Balkan Itinerary

Oct 12th: Depart Mostar for Dubrovnik early via bus (?) Spend a few hours in Dubrovnik (or overnight? I keep hearing that either Dubrovnik is the most amazing place in the world, or a total tourist trap.) Oct 13 - 16th: Finally put down our bags and rest in some charming Croatian coastal town or island, preferrably not too far away from our departure point of Zadar on the 17th. "Sights" not so important here, as nice coastline, good seafood, relaxation! May try to get to Piviltice Lakes if we have the energy, if not, we will probably be returning to Croatia in May. Caveats: I know this is a busy, rushed trip, and we are not giving enough time to places that deserve it (particularly Transylvania, Bucharest, Croatia). This is intended to be a mostly-independently traveled introduction to the region, not a comprehensive trip. We have the advantage of cheap flights to many of these places in case we want to return. That said, I am worried that we might be shortchanging some places regardless. So any tweaks or specific recommendations for villages to stay in - particularly in Transylvania or Dalmatian coast - are welcome. As are restaurant recs in any of the cities we will be visiting!

Stay overnight in Dubrovnik if you can. My experience was that Dubrovnik was a total zoo from about 10am to 5pm when a zillion cruise ship tourists flooded the place. After 5pm, they all went back to their boats and the city was delightful.

Run a check if you can get a direct train between Belgrade and Sarajevo. When we did this 3-4 years ago, the train wasn't a good option though we did it in the opposite direction - taking over 10 hrs and involving a long transfer in the middle of the night while the direct bus was comfortable and took about 6 hrs.

Arnold: Yeah, there isn't a direct train, but rather an overnight train to a Serbian border town, then a 6:45 am bus that goes to Belgrade in 2 hours. I realize for this leg a bus would be faster, but was hoping to save on hotel/deal with the long transit leg at night. Still realize it won't exactly be an easy day in Belgrade in the morning, though. Laura: Yeah, I also have been reading that Dubrovnik isn't nearly as crazy touristy this time of year, so I might reconsider staying there. I'm also looking at a night in Cavat, which is a 10 minute bus ride away from Dubrovnik.

Do you have your accommodations in Mostar? If not, I really recommend Majdas. It is the best hostel I've stayed at. They will even pick you up at the bus/train station. Multi ages-not a place to party, home like! Enjoy your trip. I've been to the Balkans twice and am going back in the summer! Love you hear a report.

Try Busteni Romania, on the way from Bucharest to Brasov.

Sarah, I just left Dubrovnik this morning and can speak to the crowd issue. On two of our six days there, there were 6000+ cruise ship passengers and they really impacted the town. You can check the port counts easily - the Port of D. publishes the cruise arrivals and passenger counts for the entire year. You can easily link to it at a website called something like croatiatraveler.com. It's easy to find:) October 12th and 13th have about 6000 passengers due and so if you can do a day before or after, you might be happier. And I know people are mixed about Dubrovnik, but I vote that it's magical in the same way Venice is, if that helps at all. We stayed right in the Old Town and wandered everywhere else - and I was very happy with our location choice. We went to Cavtat and it was beautiful, but since you're spending time in other small towns up the coast, I would just bus over for an hour and then spend the rest of the time in Dubrovnik.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! We've finally got our itinerary and lodging nailed down (well, almost all of it, lol) and we leave tomorrow. Will do a trip report when we get back!