Two cool day trips from Dubrovnik: Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina!

If you have read my blog post on how to spend two days in Dubrovnik, you’ll know that there are loads of things to do in the city! But another cool thing about Dubrovnik is how close it is to Croatia’s neighbouring Balkan Countries! We took two amazing day trips from Dubrovnik, to Kotor in Montengro, and Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both of these day trips from Dubrovnik were such a cool experience, and were so easy to do!

While we really wanted to stay longer to do these countries justice, I had to remind myself that we are not full time travellers and that unfortunately, we have to go back to work.

That said, after going on these excursions, I really felt I got a flavour that captured the essence of the country. That along with the tour guides who share tons of historical and cultural information on the journey. I learnt so much about the complicated histories and present relationships between the countries of the Western Balkans.

Day trips from Dubrovnik

We booked both of these trips, as well as our Krka National Park trip from Split, on ‘Get Your Guide’ and all experiences and processes went very smoothly. I highly recommend them. Both the Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina day trips ended up being about 12 hours long (can be dependent on border waiting times) and it’s safe to say we were shattered afterwards so keep this in mind and don’t make any dinner reservations.

This is an account of our experiences of two very cool day trips from Dubrovnik , with Get Your Guide.

Montenegro!

We got to the bus stop at 6:55am and were (luckily for us) one of the last groups to be picked up in the coach. We managed to get a seat on the right-hand side of the coach which gave us excellent views of the coast along the way.  We drove along the beautiful southern coastline of Croatia, learning about the villages and the local people. We hit standstill traffic about 500 meters from border control. It took about an hour to get through which I didn’t think was too bad, and we stopped shortly into Montenegro for a coffee and toilet break. It was quite a big group and so everyone seemed to stay in their pairs or small groups, and we sadly only made small talk with each other. I was very grateful when one traveller came up to me and said she noticed my bites and asked if I wanted to borrow her bite relief cream which I thought was very kind.

We carried along the meandering beautiful coastal path through Herceg Novi, to Perast. We explored the quaint harbour town with few shops, churches, and picturesque views of boats bobbing in the gentle waves. A taxi boat took us to the ‘Our Lady of the Rocks’ person-made artificial island. We wandered the busy church with artistic ceilings and seemingly randomly selected artefacts in the museum upstairs and explored the tiny island. An enjoyable ride in a river boat took us all the way to the City of Kotor. The scenes were amazing. On one side of the water, the mountains were rocky, grey, dry, and the other, green and luscious, all reflected in the beautiful teal Bay of Kotor.

Upon arrival in Kotor a local tour guide showed us around the city and taught us about the history and culture of Montenegro. We then had about 3 hours free time to explore. Following our toxic trait of finding the biggest hill to climb in the hottest part of the day, we paid 8€ each to go on the city walls and walked up the steep zig-zag stairs to just past the Church for some spectacular views of the city, mountains, valley, and water. We admired the views and ate our picnic lunch in the shade before heading back into the city below. After over week spent in the Mediterranean heatwave, I didn’t think it was possible to get sweatier than I already had, but alas, I was wrong. Thankfully there was a stone drinking water fountain to splash ourselves with water and drink one bottle after another, and then scramble in our pockets to find 50c for the toilets!

We wandered the streets, visiting some of the gift shops, got our daily ice cream fix (I have no idea what ‘Unicorn flavour’ was, but it was great) and went up onto the free part of the city walls that overlooked both the city and the sea. We visited Saint Nicholas’ and Saint Luke’s Orthodox churches and learnt as much as we could about the culture. Although there were tons more churches and museums that we could have visited (including the Cat Museum which I only found out about after!), the city itself is small and I feel we managed to explore pretty much every street and alleyway. There were loads of stray cats in Kotor which felt quite sad that they didn’t have loving homes, but they are generally well looked after by the community in return for keeping the rats out of the city. There was a vending-type machine where tourist could put money in and get some cat food. The general vibe of the country (albeit I was there for a short time) was nice, and I would really like to go to Montenegro again for an extended visit to see some other places.

We boarded the coach with a struggling air con system, and it took us a while to cool down from spending the whole day outside in the 36 degree heat. The journey back seemed to take longer, perhaps 3 hours or so including the wait at the border crossing, but I think we managed to snooze for some of it. We arrived back at the bus stop and walked back to our accommodation, made a home-cooked comforting meal of salt and chilli tofu and chips, and marvelled about our day trip to a new country! 

Bosnia and Herzegovina!

We walked to the bus stop for 6:55am and we were again, lucky to be one of the last groups to be picked up in the minibus. We set off to the Croatia-Bosnia and Herzegovina border which is roughly 59km/37miles from Dubrovnik and only took around 1 hour. Our dry humoured guide Luca told us about Croatia and how the Dubrovnik locals live. It took us around 40 minutes at border control and one fun new stamp in our passports and €3 per person tourist tax paid later, we set off into Bosnia and Herzegovina! We stopped in the small village of Neum for a quick coffee, toilet, and bag of skittles break, before heading back on the road towards Mostar, taking in the beautiful scenic drive along the way. Luca talked the whole journey about the complicated histories and the culture of Balkan countries, as well as the different parts we drove through. It was very interesting and we learnt so much about the politics and feelings the Croatians, Bosnians, and Serbians had towards each other.

Upon arrival in Mostar, we had a local Bosnian tour guide who showed us the sights of the city and gave us some more information. On first impressions, I thought the city was beautiful, interesting, cultural, diverse, poor, touristy, segregated. I want to give my honest experiences in this blog so, while all the cities we visited on our Balkans trip held reminders of their histories, and most prominently the war in the 90s, in my opinion it felt that Mostar was still feeling the impact of it today. Our tour guide explained that while the ‘young people’ make an effort to get along with everyone, families do not, and often the schools, and even gas and electricity companies are segregated depending on religion. Hearing this made me quite sad, along with the women and children who asked for money, and the pickpockets we were warned about on our arrival, and I felt a bit naïvely helpless about it all.

On a more positive note, the city felt surreal, with the picturesque, cobbled streets lined with busy tourist shops and market stalls selling local crafts and souvenirs. Brave (and silly?) people who, after collecting donations, jump from the 24 meter high bridge that stands proudly in the middle of the city, into the Neretva; the coldest river in the world, to the cheers of everyone who stops and watches! We wondered all the streets, and paddled in the cold river (which did wonders for my swollen bug-bitten ankle) and took many photos of the stunning city from said bridge.

We met back at the bus and discussed our days with our fellow travellers, easier this time being a smaller group. We travelled about 45minutes to Kravica Waterfalls. It was about a 10 minute walk down some slippery dusty steps (guess who fell over) to a stunning waterfall with sounds of the crashing water and joyful voices of everyone swimming, sunbathing and kayaking. I was so hot from the walk that the cold water was so refreshing and a welcome break. After walking the steep walk back to the bus, we set off back to Croatia, stopping once again in Neum before crossing the border (it took about 10minutes this way) and dropping people off along the way. Overall this trip was great, and I would definitely recommend this as a day trip from Dubrovnik. This was our last day of our mini Western Balkans adventure, and what a way to spend it!

If you have made it this far, thank you so much for reading, it makes my day 😊

B