ROAD TRIP!!!
Geographically speaking, Croatia is located in Southeastern Europe along the Adriatic Sea, with Montenegro to the South, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the East, Hungary to the Northeast and Slovenia to the Northwest.
Coming from the States (the tri-state area, at that) the option of road tripping to other countries is VERY limited. Here in Croatia, however, it is more than ideal. I guess that’s the beauty of Europe, huh?
That being said, my mom and I (yes, she came to visit in month 1) came up with an awesome game plan to rent a car in Split and road trip through the southern part of Croatia, into Montenegro, up through Bosnia, and then back to my homebase in Split.
We left Thursday morning. Our first stop was Ston, a small coastal village known for the “fortress of Ston”, one of the largest construction projects of the 14th century. The fortress was so important at the time because it defended the lucrative saltworks located within. Today, you can hike that bad boy. And we did. About halfway through the trek my mom decided to rename the fortress: “Medieval Stairmaster.” An appropriate name, I must say.
Fun fact: on the way to Ston, there is a small break in the Croatian border where you dip, very briefly, into Bosnia and then back into Croatia. I suppose this had something to do with ownership of land at one point in time. A common historical argument, right? This isn’t a big deal other than the fact that passports are checked by border control, so make sure you have yours if you’re doing a trip like this. We obviously did because our intent was to road trip through a few different countries, but this is necessary even for the simple drive from Split to Ston/Dubrovnik/any other southern Croatian city.
Our second stop was Dubrovnik, one of the southernmost cities in Croatia and also the primary filming site of Game of Thrones (I have to admit I’m part of the 1% who has never watched a single episode, sorry!) Here we rented an Airbnb for two nights just outside of Old Town. Appropriately so, we spent our first night exploring Old Town, drinking wine and indulging in gelato.
Friday morning, we were up early with a packed day planned. We started by hiking around the city walls of Dubrovnik. You would THINK my mom would be over that after the day prior, but it was (of course) her idea. From there, we met a group of people at the port for an afternoon of island hopping and a tour of the Blue Caves. Let me say that a tour of the Blue Caves is not for the weak. We pulled up to a very small opening at the bottom of a large island/mountain and were told that we’d need to dive in and swim through the small opening, where it would eventually open up to the expansive beauty of the cave. If you are not good with small spaces and/or being underwater for even just 10–15 seconds, this may not be the activity for you. I think I held my own, though, as the trip leader ended up offering me a job as a cave guide next summer. Ha! (I’ll think about it)… We finished the day on the island of Kokosar for a gorgeous sunset.
Saturday morning we left for Kotor, a small town on the Adriatic Coast of Montenegro. This was probably my favorite drive. It was absolutely gorgeous. We’d drive about 500 feet, hop out the car to take pictures, get back in, drive another 500 feet, hop back out for more pictures. This happened over and over and over again for almost an hour. Once we got to Kotor, we spent the rest of the day exploring the Old Town there, an activity I don’t think I could ever get tired of.
We left pretty early Sunday morning, with the intention of finding a beach to stop at. It was an easy task to accomplish, as stopping the car and jumping into the water seems to be a thing here.
From the beach, we drove up and inward to Mostar, a city in southern Bosnia. This city is known for the Mostar Bridge, a bridge built in the 16th century by the Ottoman Empire. It now divides the Muslim and Christian neighborhoods. It is a very interesting city to walk through, as the divide and separation is VERY clear. As if the physical divide of the bridge isn’t enough, it’s definitely something you can feel in the air. I wish we had spent more time there, as it was just a brief afternoon of walking through the market and hanging by the bridge with a coffee. All the reason to go back!
By Sunday evening, we headed back to Split. From Mostar, this was only a 2 hour car ride. Each car ride from city to city averaged about 2 hours, by the way.
I would HIGHLY recommend a road trip like this to anyone who is visiting this part of the world. You can certainly take a ferry from Split to Dubrovnik, if you plan on visiting that city only. However, you don’t get to experience everything along the road and you skip the opportunity of popping into some other amazing cities. Also, the car we rented came to about $30 a day and the Airbnbs to about $50 a night, in both Dubrovnik and Kotor. Pretty affordable for a 4-day weekend road-trip, I think!
