Travel from Croatia to Kotor

We decided to rent a car for the day. Found a place within walking distance of the hotel. We stopped along the way and were able to set our own hours going and returning. Only wrinkle was GPS kept trying to get us to turn in to a driveway when we were returning the car. Due to the delay, we actually ended up seeing a beautiful sunset over the ocean… several times! LOL

I’ve been a few times, going back again Thursday, but this time not from Dubrovnik. I have entered from Dubrovnik three times. Each person is different and what they expect and enjoy is different so I may not be much help for you. I’ve stopped in Kotor on 3 occasions and will again next week, but I wouldn’t feel like I got the most out of the trip to Montenegro if I spent 3 nights there. Perast is my favorite town on the bay and as much as I absolutely love it, that would be good for 2 nights for me.

Then how to get there. Again, it’s just preference. I know what is between Dubrovnik and Kotor and wouldn’t want to miss it by sitting on a bus. If all fails rather than make it a day trip, I would drop the idea until I could successfully plan a trip. Maybe do a day or an overnight trip to Mostar instead. A day trip to Kotor is 6+ hours of driving or sitting in a bus for a few hours of “not as good as Dubrovnik” in Kotor. A successful plan opens a country that is, to some of us, much better than Croatia. I am not a RS quality “traveler”, I am just an old-hack tourist but I have still managed to pull off some pretty good self-planned trips the last 25 years to a few dozen countries … still, when it comes to anything in the Balkans I do better with hired help.

We have a member in Montenegro just now. “That Fly Guy” https://community.ricksteves.com/users/63365 Actually, he may have already crossed over into BiH by now. He is dropping some reports along the way, and I suspect he will do a trip report in the next week. Sounds like he is enjoying the trip. Here are some links to his posts, but also search the Montenegro forum:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/montenegro/places-to-check-out-in-montenegro
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/montenegro/looking-for-advice-for-independent-travel-from-dubrovnik-to-montenegro
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/montenegro/winery-in-montenegro
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/montenegro/just-starting-to-think-about-a-trip-to-montenegro-and-croatia

I don’t know how deep you are into your planning, but if you are still flexible look at ending your time in Croatia by flying home, or onward, from Podgorica so you don’t back track. This post has links to several videos of what there is to see in Montenegro. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/croatia/montenegro-day-trip-from-debrovnick-or-enjoy-another-day-in-debrovnick