Perast and Kotor: Exploring Montenegro In One Day 2025

One thing is for sure: we looked like tourists in the conspicuous black Mercedes van that had taken us hundreds of miles from Zagreb, Croatia’s capital, to Ljubljana and Lake Bled in Slovenia and then back down the Croatian coast into Dalmatia. 

Our road trip through the Balkans was a grand adventure. We didn’t expect such natural beauty and impressive architecture left by the Romans, Ottomans, and Venetians.

The day before, en route from Split to Dubrovnik, we stopped in Mostar, a picture-perfect, lost-in-time town in the mountainous country of Bosnia & Herzegovina. We saw old Ottoman bridges, mosques and minarets, and Eastern Orthodox churches, a sight you won’t see in many places aside from Sarajevo, also known for its religious diversity. Afterward, we visited Ston, Croatia, and climbed the ramparts high above the old town’s salt flats. We checked into our hotel in Dubrovnik, Croatia, that night, and today, we were squeezing in this day trip to Montenegro. We had yet to see Dubrovnik.