Visiting Kotor and Mostar from Dubrovnik

Posted by boboz on 03/14/18 04:57 AM

We will have a car while traveling in Croatia and would like to see Kotor, Montenegro and Mostar in Bosnia. We are thinking of doing a day tour to Kotor and trying to decide if one can see enough on one's own, or does one need a guided tour. Is the language a problem.

We are allso now thinking of driving from Dubrovnik to Mostar and spending the night and then going on to Zadar. Is a guided tour recommended for Mostar, or could we use our tour books and do it on our own? If a guide is recommended, could anyone recommend a local guide to do that. The other option is to get a day tour from Dubrovnik.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Posted by Andrew H.

Portland, Oregon

03/14/18 05:05 AM

5687 posts

You can certainly tour both Kotor and Mostar yourselves - I did. I spent a night in each one. Occasionally people did not speak English but it was not a problem for me. You can get by. I wouldn't worry about the language issue unless you are planning a lot of interaction with the locals. If you hire guides, obviously they will speak English.

I think spending a night in Kotor will give you more time to see more without rushing so much. The scenery around the Bay of Kotor is amazing. You can also take the twisty scenic route from Kotor through the mountains to Cetinje - very twisty with many hair-pin turns some would find scary, but I personally had no problem driving it.

Both Mostar and Kotor get many day-trippers. So you might enjoy them more by staying a night when they are much more quiet.

Posted by acraven

Washington DC

03/14/18 07:14 AM

28066 posts

Kotor sometimes gets monster cruise ships. You want to avoid those days if at all possible. Googling for port information may turn up the info you need.

Because of the cruise load, there are lots of folks in the tourist industry in Kotor who speak some English. I think you'll be fine from the standpoint of communication.

In addition to Cetinje, I also enjoyed Herceg-Novi, which is just off the highway before you get to Kotor.

I haven't been to Mostar for a long time and do not know what the linguistic situation is. I'd be more inclined to take a tour to Mostar than to Kotor, because I think background information is probably more important to your understanding of what you see in Mostar. But I'm sure you could join some sort of guided tour once you get to Mostar. (Check TripAdvisor for information, or just Google.)

You'll need to advise your car-rental company of your plans to drive into Bosnia-Herzegovina and/or Montenegro.

Posted by TC

Atlanta

03/14/18 03:31 PM

5196 posts

To add to what Andrew H. posted:

The road from Kotor to Njegusi and Cetinje goes away from the bay inland. The views are spectacular. Unbelievably beautiful. But, It goes up the side of a steep mountain, has 25 numbered 180 degree switchback turns, and at least 75 other sharp turns. There is a rock wall on one side and nothing on the other. If anyone in your party is prone to motion sickness, or has a problem with heights, you might want to avoid this road. Don't mean to rain on your parade, just don't want you to underestimate that road and unknowingly get into a hairy situation. You can go to bing.com, use the map feature, and see aerial views of the road. You can also check it out on googlemaps.com. It is possible, however, to go to and from Kotor with using that particular road. There was a thread titled on 12 Mar. 2017 titled "Greece Montenegro Croatia". Someone posted a link to a map that shows the road. Another person had a link to a video made along parts of the road.