Zaton

This Zaton is the one roughly 8 kilometers northwest of Dubrovnik — not to be confused with the much larger Zaton near Zadar, a completely different bay further up the coast. The Dubrovnik one is made up of four small hamlets strung along a two-kilometer bay: Veliki Zaton, Mali Zaton, Štikovica, and Vrbica, connected by a shoreline promenade rather than a proper road running the whole length.

Zaton's history is tied to Dubrovnik's old aristocracy rather than fishing or trade. From the early 15th century, Ragusan noble families — the Gučetić, Menčetić, Sorkočević, Saraka and Lukarević among them — built summer houses along the bay, close enough to the city to reach easily but far enough to actually get away from it. A number of those villas survive; the restored Villa Zaton Heritage Mansion, built in the 15th century, is registered as a Croatian national heritage monument and still stands as one of the more intact examples.

For anyone arriving by boat, Mali Zaton is the main anchorage, with depths generally between 5 and 13 meters over mud and sand — decent holding, and well sheltered from the bura and most other winds, though a strong southerly can push in an uncomfortable swell. The harbor at Veli Zaton is shallower, useful mainly for smaller boats mooring closer to shore. Zaton doesn't have much in the way of standalone attractions beyond the bay and its beaches at Štikovica, but its position and shelter are exactly why many gulet cruises from Dubrovnik call in here for a quiet overnight before heading further down the coast.