Sheraton Dubrovnik Riviera Hotel Review, An Amazing Stay!

Point Booking

Our last destination on our amazing 3 week honeymoon was to beautiful Croatia and we stayed at the equally amazing Sheraton Dubrovnik Riviera Hotel. The Sheraton is a brand new hotel with the grand opening happening just last October. Despite it being it’s first summer we didn’t notice any issues at all!

We initially booked this hotel when it was a Starwood category 4 hotel, meaning it cost 10,000 points per night. It would have ran a total of 40,000 points for our 5 night stay but we lucked out! Starwood dropped the category back in February all the way down to a category 2 hotel! This meant it cost between 3,500 – 4,000 points per night for a total of 16,000 points! The first hotel we stayed at for our honeymoon, the Westin Punta Cana also dropped in points, saving us a total of 24,000 Starwood points. It was freaking awesome, because it meant enough points for another vacation!

Check-In

From the get go I was impressed by the Sheraton. Our Volotea flight arrived early in the morning in Dubrvonik. Once we got the rental car we arrived at the hotel by 10:00 AM. They let us check-in right away! I had requested an early check-in online but with my request being so early I did not expect the room to be ready. At the check-in counter they said we had been upgraded thanks to my Starwood Gold status.

After check-in we were led to our room by one of the friendliest receptionists I’ve ever met. For those that are concerned over language, nearly everyone in Croatia speaks English very well, especially younger people. Our room was the center end unit on the 2nd floor. It was massive and had an unobstructed view of the Adriatic Sea. I’d suggest requesting this room! The receptionist showed us through the room, how the panel worked, and most importantly tips on the air conditioning. If the doors weren’t closed completely it did not work properly.

The icing on the top was the desert and fruit tray they left in the room! We were impressed the room was ready with a welcome gift at 10:00 AM in the morning. We made the tray our lunch as we were starving having been awake since 4:30 AM.

Our amazing room location! See the green dot that was our room, it was nearly double the size of the standard ones, and had perfect view of the water.

The Room

We had booked a standard king room with our points but we were upgrade to an “Executive Suite” room. It wasn’t exactly a suite upgrade but basically a larger standard room with a sea view and a massive balcony. There are no true suites at the Sheraton, make sure to secure a sea view room, totally worth it.

The bedroom had an insane amount of space. Two comfy chairs around a small table and a long table at the end of the room. The always important mini-bar fridge was included. The main part of the fridge did not have a sensor so we were able to store some drinks and snacks without getting charged. The bed was comfy and was easy to fall asleep. The shades were more than sufficient at keeping the room dark.

Bathroom had double sinks, always a plus. It also had a great shower and tub. We didn’t use the tub but actually seemed nice. No funky doors or weird things like in the Radisson Blu Rome we stayed at earlier either.

But our favorite part of the room was the balcony with the great views of the water! It had 3 chairs and a small table where we enjoyed a couple of drinks.

Pool, Spa, & Gym

There are two pool areas at the Sheraton, an indoor and an outdoor one. We didn’t use the indoor one but it looked like a decent option when it is raining or if it is cold out. It was located in the basement and looked out on to the outdoor pool.

Walking to the other side of the basement was where the spa, indoor hot tub, sauna, and steam rooms were located. We are not ones for a spa day but we did use the hot tub and really liked the area.

Right next to the spa was the gym. It was one of the larger hotel gyms that we’ve used with tons of open space to do mat routines. It also had four treadmills, a couple of bikes, and some weight machines. Despite being on our honeymoon we manged to get a couple of runs in on the treadmill.

In the center of the property is the massive outdoor pool. The water was a bit cooler than most pools, I don’t believe it was heated. It was still plenty warm for swimming. At one end of the pool there was a bench with a bubbler. I’ve never seen that design before but it was relaxing and felt good on my legs.

Location

One big thing to note is that the Sheraton Dubrovnik Riviera is not actually in Dubrovnik but in the nearby town of Mlini. This could be a good thing or bad thing depending on what you want to do. For us it was a positive, we went into Dubrovnik for one day and that was plenty for us. Mlini is a very relaxed beautiful area and suited what we wanted. The location was very convenient to the airport and Dubronvik with a very easy 15 minute drive to either. It also helped that parking was free here at the Sheraton, unlike in Dubrovnik where parking costs an arm and a leg. This let us do amazing day trips to Montenegro and up to Ston, Croatia. More on those amazing destinations later!

