Visiting Mostar & Medugorje

If you don't have a local guide, it's reasonable to say that the touristed part of Mostar is pretty small, and could be seen in an hour or two (tough cobblestone walking), plus perhaps lunch at an open air restaurant with a view of the rebuilt bridge. AFAIR, the mosque was deconsecrated, to facilitate tourist visits. The real issue is the road travel and two (2) border crossings. Also, Mostar doesn't have the computerized multi-story parking garages that the more developed cities of Europe have ... . You don't say "we're driving ourselves", but it sounds like that. We went to Mostar from/back to Dubrovnik, and each border crossing took well over an hour. I don't know if being on an organized tour (cruise company) bus made it longer or shorter-i.e. cars may have a separate line. Also, there were two gates and two delays at each border crossing i.e. exit and entry. You also need a report on road conditions and navigation difficulty - I can't help with that, since we didn't drive ourselves. Does your car rental company have any "other country" restrictions? Will they repair a breakdown in B-H? Your plan seems theoretically possible, but ambitious. Remember that even in the US, Google Maps doesn't make allowance for road conditions or shopping-strip traffic delays. It assumes you travel at the speed limit all the time. I think Split has a lot of night life, but will your hotel be locked if you get there after 22:00?

Which brings me to the next issue-tourism stops. One advantage of the (often scorned!) organized tour we went on was that there was a rest stop and short walking tour of Počitelj, which we didn't know about. It is quite small, but almost of the same interest as Mostar. I seem to recall that a real "pilgrim" stop at Medugorje involves mountain trail hiking. If you don't have time for that, are you sure you want to go? (Haven't been there.) And while you are "saving time" by making two worthwhile stops on a travel day, you have foreclosed possible stops at Korcula or Hvar. (I will agree that you only need to see x number of Venetian/medieval cities in Croatia ... ) I don't mean to be talking you into anything, just making sure that you're making fully informed decisions. I suggest you look around for a Blog by someone who did your drive. The alternative is an organized bus tour from Dubrovnik.

Thank you for your advice. I am struggling with the transportation options in Croatia. My preference is always to use public transportation whenever feasible because I don't have to worry about car damage, breakdowns, navigating maps, etc. However the travel time by bus is so much longer than drive time. For example, Rick's book shows drive time by car from Dubrovnik to Mostar of about 2.5 hours, by bus is 4-5 hours. However, I am wondering if Rick's drive time took into account the border crossings and delays that you have mentioned. My concern about doing a tour is that I would have to return to the same city. I was kind of hoping I could go from Dubrovnik to Mostar and then on to Split. It sounds like it would be possible by public transportation if we overnight in Mostar. Otherwise I think we would have to day trip from Dubrovnik or Split. If we day trip from one of these cities, is there a benefit to one or the other?

Hi Janice,
I did this tour last Summer:http://www.amico-tours.com/group-excursions/mostar-–-medjugorje-379.html
I loved my guide and would recommend considering this option. I usually dislike tours and like to do everything on my own...but I was travelling solo that Summer and the tour was very affordable...and there were only 4 other person on the tour. We were very comfortable in a mini van and our guide very very knowledgeable.

One day was enough for me for these 2 cities. Could I have used some more time? Of course...but it was worth it and doable in a day for me. The guide knew the roads very well...and we did not wait a long time at the border because he seemed to know people and we went through a less busy post according to him.

While it may be theoretically possible to go from Dubrovnik to Mostar to Medjugorje to Split in a day, it’s very difficult logistically using public transit and severely limits your time to visit those sights. I did this route in 2008, but as an overnight in Mostar and just a change of bus in Medjugorje. I was only able to buy the Dubrovnik to Mostar bus ticket in Dubrovnik. Once in Mostar, I had to find an ATM and get local currency to purchase the Mostar to Split bus ticket. If tickets for later that day are sold out, you’re stuck overnight. While waiting to buy my ticket for next day, that actually happened to a couple trying to buy same-day tickets to Split. Although things may have changed in the past 6 years, the people working at the Mostar bus station spoke very little English, making ticket buying even a bit more challenging. My recommendation would be to overnight in Mostar and then stop in Medjugorje on your way to Split the following day.

Hi Janice, I took the Amico tour too. Driving distances were quite long. Getting from Dubrovnik into Bosnia requires two border crossings because the highway crosses into bosnia, out again to croatia, then back to Bosnia. However, the border crossings were smooth, in fact the immigration officers barely even looked at our passports - maybe because we were a tour group? Difficult to say. It was also great to have a guide explain things and handle all the driving.

I would guess that Rick's overview driving map does not account for border delays. That issue is a wild card that our tour guides and drivers can't predict as well as they would like. At the same time, buses are making stops to take on passengers and for driver breaks every two hours.

We traveled from Dubrovnik to Split via Mostar last year. We had a guide take us because of the time it would take to bus it. This was our first time going anywhere with a guide. It was not that expensive, about 100 euros for the whole day. Our guide picked us up at our sobo, drove us to Ston then on to Medjugorje, to Mostar where we had a delicious lunch and then to Split. He was a wonderful guide and we had a marvelous time. It took about 10 hours, so a full day, but it was amazing. We had no trouble at the border crossing because our guide simply put our passports behind his (they are the same color) and we went right thru. I have heard of people being delayed, but it was not our experience. We loved Croatia and plan to go back someday. The people are very friendly and it is a beautiful country. Happy traveling!