsula to support all five species of Pacific Salmon, we didn’t see any of them in the low water conditions. However, this was not a problem as it meant that we could wade across the breadth of the river along the property’s banks without either drowning (although there were a few deep holes avoided) or disturbing any spawning fish.

A stout stick is a good idea to help wading and checking depths even at low levels

This vacation was five years ago, but the memories are undimmed, and the challenge set by our benchmark cabin still stands. Since that summer there have been a few close contenders (and even near equivalents on their own local terms, which I’ll probably post about), some reasonable efforts, and a few places that never stood a chance. All you have to do to match the Sol Duc Riverside Cottages is to be able to write what we put in the guest book before we left: “This place is absolutely perfect.”

More online information.

If you’re there in the fall American Whitewater lists seven sections for kayakers ranging from grade II to IV+. Just scroll down to get to the Sol Duc entries. More on the Sol Duc for paddlers from the Whitewater Guidebook. For rafting (and more) try Rainforest Paddlers Inc.

The Forks Chamber of Commerce website includes a directory of places to eat out locally – if you can drag yourself away from your cabin.

The National Park Service website for the Olympic National Park. There is loads of information here, so hunt around.

The Washington Trails Association website. Just type “Sol Duc” into the Hike Name box.

Avoiding high season crowds in Dubrovnik’s Old City

At the risk of mixing popular memes…

How to beat the crowds in Dubrovnik — …but ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY HAVE TO ENDURE!

The word ‘spectacular’ is somehow insufficient when used to describe the Old City of Dubrovnik, and, in a country rich in ancient architectural splendour and blessed with abundant natural wonders, it is still unsurprising that it is the number one tourist destination in Croatia. As reported online by CroatiaWeek “In the first 9 months of 2015 an impressive 822,542 tourists visited the famous walled city. […] On 2 October 2015 the city recorded its 3,000,000th overnight stay, hitting the number 20 days earlier than last year.”

Most visitors arrive via international flights (nearly 85% of arrivals come directly from overseas airports rather than domestic Croatian airports), and on 7th August 2015 Dubrovnik airport welcomed it’s millionth traveller of the year (see EX-YU Aviation News, always an interesting source of information on air traffic in the region).

Smaller numbers of people arrive by car, primarily by heading south through Croatia along the Jadranska Magistrala (D8, the Adriatic Highway), and also on national and international ferries to Dubrovnik’s port of Gruž.

A third group of tourists arrive by cruise ship, and their sudden mass influx can cause considerable congestion. On the 17 August 2015 pedestrian crowded at the entrances into Dubrovnik’s Old City looked like this:

Dubrovnik crowds at the summer season peak — Source: Dubrovački dnevnik. If you follow the link you’ll find more images and a video, but I think you get the idea.

That’s a lot of people to share your experience of Dubrovnik with, but there are a couple of things you can do if you’re not a fan of crowds.

Firstly, you could just avoid visiting in July and August. This is the peak of the tourist season which runs from March until the start of November (although the City Council are trying to promote year-round tourism through such as their Project Winter).

However, for many people, especially those tied to school summers breaks, this is, of course, not possible, and in any case, you might want to be in the city for the annual Dubrovnik Summer Festival which runs from mid-July to nearly the end of August.

The second action to take in order to avoid high season crowds is to plan ahead carefully. Read up on what you really want to see the most, because there’s plenty of choice in the Old City. There are some links at the bottom of this post to the better online resources I found for Dubrovnik when planning last summer’s vacation in Croatia.

Assuming you still want to visit the Old City during high season, one of the best tools for planning the timing of your visit is provided free of charge by the Dubrovnik Port Authority, which you can access here.

All you have to do is select the year and the month of your visit…

…click on “Prikaz izvejšća”, and details of all the cruise ships scheduled in port that month will be revealed (in English).

The listing is colour-coded for quick reference identification of days when cruise ship visitor numbers are expected to be especially high (red), average (yellow) or lighter than usual (green). However, if you’re fixed to specific dates it also tells you the hour the ships dock and the time when they depart. From this information you can make a judgement about when will be the best times to avoid the city gates, busier thoroughfares and the walls, as well as when restaurants are likely to be most crowded during the day.

The Costa Deliziosa viewed from Štikovica — The view from Štikovica as the Costa Deliziosa approaches Dubrovnik’s Gruž port at 06:31 AM. Time to… relax and have a coffee before driving down to the Old City.

Keep in mind that whilst the Port Authority has now limited the number of cruise liners able to visit each day, that also means that there is more than enough space for docking at Gruž rather than anchoring off-shore and having to make a more time-consuming transfer to land. Rapidly disembarking passengers are only a 10 minute courtesy coach/public bus/taxi journey from the Old City.

Most cruise ship passengers will arrive at Pile Gate (it’s generally just the smaller cruise vessels that anchor in front of the Old City harbour, which means passengers are usually counted in tens or the low hundreds rather than by the thousand, and the Ploče Gate is therefore potentially quieter), so it makes sense to know in advance when the throng will be greatest here.

