We (married couple late 20's) are in the midst of planning a trip to Croatia/Montenegro in March 2008. It would be our first trip to Eastern Europe, and we will fly round trip from USA into Dubrovnik. We will probably have about 9 nights total and are thinking 6 nights in DBV and 3 in Montenegro...maybe Kotor.

After reading all of the helful info on this forum, I still have just a few questions:

1) Which would you do first...Dubrovnik or Kotor? I was thinking of going straight from DBV airport to Kotor so that we don't have to split up our stay in Dubrovnik around our side trip to Kotor.

2) Is it easy to take the bus from Dubrovnik to Kotor, or is renting a car better since we will be staying 2-3 nights in Kotor?

3) Has anyone stayed at Palazzo Radomiri near Kotor? Looks great, but they always do on the website, don't they?

4) What day trips/tours are convenient from Dubrovnik? Any "must sees"?

5) Finally, is March weather in Croatia pleasant? We don't have to swim, but we don't want to have to pack heavy clothes either.

I know there is lots more to see in Croatia besides Dubrovnik, but we want to have a relaxing trip for once without too much moving around. I would appreciate any thoughts/suggestions. Thanks!

sessa,

I would rent a car. We just returned from 16 days in the Balkans and drove 1400 km. We were glad we didn't have to depend on busses. I like the freedom a car gives you. I'd rent it at the DBV airport and drive directly to Kotor, except that you'll probably be jetlagged. It's a several hour trip to Kotor - or at least it was for us due to road construction along the way. Road signs aren't great in Montenegro, but Kotor is easy to find. I wouldn't drive it in a jetlagged state, though. Croatia is heaven on earth, and my impression of Montenegro is that of a miniature Croatia. You might want to do some sightseeing outside Kotor while you're there and you'll be glad you have a car. We were in DBV in mid April and the weather was perfect. It's a tropical/desert-y landscape (reminded us of southern California vegetation), but I'm not sure about the weather in March. I can't imagine it gets very cool, though. Be sure to spend plenty of time exploring the old city in Dubrovnik.

You should definitely hire a car if you plan to see anywhere outside Kotor - especially if you only have a couple of days. Some companies pick you up from the airport and take you to the hotel if you hire the car from them, if you don't want to drive after a long flight.
Weather - there are definitely no guarantees you'll have good weather in March I'm afraid!

This is the exact same itinerary my husband and I are planning (we are 30) for this September (2007)! I have a lot of work to do first. For now, I've found it cheaper to fly to Heathrow or Gatwick from the US and then get a separate flight to DBV. Do you agree? What hotels have you picked out? Do you know how much a car is each way from DBV straight to Kotor? I could not find flights and had been considering the bus otherwise. Would appreciate any info. I can post our final itinerary once I book it if you are interested, since you have much more time to plan. Many thanks!

bmcc - I am keeping my eye on flights since we have a lot of time still, but seems like the best deal for us is to fly from Atlanta --> Dubrovnik, changing airlines in Paris from Delta to Croatia Air. Even with the $99 Europe-by-Air pass (each way) that several have mentioned, a straight ticket thru to DBV seems like a better deal. Round trip is around $800 right now, and it would cost us about that much to fly to London or Paris anyway...

As for lodging, we are looking into Amoret Apts in DBV and Palazzo Radomiri in Kotor. Haven't heard from anyone who has stayed at Palazzo Radomiri but it looks great and prices in off season are very reasonable.

If we drove ourselves from DBV to Kotor and kept the car for 3 days or so, looks like it would be around $150 from AutoEurope, but there might be extra fees for taking the car into Montenegro. Many have also said the bus is super easy, but we want to do some driving around other parts of Monetnegro.

Hope this is helpful. As we are still in the very early stages of planning, I would love to hear what you come up with for your Sept trip! Good luck!

I think your itinerary sounds super! We loved Croatia and Montenegro. We spent a day in Montenegro and 4 nights in Dubrovnik; the rest of our trip was spent elsewhere in Croatia and Slovenia. DH and I loved Dubrovnik and Kotor so much that we decided to split our time between the two of them on our next vacation to that area. The scenery is nothing short of spectacular, and the towns themselves are charming and perfect for exploring and relaxing.

I would probably suggest doing Kotor first, only because the airport is on the way to Kotor. You will pass by the airport on the way from Dubrovnik to Kotor anyways.

I would probably rent a car to get to Montenegro. The country itself is nice and there is certainly enough to see outside of Kotor. Having a car will give you maximum freedom.

I can't comment on March but we were there in November and still managed to have a great time. The weather was just fine. Warmer than I'm used to in the midwest, and we didn't go to hang out on the beach anyways so it worked out great. And the crowds will be at a minimum; Dubrovnik is so much nicer when their aren't heards of tourists! We had one day where a cruise ship docked and I'm glad it wasn't like that every day we were there.

Tracy

Thanks for the inout, Tracy! We thought about trying to cram some more places in the itinerary but didn't want to be too busy on this trip. Glad to hear that you thought DBV and Kotor were worth spending all of our time in. I didn't know that the airport was in-between DBV and Kotor--good to know!

