Dubrovnik Day Trips - Montenegro? Mostar? Medugorje?
 

Hello- I am going to be spending 4 nights in Dubrovnik in September 2009. Now I am thinking about upping that to 5 nights to do day trips! If time is limited, what is your opinion as a "must see" trip - Montenegro vs. Mostar? Keep in mind that I am a photographer. I am Catholic and wonder about the significance of a visit to Medugorje? Also, can 2 or more of these sites be "combined" into one day trip to limit time? Also, any recommendations for tour companies or private drivers of the above trips? Is it better for me to arrange these tours before I arrive in Dubrovnik - lets say over the internet? Or, should I wait until I arrive to check things out locally?

We drove ourselves to both Medugorje and then Mostar from Dubrovnik. We stayed the night in Mostar. We found both places very interesting. Couldnt get over the number of people,tour buses at Medugorje. Lots of companies do the combined tour out of Dubrovnik,it would be a long day. We didnt get to Montenegro.You could make the decision when you arrive in Dubrovnik.

Tough choice. Objectively, if you ask me, Montenegro (and especially Kotor) is nicer than Mostar. But Mostar is very different from Dubrovnik, whereas Kotor is another beautiful town along the coast. If you prefer variety over beauty: Mostar; beauty over variety: Montenegro.
Montenegro is easy to reach by bus, see http://www.libertasdubrovnik.com/voznired.swf

http://www.croatiancrescent.blogspot.com/

Here are some pics from Dub. and Kotor---we loved the Kotor bay. Good luck !
http://www.slowphotos.com/photo/show...882&page=3

Mostar and Medugorje are very different from Montenegro. We did all three last March and enjoyed each in a different way. The drive around the Bay of Kotor to Kotor was very beautiful. It didn't take that long from Dubrovnik, but we did get held up at the border crossing for quite a while (not sure why as the line wasn't very long). Montengro had a much different feel than Croatia - life seems a little harder there but it was certainly an interesting and beautiful place to visit.

Bosnia, too, was very different from Croatia. We stopped at both Mostar and Medugorje on our drive from Sarajevo back to Dubrovnik. While I preferred Sarajevo to Mostar, I think Mostar would be a good day trip.

We are Catholic so Medugorje was a must see while we were in Bosnia. It is a pretty easy stop on the way from Mostar to Dubrovnik. I think you could do both in the same day. We were there on Good Friday so it was slammed with people. A really neat place, though, with quite an interesting story.

We didn't go to Mostar as we had to make the same decision you are now contemplating, but we were fascinated by Kotor in Montenegro and never regretted the decision to go there. We rented a car and the drive around the Bay has stunning scenery-- perfect for landscape photography. I would not have liked to have been on a tour bus because there were so many places to stop for photos and we wouldn't have been able to do that with a tour group. The small villages were oh so quaint and lovely and we loved Kotor. It is ripe with change and I'd love to see it again in 10 years or so to see what it is like then. It seems that with either destination you will get something a bit different than anything you have seen before, so you really can't go wrong....

Since you are Catholic, you might enjoy Perast, in Montenegro (on the road before you get to Kotor). You can take a boat out to the Catholic church in the fjord. The view is amazing, and the story behind the church is very interesting as well. Perast is like a Catholic outpost in Orthodox Montenegro. It is the most beautiful place that I've seen!

thefinleydog - I think the fact that he is a photographer may influence his joy with Perast even more! Also, The Boka Bay or the Bay of Cattaro used to be a predominantly Catholic till the later years. orthodox Montenegrins are a different nation than the Bokeljs in Boka Bay.