During our Albanian travels we met a few cyclists who told us they had experienced difficult riding in Montenegro, mostly because of the highways and fast drivers. So we decided to skip some of those parts and take a bus from Shkoder, our last stop in Albania, to the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro. A friend we met in Gjipe told us we had to go there, that it was very romantic. That’s pretty much all we knew when we got on the bus, and as with so much of our trip, we were happily surprised with an incredible place. First, the bus ride to Kotor was a joyous trip through a beautiful country. Laura especially was taken with Montenegro. Green mountains and gorgeous coastline. We were bummed to have to skip some of it, but definitely want to return to explore more of it someday.
As we passed Budvah, a surreal looking beach spot beloved by vacationers, we thought about getting off the bus there because it seemed so awesome. But we decided we’d had plenty of beach party time in Albania and stayed on the bus until Kotor. We are happy we did because the Bay of Kotor is magical and we got to spend a few days there. We actually were only planning on one night in Kotor itself but we changed it to two immediately when we arrived. We had no idea it was even a popular tourist spot, but the big cruise ship clued us in right away. Despite the crowds, the old walled fortress and town are a delight. The bay is beautiful and we had the best time walking up the fortress walls, kayaking in the bay, and checking out the old town. We snagged a room with a sweet old lady who spoke no English but was a dear and fed us grapes (that were hanging around her terrace) for breakfast.
We reluctantly left town after two days, but were stoked to bike around the edge of the bay, a chill coast side ride for a couple of days, and eventually over our first international border on bikes! Albania and Montenegro borders had both happened by bus, so we were stoked to get our first bike border crossing under our belts. It was a brutal ride with some good climbs but as we sailed into Croatia we were beaming.
The beaming didn’t last long because we had more climbs to conquer. It was pretty rough so we decided to skip the last 10k of climbing and catch a boat into our next destination – Dubrovnik!
We were able to catch a boat pretty quickly from Cavtat to Dubrovnik. The guys who worked at the dock hilariously just threw our bikes on top of the boat and went on their way. The sea was rough so everyone on the boat was worried that our bikes would fall off, but we all (bikes included) made it safely to old town.
We spent four nights in Dubrovnik, an awesome and ancient walled town on the Croatian coast. The first couple of days we explored marinas, parks, and beaches in the area, briefly stopping in the old town to discover what would become an everyday obsession – spinach and cheese bureks, an amazingly delicious pastry we haven’t seen anywhere but Croatia. Another day we decided to forgo the many options for pricey Game of Thrones tours and made our own based on web research. We spent the day visiting sites where the show films, which also happened to be some of the best spots to visit in town anyways, so it worked out. We walked the fortress walls early and checked out some really neat old parts of the town, stopping in several museums and bars along the way. We also learned a lot about the fight for Croatian independence and the breakup of Yugoslavia, including attacks on Dubrovnik itself in the early 90’s.
Dubrovnik is a beautiful place with so much to offer in terms of history, picturesque architecture, and a gorgeous surrounding landscape. But after dealing with throngs of tourists for several days, we were fine with leaving. It’s a place we would definitely go back to though, because there is so much to explore, including several nearby islands and other fun day trips that we missed this time around.
Time to move on to the rest of the Dalmatian coast.
Kotor to Dubrovnik
