ellencmog

My husband and I will be in Kosovo and Croatia in March. We need to drive from Pristina to Dubrovnik. Can anyone tell me about the drive; is it mountainous, about how long should we plan for it, should we plan for snow at higher elevations?

Search engines I've been on say it will take about 6 hours, but that seems short to me.

We'd appreciate any information!

sessa

I probably shouldn't top this when I have no information for your question, but I was just curious if the recent events in Kosovo are having any impact on your trip plans? We, too, are going to Croatia (and Bosnia and Montenegro) in March and are hopeful that the recent violence against the US and Croatian embassies in Serbia doesn't become more widespread.

danon

a friend who has visited Albania several times on business advised strongly against driving through that country .( if that is your route)

yorkshire

viamichelin supposedly gives accurate time estimates, taking road conditions into account.
It could be quite mountainous, or perhaps you drive toward the coast and head north from there?

Sessa you have nothing to worry about in Croatia, Bosnia, or Montenegro. This is a compact (albeit noisy) problem.

ellencmog

No, it hasn't changed our plans, yet at least. We leave on March 10, so we're watching closely, but I don't anticipate any problems where we're going. The problems are isolated to the northern part of Kosovo. Sessa, I wouldn't anticipate any problems where you're going, either, as yorkshire said.

Danon, we drove through Albania last spring. Incredibly bad roads and infrastructure in the northern part of the country, better the farther south we went. What a trip!

We'll go through Montenegro to get to Dubrovnik, but the route planning sites all take us through Mitrovica which of course isn't an option because that's where the problems are in northern Kosovo. I have a travel agent in Prishtina, Kosovo working on it. I don't even know if a one-way car rental is do-able and if so, if we'll run into any problems with a Kosovo license plate. I'll post when we figure it out. It's so different planning a trip to this part of the world than it is to Western Europe, for example!

logos999

Do you absolutely have to go there. There's still a travel warning issued by serveral western governments. The place is under UN administration. There's an abundance of soldiers, guns, mines on the side of the roads, and people that would be willing to use force against you. Are you aware about nightly curfews?
It's a wise thing for a tourist not to go there.

ellencmog

logos999,

Are you referring to Kosovo? Yes, I have business there. I'm in contact with people in Prishtina and it's calm there. So far the problems are isolated to the Mitrovica area.

I also have business in Dubrovnik which was the reason for my post regarding how to get from point A to point B which seems to be a little challenging at the moment. . .

global_guy

If you drive from Dubrovnik to Kosovo, passing through Podgorica and entering Kosovo near Rosaje, (the first Kosovo city you'd come to is Peja) the drive is mellow until you head inland in Montenegro. It then gets mountainous and later, after Podgorica, follows a very beautiful, steep gorge that's characterized by poor-ish pavement and lots of bends. I think that might be the wisest point of entry.

I wouldn't cut through Albania to save time as the North East (around Bajram Curri) is a little Wild-West-ish Otherwise Albania is merely OK to drive around: drivers are a bit nutty and roads are terrible, but generally safe.

Finally, the only thing I would say is to make sure that you can take your rental car INTO Kosovo. Alot of rental car companies aren't even too keen on Bosnia, and in the case of Kosovo, my personal car (I owned it) wasn't going to be insured if I took it into Kosovo since most car insurances have clauses that do not cover travel in "areas not under control of the federal government" to paraphrase. Now that Kosovo has declared indepedence, there may be a grey area as to whether you'd be allowed to bring a rental car in. It is usually possible to buy a insurance supplement at the border from the border guards in Kosovo, but the current situation may have changed that.

If you do head through Peja/Pec take the time to stop at the Patriarch of Pec. It's the Serb equivalent of the vatican, and while locals Kosovars aren't allowed to visit, you can ask the Italian guards to radio the church for permission for you to visit. The church is a UNESCO site as is the one in Decani.

ellencmog

We ended up flying to Dubrovnik which turned out well, despite a four-hour layover in Zagreb. We had hoped to take a taxi into Zagreb, but our flight arrived late, so we just had time for dinner at the airport. All in all, I'm glad we didn't drive. The Hertz lady in Prishtina said they don't have enough cars for a one-way rental, so it probably wouldn't have been possible, anyway without hiring someone to drive us.

Global guy, we loved the monastery at Decani last year. We didn't get to Peja this year, but it's on our list for the next trip. Thanks for the tip!