Generally with city breaks we take minimal cash and use card for all transactions. Our last 4 breaks we have only had to use cash once in a tiny local town in Portugal. We have a travel guide we have on Dubrovnik that says cash is preferred but that book is possibly from before covid.

While Dubrovnik has embraced the "cashless revolution" in 2026, it is not entirely cashless. Since Croatia joined the Eurozone and adopted the Euro (€), card acceptance has become the standard in almost all hotels, high-end restaurants, museums, and shops within the Old Town. You can pay for the "Dubrovnik Pass" and the City Walls walk entirely via contactless methods (Apple Pay, Google Pay). However, cash is still "king" for small-scale transactions such as buying a gelato from a street vendor, tipping tour guides, or taking the local Libertas buses if you don't have a pre-paid ticket. Some smaller "konobas" (traditional taverns) in the narrow side streets may still prefer cash to avoid high transaction fees. Additionally, some ATMs in the Old Town carry high "convenience fees" for tourists, so it is best to carry a small amount of Euro banknotes (5€ and 10€) for emergencies while relying on your travel card for everything else. Overall, you can survive 95% of a trip to Dubrovnik without touching paper money, but it is not yet a "cash-free" zone like Stockholm or London.