While we were in Dubrovnik Old Town looking at the options for a boat tour to a nearby island or beach (there are tons of these tours being touted by operators all around the harbour area of the Old Town), the children spotted the bright red and yellow ‘Dubrovnik Semi-Submarine’ out on the water.
These are submarine shaped boats which are half underwater, with glass windows below the surface which let you view the underwater sights.
The Dubrovnik semi-submarine trip divided opinion in our family a bit. The children went immediately below the deck and were excitedly pointing out all the fish that you could see even before we’d left the harbour.
But considering the intense heat of the day, and the fact the semi-submarine is basically a big hollow fibreglass tube, it wasn’t surprising that the heat down below in the submarine section was extreme! I found it barely possible to breathe down there and couldn’t spend more than about a minute at a time below deck.
It also made me feel very sea sick (even on a very calm and flat sea). And I was pretty unimpressed by the view, as the windows seemed quite smeared and not easy to see out of.
But the kids seemed to love it and spent all their time down there, excitedly pointing out fish and crabs and even at one point the bare anus of a bloke swimming who decided to pull his shorts down under the water as we sailed past!
In the end I was happy enough just sitting up on the top deck cooling down in the sea breeze and enjoying the above-water sights, happy that they were all having fun below decks.
We got very lucky with this trip in that we had the entire semi-submarine boat to ourselves. Apparently it’s quiet at lunchtimes and, as we’d booked for 2pm, we were the only ones on it.
As we finished and disembarked, there was a queue of people ready to get on after us and it looked like it’d be much less enjoyable with all those people in there. It’s only a small boat and the underwater bit didn’t seem big enough to deal with more than about five or six people, so we were very glad we’d got it to ourselves and had space to spread out and relax a bit.
The children were happy at the end of the trip, which lasted about 45-minutes, but I would’ve preferred something a bit more relaxing and cooler. Still, it was a good adventure for them which is the main thing!