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Night border crossing from Split to Mostar (by rental car)

Hi!

I have a very specific question. Are the road border crossings connecting Split to Mostar open late at night (in May)?

Based on our flight into Split, we will begin driving from Split leaving around 8:15 pm and arriving in Mostar around 10:30 pm. Will we be able to cross the border at night (i.e., how late do the border crossings stay open)?

Also, I read that driving at night in Bosnia isn't recommended due to a lack of street lighting and rural road conditions. Does anyone know if the route Split to Bosnia is okay to drive at night? I'm assuming that road is a fairly large road (not rural) and that headlights on the car will be enough.

Lastly, is there anything else we should be aware of for this drive at night?

Thank you so much!
Jamie

Posted by
11037 posts

Lastly, is there anything else we should be aware of for this drive at night?

Are you arriving from Dallas and planning to to do this drive as it is dark or getting dark?

The darkness is likely to cue your body to go into sleep cycle. Be careful

Posted by
5687 posts

Hi Jamie. I have not driven in Croatia or Bosnia since 2015, but I am fairly sure the busy border crossing between Croatia and Bosnia on the road to Mostar is open 24/7. (But I am I not sure what the requirement is for crossing in Bosnia regarding Covid.)

In 2015, I drove clear across Bosnia over several days. I had been reading prior to my trip warnings about how terrible some of the roads were, but truly by 2015 this was old information - in general the roads were far better than I expected. I didn't drive a lot at night but when I did I don't recall any issues with street lighting, and I wouldn't worry about it at all driving to Mostar.

Posted by
4 posts

Yes yes yes, thank you SO much Andrew! That is exactly what I needed to know. I thought the border might be open 24/7, especially since the larger border crossings have a lot of commercial trucking traffic, but I didn't want to get to the middle of the drive at night and find a closed border.

Thank you for the tip on the jet lag Joe! I could have easily missed that. Luckily we will be flying to Split from Rome. (Current plan Venice (3d) > Florence (3d) > Orvieto/Civita di Bagnoregio (2d) > Rome (3d) > [Rome to Split 1.5h flight] > Mostar (1.5d) > Sarajevo (1.5d) > Dubrovnik (2.5d). Still torn if squeezing in Sarajevo is worth it or if it is too much and we should kill it in order to spend 2d in Mostar and 3.5d in Dubrovnik)

Posted by
5687 posts

Jamie, Dubrovnik is lovely, but the old town is pretty small. Before Covid it was a major tourist mess during the days, much quieter at night. If it's still anything like that, I would want to have day trips planned and not be there all day every day if you have 3.5 days there. But it's a lovely place to come back to at night. I would want to stay close to it so I could be there in the evenings.

Mostar is a great town but it's really small, doesn't take much time to explore. I think two nights would be too much for me. On the other hand, it is kind of a rush to drive all the way up to Sarajevo and back. Tough call there. I might be tempted to spend the first night in Trogir or Split after you arrive instead of rushing to Mostar the same night and pick up the car the next morning. You could stop at Kravice Falls in Bosnia on the way (a slight detour) to Mostar.