How can 265 kilometres take 5 and a half hours to drive? Easily, it turned out. The epic trek from Tirana in Dubrovnik through the entire country of Montenegro was certainly an experience. We decided to add Dubrovnik to our itinerary because a) Rich is a huge game of thrones fan and b) I had no say in the matter whatsoever. I suppose it would have been a shame to go so close to Dubrovnik and not actually visit – and also meant we got to visit another country – Croatia.
Leaving Tirana in the morning, we drove all the way up the main northern highway in Albania – which turned out to be 100km of single track roads, with one 10km dual carriageway. We eventually reached Shkoder – Albania’s northern city and close to the border with Montenegro. Turning away from the main road traffic, we headed for the hills and the Montenegro border. As we were going to be staying in Montenegro for 4 days after Dubrovnik, we decided to bypass the main tourist attractions of Kotor and Budva at this time, and return to visit them from Podgorica. As we didn’t want to drive back so far south again however, this felt like a good time to stop off at Stari Bar (Bar Old Town) in the hills above the port of Bar. Stari Bar is a pretty mountainside fortress, but given its easy access to Bar port, it was clearly item number one on the cruise ship itinerary.
The mountains of Stari Bar, in the clouds
We continued the long drive up the coastal roads, which offer depressingly slow progress given their slow speed limits and congested traffic. We passed the port town of Petrovac and then I got to witness something I had always wanted to see – Sveti Stefan. Sveti Stefan is a small islet occupied nowadays by a 5* luxury resort (private and inaccessible) – but with a beautiful public beach and central area. Driving down the hairpins toward the coast offered some fantastic views – and we decided to take a break from driving and stop for lunch. In the South of France it wouldn’t have been feasible to stop for lunch without selling the car for finances, but luckily in Montenegro we were able to eat at a nice beach restaurant for relatively little expense. Feeling relaxed, we continued our journey north.
The view of Sveti Stefan
Continuing north, we eventually reached Tivat, and took a car ferry across the Bay of Kotor. Whilst for the other passengers this was an everyday occurrence, for us it was a novel experience to be on a car ferry crossing a beautiful Southeast European fjord, in Montenegro, in the sunshine. Most of the way through the journey now, it was a short drive to the EU frontier at the Croatian border, and a short drive to reach Dubrovnik. With an EU passport, entering Croatia was easy – but obviously disappointing as no stamps (collecting passport stamps and analysing them after every crossing becomes a bit of an obsession). We eventually found our apartment in the new town of Dubrovnik and settled down for some real sightseeing.
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