How much is a car with a driver from the airport to Lapad?
From Dubrovnik Airport to any hotel or apartment in Lapad or Babin Kuk, a car with a driver costs €50 for up to four passengers or €65 by minivan for up to eight. The price is for the vehicle, one way, with luggage, tolls and VAT included, and an hour of waiting after landing.
Euros for the whole vehicle with its driver, one way, 2026; fuel, tolls, luggage and VAT included. Times assume ordinary traffic, so add some in July and August.
Lapad and Babin Kuk in brief
Lapad is a city district on the peninsula of the same name, beneath Petka hill. It runs from Gruž bay in the north to Babin Kuk and Cape Solitudo in the west, and its neighbourhoods include Batala, Solitudo, Lapadska obala, Babin Kuk and Uvala Lapad, the bay with its beaches and seafront promenade. Most of the city’s hotels are here, alongside about 12,000 residents, the General Hospital and the DOC shopping centre, as Croatian Wikipedia’s article on Lapad describes.
For a visitor, that means two things. The hotels are a bus ride or a long walk from the walls, and they are on the far side of the city from the airport. Babin Kuk, at the western end, is the furthest from the Old Town.
From the airport to the peninsula
By road, the hotels of Lapad and Babin Kuk are 24 to 25 km from the airport terminal: about 25 km to Lapad Bay and 24 to 24.5 km to the Babin Kuk hotels, roughly 35 minutes in light traffic. The airport puts the drive into Dubrovnik at 30 to 35 minutes on average and tells travellers to allow up to an hour in the summer months.
Your driver waits in the arrivals hall with a name sign, follows your flight, and includes the first 60 minutes after landing. Late landings are common at DBV, and a car booked in advance runs at any hour for the same price.
Why the airport shuttle does not help here
The official airport shuttle, run by Platanus, costs €10 one way and leaves about 30 minutes after every arrival. It stops at Ploče Gate and at the main bus station in Gruž, and nowhere in Lapad or Babin Kuk. Guests for the peninsula who take it still face a city bus or a taxi from the bus station, with their suitcases.
A car with a driver goes from the arrivals hall to the hotel entrance. The price is per vehicle, for up to four passengers by car or eight by minivan, so for a family or a group it comes close to the cost of shuttle tickets for everyone plus a taxi from the bus station.
No traffic zone at the hotel door
The City’s traffic zone runs around the Old Town, from Pile to Boninovo, and applies every year from 1 April to 31 October, as the City’s decision on vehicle access sets out. Lapad begins west of Boninovo, so the hotels of Lapad and Babin Kuk are outside it, and a car can stop at the hotel entrance in any month.
Apartments are different. Many private rentals on the peninsula sit on stepped lanes and narrow streets that no car can reach. When we confirm the booking we agree the nearest point where the driver can stop, and away from the airport 15 minutes of waiting are included.
From Lapad into the Old Town
Most days in Lapad include a trip to the walls. There are four ways to make it.
| Way | How often or how long | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| City bus 6 from Babin Kuk to Pile | About 90 departures a day | €2.50 from the driver, €1.73 from a kiosk |
| City bus 4 from Hotel Palace to Pile | About 71 departures a day | €2.50 from the driver, €1.73 from a kiosk |
| On foot from Lapad Bay to Pile Gate | About 50 minutes, 4 km | Free |
| On foot from Babin Kuk to Pile Gate | About 70 minutes, 5.2 km | Free |
| Taxi from a Lapad stand | 8 to 9 minutes without traffic | The operator’s price list |
City buses. The bus company Libertas runs line 6 from Babin Kuk to Pile about 90 times a day, between 05:30 and 01:00, and line 4 from Hotel Palace about 71 times a day, on the autumn timetable. A single ticket costs €2.50 bought from the driver, €1.73 as a one-hour ticket bought in advance, and €5.31 for 24 hours, according to the Libertas price list. Kiosks and Libertas sales points sell the cheaper tickets.
Walking. By OpenStreetMap routing, Lapad Bay is about 4 km from Pile Gate on foot, roughly 50 minutes, and Babin Kuk about 5.2 km, roughly 70 minutes. The road distances are a little longer, about 4.5 km and 5.3 km. In July and August, walk early or late in the day.
Taxis. The City’s taxi-stand tender lists two reserved stands in Lapad: on Ulica Iva Vojnovića and at the DOC on Ulica kralja Tomislava. The head of the city’s taxi association said in April 2026 that a ride within the city typically costs €5 to €9, with a maximum of €25 shown on the cars. Our guide to Uber, Bolt and taxis covers the apps and the 2027 fare caps.
For this short hop a bus or a taxi is the sensible choice. Where a car with a driver earns its price is on the longer runs: the airport, the port and the days out.
Day trips that start at your hotel
Every route on our price list that starts in Dubrovnik starts at your door in Lapad or Babin Kuk, at the listed price, per vehicle:
- Cavtat, on the coast south of the airport: €50 by car.
- Ston and its walls, 55 km north: €130 by car.
- Kotor in Montenegro, 92 km away: €255 by car, with passports (EU citizens may use an identity card).
- Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 146 km away: €240 by car.
- Split, 235 km up the coast: €330 by car, tolls included.
For a day with several stops, hire the car and driver by the hour instead: €50 an hour by car, for at least 3 hours, or €360 for a full day of 8 hours. Our guide to day trips from Dubrovnik has distances and plans for ten of them, and the day trips section has every price.
The port next door
Lapad looks across Gruž bay at the city’s ferry and cruise port. Guests arriving by sea, on a ferry from Bari or at the start of a cruise, are a short drive from the peninsula’s hotels, and our port page covers pick-ups at the quay. On a turnaround day, a car with a driver can link the airport, a Lapad hotel and the port in one booking.
Booking a car for Lapad
Tell us the flight number, the hotel or the full apartment address, the number of passengers and the luggage, and each child’s age if you need child seats, which are free. Send the trip, the date, the time and the number of passengers with the booking form, on WhatsApp or by email. We reply with one price for the vehicle, 08:00–20:00 daily, usually within the hour. Nothing is paid in advance for a standard booking: you pay the driver in euros, in cash or by card. The airport section lists the prices from the airport to every part of the city, and the price table covers every route, from the shortest city ride to Sarajevo.