Travelling from Belgrade to Dubrovnij

International car rentals (picking up in one country and returning in another) usually come with extremely high surcharges (the add-on cost sometimes exceeding 1000 euros), so the first thing to do is determine whether the cost of such a rental will be affordable for you. You'll also need to verify the rental company allows its cars to be taken into Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia; sometimes there are border-crossing restrictions in that part of Europe.

Insurance covering all the pertinent countries is something else you'll need to check on. That's probably the likeliest border hang-up. I've seen some back-ups at borders in the Balkans due to heavy traffic; they looked as if they could slow you down, but the ones I observed weren't horrendous. I don't know how predictable they are.

You can check projected driving times on the ViaMichelin.com website. I see Beograd-Sarajevo estimated at about 5 hours. A bus would take more like 7 or 8 hours. I researched public transportation earlier this year and ended up axing Sarajevo from my itinerary because the travel time was out of line with the (inadequate) amount of time I would have had in Sarajevo.

Air Serbia has flights from Beograd to Sarajevo. You can find schedules on skyscanner.com. I haven't researched the reliability or safety record of that airline.

I believe ferries from Dubrovnik to Budva are quite infrequent and limited to high season only. Globtour runs several buses a day between the two, taking about 2-1/2 hours, but they don't travel all the way around the Bay of Kotor, which seems a shame to me from the tourist perspective. The Bay of Kotor is one of Europe's most gorgeous sights. You'd also miss most of the views on a ferry. I'd be highly tempted to take a bus from Dubrovnik to Kotor and then connect to a Kotor-Budva bus in order to get the full view of the Bay, but that would take considerably more time than a direct bus or a ferry.

I don't know how much time you have for traversing Sarajevo, Mostar and Dubrovnik. I'd want quite a bit to cover that territory. Air Serbia has flights from Beograd to Podgorica, the (rather dull) capital of Montenegro, from which bus service is available to Budva. I imagine private transfers can also be arranged easily.

Personally, I prefer Kotor (even with a large cruise ship in port) to what I consider over-developed Budva, but I may be in the minority there.

Another option is the Beograd-Bar railway, an all-day trip whose southern portion is highly scenic. There's a stop in Podgorica, but there should be bus connections from Bar to Budva. Again, private transfers are probably available.

There are a lot of interesting stops down the coast of Montenegro. Dubrovnik to Budva ..... and well beyond ... is one I would do by car for certain (Stari Bar, Ulcinj for instance). At the end I will put the name of a trip planner / guide that might be able to help with the whole plan from Belgrade on ...

Sarajevo, yes, absolutely and if there is a flight from Belgrade, then do it that way. If seeing Sarajevo and more or Montenegro means skipping Belgrade, do that.

Montenegro and Bosnia are inexpensive. You can pretty much do private driver/guides and nicer hotels for about the same cost as the bus and 3star hotels in Western Europe. The advantage is, this opens up more and more easily.

And there is another option to reach Montenegro from Belgrade: https://europebetweeneastandwest.wordpress.com/2020/08/31/tunnel-vision-the-bar-to-belgrade-railway-yugoslavias-greatest-achievement-a-balkan-affair-19/ Then you could go up the coast to Dubrovnik then Mostar then Sarajevo and fly out from there.

Dijana Krkotic
Guide & Tour Designer
Doclea Travel
+382 69 277 749
[email protected]
www.docleatravel.com

Thank you for that information. Very useful.

A favorite corner for me. I was in Bosnia once again a few months ago, and heading back to Montenegro for maybe the 5th trip in a few weeks. But I have little use for Belgrade right now.