Nicest road from Plitvice to Kotor

Just a "heads up". Keep this in mind if you go to or from Kotor Montenegro. From Kotor there is a certain road that leads away from the bay inland. The views are spectacular. But, It goes up the side of a steep mountain and has 25 numbered 180 degree switchback turns and at least 75 other sharp turns. Rock wall on one side and nothing on the other. Can't remember the name or number of the road, but it went to the towns of Njegusi and Cetinje. Don't mean to rain on you parade, but don't want you to get into a hairy situation without any knowledge. If anyone in your party is prone to motion sickness or has a problem with heights you might want to avoid this road. You can go to bing.com, use the map feature, and see aerial views of the road from &*$$.

I have only used buses (and occasionally trains) in Croatia and Montenegro, so I can't give you a driver's perspective.

ViaMichelin recommends a route that runs fairly near the coast and estimates the driving time (possibly optimistically) at about 8 hours. The second option it gives is a much more inland route through Sarajevo, estimated at about 12 hours.

The sort-of-coastal route takes you near Zadar, a city of some size with a lovely medieval district on a peninsula and a couple of interesting modern monuments, one of which needs to be seen after sunset. Worth a long stop. Zadar does get a lot of tourists; I suspect many are day-trippers but am not sure. This would be a great overnight spot if you're driving away from Plitvice in the afternoon. Obviously, you'd need to consider the location of your lodging carefully. Where will you park? How easy will it be to walk to the old town, or is there a bus option?

The route then passes near Sibenik, which I haven't seen, but it is described as "historic", so I assume it is worth a visit. Then you have Split (one of the top sights in Croatia), then Dubrovnik. All along the coast there are places I've never heard of with ferries running to a nearby island, though I think Split offers the most options. Probably some of the ships do not take vehicles. I assume you'll want to see at least one of the islands.

The last bit of the trip takes you around much of the spectacular Kotor Bay. Definitely do this part during daylight hours. In that area Herceg Novi and the much smaller Perast are worth stopping at.

You will drive across part of Bosnia-Hercegovina on the way, so be sure your car rental authorizes visiting that country as well as Montenegro. Mostar and the more distant Sarajevo (both in B-H) are worth a side trip but I suspect you may not have time.

Montenegro is a small country and has much of interest. Distances are short. I liked Cetinje a lot, but I did not have to drive the road from Kotor. Ulcinj is a town of Turkish aspect well to the south. Budva is nice but I felt it was quite similar to Kotor. (And I think it is James E who has pointed out that Dubrovnik and Kotor are pretty similar themselves.)