While you’re in the south of Croatia, it’s pretty common to day trip from Dubrovnik to Bosnia and Herzegovina or Montenegro, or both. While we were in Dubrovnik we did both these day trips with Get Your Guide and while they’re both so wonderful, they’re very different too!
If you only have time for one day trip, we’ll help you decide which one is right for you.
First, let’s go through a bit about each of the day trips:
Mostar and Kravica Falls
Book here.
Cost: €45 per person, plus €10 for entry to the falls (optional) and €3 per person tourist tax (paid in cash on the day)
Length of day trip: 12 hours
Amount of time spent driving: 5 – 6 hours (not including time spent waiting at the border)
Day Overview
We were picked up at 6:40am in Dubrovnik old town and driven across the border into Bosnia and Herzegovina. The tour guide will take your passport early in the day and give it back after each border crossing. This is so the border crossings can be as smooth as possible. We drove for a couple of hours before arriving in Mostar, where we had a local guide give us a 45 minute tour of the city. We then had 2 hours of free time, which we used to find some lunch and explore. Two hours was plenty of time as Mostar isn’t that big.
If you want to know more details about what to do in Mostar, check out our post here.
After leaving Mostar, we drove to Kravica Falls, where we paid €10 for entry. This is optional, but we felt it was worth it as the falls were beautiful. People who chose not to enter were allowed to stay on the bus, or there is a cafe that you can visit. After some bus trouble and a delay at the border, we got in late around 8pm. The normal return time is around 6:30-7:00pm. Definitely don’t plan on this though, and book a flight for that evening like some people did on our tour 🙈
City Architecture and Landscape
We found the architecture of Mostar so fascinating! Mostar is a mix of Slavic and Turkish architecture which is so interesting to see. It is really different from anywhere else we’ve seen, especially Dubrovnik where we came from in the morning. Of course the Stari Most bridge is absolutely amazing, and if you’re lucky you might even see some professional divers jump from it! The landscape is very hilly but the flora is very flat and bushey. It wasn’t the most scenic drive, but you do follow the coast for a while, which is beautiful.
Food
The food is also a mix of Slavic and Turkish cultures with a lot of meats, pita bread and baklava.
Kotor and Perast
Book here.
Cost: €45 per person, plus €2 city tax to enter Kotor (paid in cash on the day)
Length of day trip: 12 hours
Time spent driving: Around 5 hours (not including time spent waiting at the border) and around 1 hour on boats
Day Overview
Similar to the Mostar day trip, we boarded our tour bus at 6:40am in Dubrovnik old town. We drove across the Montenegran border and had a brief rest stop, then continued on to our first stop, Perast. We had a bit of time to wander around before boarding a boat to visit Our Lady of the Rocks. From there we took a 45 minute boat to Kotor where we had a 30 minute guided tour from a local guide and then 3 hours of free time. After that we drove back to Dubrovnik and arrived around 6:30pm so right on time. We also have a post about what you can do with your time in Kotor here.
City Architecture and Landscape
The architecture of Perast and Kotor is quite similar to a lot of other European towns in our opinion. While they’re absolutely beautiful, if you’ve been to a cute old town with winding small streets behind some ancient walls, Kotor isn’t going to seem too different to you. However, the mountains around Perast and Kotor Bay are absolutely STUNNING and completely surprised us!
Food
Our guide told us that there’s not a lot of vegetarian options in Kotor so is definitely more for the meat eaters. We also saw a lot of seafood and Italian options so lots to choose from if you’re okay to eat meat.
Which One Should You Choose?
As both have roughly the same amount of driving, are the same length days and are almost the same price, deciding between them really comes down to what experience you’re after. If you’re after something completely different from Dubrovnik, go for the Bosnia and Herzegovina day trip as Mostar is unique and beautiful, and you also get to experience a bit of nature with the waterfalls. However if you love those cute European towns behind city walls (and who doesn’t) with some stunning mountainous scenery, go for the Montenegro one.
Either way you’re going to have a fantastic time exploring a small part of a new country for the day and you’re going to have some great memories from it.
Let us know which one you pick or if you decide to do both!
If you want to see in more detail how our day trips went, you can check out our vlogs:
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