I followed our own Balkans route through the guide word for word, and it still surprised me. Exploring the Balkans by van means constant small decisions: which coast road to take, where to sleep, when to cross a border before the queue builds — and somehow, even with a plan in hand, every day still felt like it was choosing itself.
Split to Dubrovnik, Slower Than Planned
The plan said two nights in Split. We stayed three, mostly because the walk through Diocletian’s Palace at 7am, before the shutters roll up on the souvenir shops, is worth doing twice. From there the coastal road toward Dubrovnik unspools between karst cliffs and the Adriatic, and the campsite recommendations from our own guide led us to a gravel pull-off south of Ston that no map app had flagged — oyster shells underfoot, the old city walls visible across the bay at sunset.
Kotor and the Border Crossings
Crossing into Montenegro at Karasovici took eleven minutes. Kotor Bay does look like a fjord, exactly as promised, and the climb up to the fortress above the old town left my legs shaking for two days afterward — completely worth it for the view straight down onto the terracotta roofs and the boats threading in from the open Adriatic.
Albania, Unexpectedly
We hadn’t planned to cross into Albania at all, but the border at the southern edge of Montenegro was quieter than expected, and the Riviera around Himare turned out to be the best two nights of the whole trip — a beach with maybe a dozen other people on it, a family-run grill by the harbour, and fuel prices that made the rest of the trip’s budget feel generous by comparison.
My heart genuinely beats stronger out here. If you’re weighing whether to attempt a version of this route yourself, our 10-day Balkans border loop guide is the one I actually used, camp spots and all, and the full Balkans road trip write-up has the border-crossing details in one place.
What We’d Do Differently
Next time we’d budget two extra days for the border queues in July, since we underestimated how long the Albanian crossing can run in peak season, and we’d bring more small-denomination euros — cards weren’t reliably accepted at the smaller coastal campsites in Montenegro.
Photo by Marie Volkert on Unsplash.