We were hoping to avoid too many crowds by traveling in March, and we are both from the beach so no biggie if the weather is a little cool. Just hope it isn't rainy or anything.

Thanks again!
Sessa

Sessa, we almost always travel to Europe during off season primarily because we like to visit an area without fighting the crowds. Its just so much more relaxing and enjoyable for us that its worth risking the weather for.

I think you will have such a fabulous time. I can go on and on about how great Dubrovnik and Kotor are, but I won't bore you with all of that!

When you are in Kotor you may want to take a daytrip to Budva and Sveti Stephan. Budva is a neat stone town thats also surrounded by a stone wall. It was pretty dead when we were there but its an interesting town nevertheless, and the views from the top of the wall are wonderful. And Sveti Stephan is now a hotel and will probably be closed but its worth visiting just to see it and take pictures.

I have pictures of our trip to that area. You can feel free to check them out if you want. I always like to look at places that I will be going; gets me more excited! www.kodakgallery.com/tracybates. Just pan down the page until you come across the albums.

Best wishes,
Tracy

I am a bit confused. How far is Kotor from the DBV airport? I thought it was several hours by car and I am afraid we will not want to drive after flying for so long.

sessa - $800 if a great fare from what I am seeing. Right now I am looking at $800 from CHI to LGW and then another $300-400 to DBV or Croatian Airline. My other option is not to break it up and go CHI-DBV, but all the flights have really long layovers somewhere or even an overnight layover which we want to avoid. What is the $99 pass you are talking about? Palazzo Radomiri does look great - I am going to inquire on availability now I think. I'm still researching, but I'll post back more as I make decisions. Thanks again!

When looking at Coration Airlines, does anyone know if you can specify the airport code? I am looking at flights out of London, but it won't let me choose LHR or LGW, even though they clearly operate flights out of both airports. I want to buy tkts on priceline to London, and then pick a flight to DBV accordingly. I'm stuck

For Croatia Air..choose London and then when it shows you the flights available on the next page it tells you what airport in London each flights is out of.

As for Europe-by-Air, I read about it on another one of these threads. It's $99 each way from various cities in Europe to DBV plus taxes which can vary. Sounds like they give you a voucher for a ticket on say Croatia Air and you pay taxes and get your actual ticket once you arrive at the aiport. I've pasted the links below to the other thread, as well as the Europe-by-Air link.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...=europe+by+air

http://www.europebyair.com/efp/cheapflightstoeurope.jsp

I've read a few posts that have said Kotor is 2 hours from DBV..guess it depends on road conditions, though. We don't usually feel the jet lag the 1st day because we are so excited to be in a new place, but we usually spend the 2nd day recovering!

sessa is correct; the drive from DBV to Kotor is about 2 hours. We too usually have no problems with jet lag the day of arrival so it wouldn't be a problem for us, but it all depends on how well you handle the jetlag.

I don't know much about Croatia Airlines, as we flew BA from ORD to LHR and LGW to DBV, but keep a look out for good fares because occassionally they do appear. Our flight was under $700 per person so we jumped on it. The same flight eventually went up to well over $1000 per person, so its worth the effort to search diligently. We did have to overnight in London though, although that was a bonus for us because we hadn't been in several years.

Tracy

I will be in Montenegro in about 3 weeks, doing business for three days in Podgorica. This was a last-minute thing, and my itinerary isn't set yet. My thought is to extend my stay for a few days to get up to Dubrovnik... especially if it would work to take off for home from Dubrovnik's airport, rather than coming back to Podgorica.

Here's the question: If I only have two full days for being a tourist (not counting the day of departure), should I go directly to Dubrovnik, or stop off in Kotor for a night?

Tracy - What was your hotel in Dubrovnik? What a view!

BaltoTraveler,

Hmmm...thats a toss-up! I loved both Kotor and Dubrovnik. However, I think that given the choice and the amount of time you have, I would probably choose Dubrovnik. Its setting is amazing and its such a great place to spend a few days. Its about a 20-25 minute drive from the airport to the city.

The view from our hotel was magnificant! Our hotel was the Villa Adriatica. Technically they refer to it as a b&b, although the owners live next door so its very private. We were the only ones staying there at the time (we were there in November) so we had the huge balcony all to ourselves! The price is great, especially given its location and view. However, its definitely not a luxury hotel. The bed was comfortable and the room is filled with antique furniture. The bathroom was adequate and overall we were quite pleased. You can find the hotel online at http://www.dubrovnik-online.com/villa_adriatica/.

Best wishes,
Tracy

Dubrovnik Car Rental: Need car in Dubrovnik for 2 weeks driving thru Southern Croatia, Bosnia & Montenegro start Oct 9. Should I book on line or can I get a better price in Dubrovnik? Is there any problem with taking car to these different countries?
Dubrovnik Hotel: Any suggestions about staying in Lapad or Dubrovnik? Considering Zagreb Hotel in Lapad or Adriatica near Old Town in Dubrovnik. Busses run between lapad & Dubrovnik.