The following set of images demonstrate that it is possible to avoid the worst of the high season’s crowds; they were all taken before 08:00 AM on Saturday 1st August 2015.

We parked in the shade of the reasonably priced underground car park at Ulica Baltazara Bogišić (much less expensive than around the Old City walls and plenty of spaces) and walked the 450m down Zagrebačka ul. to Ul. Srednji Kono where we crossed to Ul. Iza Grada.

Minčeta Tower, Dubrovnik Old City Walls — Taking in the view of the Minčeta Tower at the top of the northern ramparts from Ul. Iza Grada

From here we continued to stroll a further 500m downhill, past Buža Gate, and round Revelin Fort to the Ploče Gates.

Ploče gates stone bridge Dubrovnik — View of the stone bridge between the Ploče gates and beyond to the Old City harbour and St. John’s Fort.

About 07:30 AM in Dubrovnik — The Old City Harbour from the Revelin Fort moat bridge just before the outer gate at Ploče.

The national flag of Croatia and the Libertas flag of Dubrovnik fly in the morning sun at Ploče Gate — The outer gate at Ploče where a drawbridge was once located.

St. Blaise (Sv. Vlaho) looks down over the inner Ploče gate.

Into the Old City of Dubrovnik. The Chapels of Announcement and of St. Luke on Ul. Svetog Dominika.

Dubrovnik Old City Clock Tower at 07:45 AM

The Orlando statue and column in front of St. Blaise's Church (Crkva Sv. Vlaho). — The Orlando statue and column in front of St. Blaise’s Church (Crkva Sv. Vlaho).

St. Blaise's Church (Crkva Sv. Vlaha) — St. Blaise’s Church (Crkva Sv. Vlaha)

Big Onofrio's Fountain (Velika Onofrijeva Fontana) — Big Onofrio’s Fountain (Velika Onofrijeva Fontana)

If you plan to walk the approximately 2km (1.24 miles) length of Dubrovnik’s city walls – and, if you’re physically able to do so, you really should – a little consideration of timing can also pay dividends. In the heat of the summer going as early as possible (or later in the afternoon) will make for a much more comfortable experience (there’s a reason why paramedics sit in the shade at strategic locations along the route), and once again, an early start can beat the worst of the crowds.

If you choose the early start option there are three entrance points to the main city walls, as can be seen on the ticket below.

Most people will scale the heights from the entrance just inside Pile Gate (#1 above), so you might be tempted to enter at the St. John’s Fort entrance (#2) or the St. Luke’s Fort entrance (#3). However, this of course means that whatever your pace, you’ll eventually catch up with an increasingly packed congregation of fellow sightseers.

For high season entry I’d recommend starting along the prescribed anticlockwise route at the Pile Gate when it opens (there are different opening times at different times in the year)… and not standing in the queue that will form by the gated entrance steps. You’ll need a ticket to get in (keep it safe and handy as they do occasionally check as you pass other entrances), and these are purchased from a separate office set into the wall just to the left of the Pile Gate exit. Being at the front of this queue might save you an extra couple of seconds!

Once again, it is possible to avoid high season crowds, even in the middle of summer. These pictures were all taken before 09:05 AM:

A view down Stradun from the top of the steps up to the Walls near Pile Gate

Dubrovnik Walls in August — The view looking out from the walls above Pile Gate before the crowds arrive

Looking back along the southern seaward walls of Dubrovnik

A view from the north walls over St Luke's Gate in the east, and beyond to the Old City harbour, St. John's fort and Lokrum island. Note the Star Pride just below the horizon carrying a scheduled 177 cruise passengers. — A view from the north walls over St Luke’s Gate in the east, and beyond to the Old City harbour, St. John’s fort and Lokrum island. Note the Star Pride just below the horizon carrying a scheduled 177 cruise passengers.

As for the rest of the Old City’s main attractions, it’s going to be pretty difficult to avoid rubbing shoulders with fellow visitors in the high season, particularly during overlapping cruise ship landings.

Side streets away from Stradun (Placa), Ul.Pred Dvorum and the Old City harbour may offer a modicum of respite, but otherwise a) be patient, and accepting of the fact that there’s a good reason why so many people want to visit this place, and b) have your midday escape options planned.

More online information.

Dubrovnikcity.com – includes an interactive map with icons linking to text pages describing many of the city’s main attractions

Dubrovnik Tourist Board – opening times and ticket prices for the Old City walls plus brief page notes on the forts and other main sites of interest.

Dubrovnik-travel.net – a clear map of the old city making the marked main attractions easy to find. Beneath the map are links to expandable pages on each of the main attractions. Hunting around this website also reveals more historical background pages.

Recommended accommodation.

Try the relaxing studios at More Beach House in Štikovica on Zaton Bay.