Itinerary help Dubrovnik - Kotor - Budva - Dubrovnik
 

Visiting Croatia for couple weeks in August and would like to add two days to itinerary for road trip to Montenegro. Would like advise on itinerary. Been reading a lot and having difficult finding specifics. Three guys, good friends, we will be renting a car from Gruz port in dubrovnik. Ideally would like to leave 6/7am ish on a Thursday morning from dubrovnik. Our flight back to Madrid is leaving Dubrovnik at 11:30am on Saturday so we are ok with leaving Montenegro on Saturday morning at ~6am to give us ample time for travel.

1. What would be must sees? How does this sound?
Dubrovnik - cross border - ?worth stopping in Risan (what to do?) - Herceg Novi (grab a coffee and breakfast, ?walk around) - Perast (grab a boat to Our Lady of the Rocks) - drive to Kotor - walk around Old Town - hike to top of Sveti Ivan’s Fortress (better to do old town first and the fortress or vice versa?) - head off to Lovcen/Njegos Mausoleum - ?worth a stop in Njegusi and then Cetinje - head to Budva - check out Sveti Stefan hilltop and sleep in Budva?

2. How could we break up the trip best?
3. Best to sleep in Kotor or Budva Friday night to make the drive back to Dubrovnik airport the easiest?
4. Would it be best to climb the fortress evening closer to sunset when less tourists and cruises likely leave and then sleep in Kotor that night and drive early to Budva or skip Kotor (old town and fortress) in general that first day with exception of driving thru and stopping at villages and completing the route to Budva - sleep in Budva and then the following morning drive back to Kotor see old town, fortress hike and sleep there?
5. Any recommendations for good seafood spots in the little villages (oysters, mussels etc)

Would appreciate any help. Thank you.

I’d climb to the fortress as late in the day as you can and still be sure to have daylight for your return – that hike is steep and essentially shadeless, so it gets very, very, very hot. Bring LOTS of water. I ran out of water, and had to return to Kotor before completing the hike. :(