The designer one

PUCIC PALACE

When Casanova jumped off a balcony at the start of the recent BBC romp, this hotel served as the set. You’ll understand why. The Pucic is a converted 18th-century nobleman’s house, right underneath the baroque bell tower of the cathedral. It has original pumice-stone pillars and painted ceilings on the stairways, a chapel in the middle of the breakfast terrace, and just 19 sumptuous, super-expensive rooms.

Opinion is divided as to whether the “hip” touches entirely work (perhaps the Dalmatian-hide sofa in the Junije Palmotic suite is pushing it a bit) but they never undermine the feeling of luxury: beaten-copper bathtubs, Egyptian cotton sheets and Bulgari smellies.

To get your money’s worth, insist on a room overlooking Gundulic Square, with the picturesque pitches of Dubrovnik’s village-style vegetable market. 00 385 20 324826, www.thepucicpalace.com ; doubles from £270, B&B

The sybaritic one

DUBROVNIK PALACE

A boutique hotel. With 308 rooms. It may sound like a contradiction, but £30m has been spent making over the Dubrovnik Palace, complete with bowls of turquoise pebbles and theatrical shafts of lavender light – and it near-as-dammit works. They even give a weekly tour of the hotel’s 200 original artworks.

The bedrooms are plainer, each sharply dressed in soft sands and pearly greys. You get a flatscreen TV and views of the Dalmatian Riviera from your (guaranteed) balcony. And, because the hotel cleaves to west-facing cliffs on the Lapad peninsula, sunsets come as standard.

The hotel has an outdoor pool complex, a dive centre and Croatia’s only proper full-service spa, where you can be wrapped in mud and seaweed – which may be taking the oceanic theme too far. 00 385 20 430000, www.dubrovnikpalace.hr ; doubles from £135, B&B

The plush one

GRAND VILLA ARGENTINA

That’s plush as in tinkly piano bars and dark-oak wainscoting. Plush as in Liz Taylor, Ivana Trump and Montserrat Caballe (they have all stayed here). Grand Villa Argentina is one of the grandes dames of Dubrovnik hospitality.

The hotel comprises four 1920s villas and a rather frightful 1960s annexe – but don’t fret about that, because you’ll spend most of your time sipping martinis on the terrace, enjoying brochure-beating views of Dubrovnik’s walled citadel. The Argentina is just a 10-minute walk from the Old Town, and has mazy gardens that lead to the shore, where you’ll find a pool and sea-bathing platforms.

Book a balcony room in Villa Argentina or Villa Orsula – sumptuous, with brocaded bedspreads, serious still-lifes and overflowing cushions. 00 385 20 440 555, www.gva.hr ; balcony doubles in Villa Argentina from £175, B&B

The secluded one

VILLA WOLFF

Like most Dubrovnik hotels, this place is defined by its grounds – but this time you’re sharing them with just five couples in a tree-top retreat above Uvala Bay.

The rooms struggle towards four-star standard, with cheerful blue and cream decor, and rather exciting splatter-gun paintings (the work of Maxi, the owner’s three-year-old daughter). Only the two suites have balconies, but the remaining rooms are just a dozen paces from the hotel terrace, with crumbly stone walls, rambling ivy and aromatic rosemary bushes. You’ll have breakfast here, and the hotel has sun loungers for slow afternoons and a bar for summer evenings.

It’s a 10-minute bus ride to town and, if you fancy it, Mr Wolff will line up a friendly boatman to whisk you off to a secret spot on the nearby Elafiti islands. 00 385 20 438 710, www.villa-wolff.hr ; open Apr 1-Oct 31; doubles from £112, B&B

The budget one

HOTEL STARI GRAD

Apart from the Pucic Palace, this is the only hotel inside the romantic ramparts of old Dubrovnik – turn left and within seconds, you’re on Stradun, the marbled main street that is the heart of the city.

Stari Grad is ferreted away in a trademark narrow Dubrovnian alleyway. This means the rooms (just a single and a double on each of four floors) are on the gloomy side, but they’re clean, snug and not lacking in character, with mahogany furniture and flagged floors.

At the bottom of the stairs is a den-like lobby with assorted architectural oddities: a stone font, a water pump, fakey frescoes. At the top is the Stari Grad’s star turn, a tiny breakfast terrace teetering among the chimney tops – ideal for hot coffee anda heated debate about whether you’re looking at Europe’s loveliest roofscape. 00 385 20 322 244, www.hotelstarigrad.com ; doubles from £93, B&B

Travel brief Fly to Dubrovnik from Gatwick with Croatia Airlines (020 8563 0022, www.croatiaairlines.hr ; from £116), or British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com ; from £128). Flybe (0871 522 6100, www.flybe.com ) flies from Birmingham, from £90; Aer Lingus (0818 365000, www.aerlingus.com ) flies from Dublin, from €174. There are summer charters from Birmingham, Gatwick, Luton, Manchester, Dublin, Shannon and Cork. Fares start at £99, through Holiday Options (0870 420 8386, www.holidayoptions.co.uk ) or Charter Flight Centre (0845 045 0153, www.charterflights.co.uk ). Airport transfers take 20 minutes by bus (£2.50) or taxi (£20-£25). Further information:020 8563 7979, www.croatia.hr .

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