Another positive was that the Sheraton sat right on top of a beautiful walking path around the bay and then around the bend to more happening local beach. A grocery store, some shopping, and some great restaurants were within walking distances too. We used that path a ton!

Beach

The beach surpassed our expectations and was actually really nice! There are about 20 chairs and 10 umbrellas laid for hotel guests on the beach. Having your hotel towel will let you sit without paying. Other people can pay to use the chairs if they don’t have a towel, we noticed a couple of locals who did. There were always plenty of chairs open which surprised us. Don’t expect any drink service down at the beach, we never saw any servers, just the occasional hotel attendant checking towels.

Along the shoreline it is rocky but walking into the water it quickly goes to nice soft sand. The water was crystal clear and a perfect temperature for July. It is pretty shallow but if you go far enough out it does get deep. I did some laps along the buoy line a couple of days.

Our favorite part was watching all the locals come out in the late afternoon. Tons of kids would play picigin in the water and was pretty entertaining to watch. It is a simple game where a group keeps a small ball in the air while in the shallows of the water. Plenty of jumping and diving in the water to try to keep it alive! There is no real winner or loser, just a way to have fun!

We even managed to see a water polo match in the Adriatic Sea while walking along the beach path! Pretty awesome.

The view from the end of the bay looking back at the Sheraton. We saw a couple of swimmers go the width of the bay.

Going around the end of the bay leads you to the larger local beach, called Kupari. A couple of communist era abandoned hotels remain here and a cool local beach bar. It had a lot more people than the Sheraton beach and it appears to be the local hangout.

Food & Restaurants

At the hotel we only had food from the pool bar which was surprisingly good and from the breakfast buffet in the morning. The breakfast buffet was more than extensive with plenty of options. While checking in we were told that the buffet was approximately $20 USD per person because we had booked via points. However, we weren’t charged for the two times we had breakfast there. Maybe it was because we were upgraded to a better room but I think there is some confusion over if breakfast is included.  Most rates here actually include the breakfast so maybe point bookings do too. We didn’t eat much at the hotel as it was pretty expensive. There were plenty of cheaper options within walking distance that were extremely tasty!

Honestly, we were impressed by the food in Croatia. A great mix of Italian, Hungarian, and Turkish cuisine. It also helped that it was much cheaper than Italy! Luckily, the Sheraton’s location allowed for easy access to great restaurants and we had one of the best meals of our honeymoon here at the Restaurant Puntižela, pictured above. Plenty of excellent cheap wine sure helped, haha.

I even had a whole Sea Bass from Restaurant Konoba Marinero, one of my favorite meals of the entire trip! Beth would say otherwise… She doesn’t like fish. Another great restaurant we ate at was the Bistro cafe bar G. All three of these restaurants were an easy walk along the shoreline path. Even the bar next door to the Sheraton, Vertigo, had some great pizza that I had for lunch.

We also walked to the nearby grocery store to make our own makeshift meals. Believe me, we ate plenty of amazing food so we need lighter meals too! On the way to the grocery store there is a small little bakery shop where they sell delicious and cheap burek, a Turkish filled pastry.

Final Thoughts

• Would I stay at the Sheraton Dubrovnik Riviera in Croatia again?

Most definitely! We loved the location with all of the great nearby restaurants. The hotel grounds were great and the beach surpassed our expectations.

• Was this a good value of Starwood points?

It was an excellent value, especially in the summer! We only used 16,000 Starwood points for 5 nights and the rooms were going for about $250 USD per night for the time frame we were going. This equates to very healthy 7.8 cpp! Now in the off season rates dip as low as $80 USD per night but that is still a decent 2.6 cpp redemption rate 3,000 points per night. Way above what The Points Guy values Starwood points.

We really enjoyed our stay at the Sheraton and can’t recommend it enough. Very relaxed, great value, and you can even interact with locals. It is a great base to explore Croatia’s Dalmatia region, Montenegro, and even into Bosnia.

Would you stay at the Sheraton Dubrovnik in Croatia?