Frank-
Don't know where you are traveling from, but I have heard that you can get better rental rates by booking in the US before you travel. You need to make certain that you can drive the car into both Bosnia and Montenegro and make sure you have the right paperwork for the border checks.

As you can see from the previos post, Tracy and some others highly recommend Villa Adriatica in DBV.

That's all I know right now since our trip isn't until March, but hopefully some others will chime in.

The magic words for being able to cross the border in a rental car are "green card". Ask for it specifically when making the car reservation, because (for reasons I don't fully understand) some cars have while others don't. When I rented a car in Montenegro, I had to take one that hadn't been cleaned up, because the car they were holding for me didn't have the green card.

try this website, and be specific to the agent that you are driving to Bosnia or Montenegro

http://www.kemwell.com/

Sessa - I wanted to post back specifically since I got a lot of good tips from this thread and you. My husband and I just got back from our trip to Dubrovnik, Croatia and Kotor, Montenegro. I'll do a little trip report here and feel free to ask me questions.

We LOVED our trip. We stayed at Hotel Grand Villa Argentina in DBV. Hotel claims 5 stars but we rate it as 3 star rooms with 4 star property. Pool and view is lovely. Rooms are tiny and we had issues with maid service. Hotel in general lacks personal service or touches. But great location and views, and good breakfast buffet included.

We walked the city walls, a must for great pics. Went to the war photography museum - very interesting and moving. Took the ferry to Lokrum 1 day - very easy to buy a tkt and just hop on from Old Town and spend as much or little time as you like. We hiked all over the island as my husband kept wanting to 'just see what's over here...'. Found nice chairs but beware as they charge 20 kuna and we didn't see any signs. Oh well. View was great and we lounged for a while.

Restaurants & bars: Taverna Rustica was our romantic fancy dinner. Sooo romantic and very good, we had a lot of fun. Live music was nice touch. Other places aren't worth mentioning, decent food but nothing standout. The Arsenal has nice atmosphere. We only looked at the menu at Gil's but it was insane, maybe $300 per couple if you tried to go cheap. Proto was pretty good (upscale) and had excellent crepes. For a nice sunset, Cafe Buza is a hole in the wall bar. Won't write more as it is in other threads and just about every tour book with directions. Worth it, but go around 6 to get a seat.

Kotor, Montenegro
We rented a car from Perla Adriatica near the entrance to the Polce Gate - they had the best rates I found and offered a cheap automatic for us Americans. A ton cheaper than Hertz up the road. We drove to Kotor and it was a simple and lovely drive. We didn't have a map. I used mapquest before we left the states and while we never saw all the road signs we managed to figure it out - just go straight aftger you get out of town and make sure you can see the coast. Approaching Boka Kotorska was just breath-taking around every turn. We stopped a couple time to take pics and just enjoy. Don't take a tour bus, rent a car. It's easy and so much more fun to have the freedom.

Palazzo Radomiri
Got lost looking for our hotel, but it was fun and we stopped for a fantastic lunch. We stayed at your suggested Palazzo Radomiri and it was the highlight of the trip. I can't say enough good things. It was so quaint and pleasant, with nice views and fabulous personal service. I had no idea, but they have a dining room and breakfast and dinner are INCLUDED. THe website does NOT mention that so it was a huge surprise. We were so tired the 1st nt we decided to eat there thinking it would be expensive and were confused as they sat us down and started bringing food without us ordering. But it was DELICIOUS. Wine was pricey, but overall it was a total steal for meals and room. Note that they now have a 3 nt minimum (not when I reserved though). I have no doubt they will do well and could very well raise rates eventually once they get established, but right now they've only been open for a little over 1 yr. Also note that it is in Dabrota, which is a suburb of Kotor. It's only about a 5 min drive to Kotor center to do tourist things (not really practical to walk), and we didn't plan to be out of the main town but were so excited to be out of that mess of tourists and cruise ships. Highly recommend this hotel.

In Kotor we hiked to the top of the old fort which was fun and more great views. About 1 hour to top, good shoes a must. We also visited nearby town of Perast, which is pretty and interesting. We went to the maritime museum there and had lunch.

Overall both cities and countries were amazing, but we did much prefer Montenegro and would have stayed there a little longer if we had known. I hope everyone enjoys their trips!

bmcc-
Welcome back! I am so excited to hear about your trip, and it makes me look forward to our trip in March even more.

I will def. note your restaurant recommendations, as eating is one of our favorite parts of travel

So glad to hear that Palazzo Radomiri was great. I have been searching for reviews since I came across it and have seen nothing, so I am very glad to hear you had a nice stay there. I think we will definitely book it for our trip.

A couple of questions:
-Did you reserve the car prior to your arrival?
-Do you remember how long the drive took from Dubrovnik to Kotor?

Would love to see pics if you have a chance to post. Thanks again for the report!