When we were putting together our European itinerary we thought it would be easy enough to fly directly from Athens, Greece to Dubrovnik, Croatia considering they are only separated by 3 bordering countries. Unfortunately, it was very expensive and not all that common so we came across a company called Med Experience who ran a road trip between the two countries.
As this was an organized tour the below post is more a recount of our experiences VS the top tips/things to do in each city/country.
By doing the road trip, we got to see 2 more countries (Albania and Montenegro) and save some money in the meantime. 1400km later, a whole lot of sing a longs & 3 countries in 4 days we arrived in Croatia! The visits in each country were short but enough to get a taste of them.
The drive was long, tiring at times but amazing at others. Our group was made up of mainly Aussies but also a few from the USA, NZ and Peru. We were lucky to get another awesome group of people to hang with for the duration of the trip. Talking to new people, getting to know them and their travels is always so fun, everyone has a story, everyone’s doing or done something similar to you, and it’s a great way to hear any tips for areas people have been to already.
Day 1: Greece
Driving from Athens towards Albania was by far the longest leg of the 4 days. Greece is MASSIVE!
One of the first stops whilst still in Greece was a visit to the town of Delphi, an archaeological site and a modern town in upper Central Greece. Delphi was an important ancient Greek religious sanctuary sacred to the god Apollo. The sanctuary was home to the famous oracle of Apollo which gave cryptic predictions and guidance to both city-states and individuals. In addition, Delphi was also home to the panhellenic Pythian Games. It was a very interesting tour and we learnt a lot about the history, myths and how to read the Greek script on the rocks.
Jacob was very excited to also go by Thermopylae. Thermopylae is a narrow strip of coast at the foot of a range of mountains in east-central Greece. It was the site of an unsuccessful Spartan stand against the Persians in 480 bc. It was also made famous by Hollywood’s movie 300. “This! Is! Sparta!”
We spent the night in a small Greek village by the name of Kalambaka.
Day 2: Greece to Albania
We had an early start from Kalambaka to visit a pretty spectacular Monastery in Meteora, perched high on a mountain. The rocks here reminded us of Göreme in Cappadocia with their shape and formations. It was a magnificent view from the top of the Monastery and a pretty sweet place to take photos on top of the neighbouring rocks.
As our Greece portion was coming to an end we enjoyed having one last Gyro in the mountain town of Kastoria before we hit the Albanian border.
Unfortunately, being on a strict schedule we only had the one evening the explore the town of Tirana, Albania’s capital. First impressions, however, were good. It was a very lively city with a lot of bars and restaurants & a beautiful park that we were able to get some much-needed exercise in.
Our favourite thing about Albania? It was so cheap! We had a 3-course dinner and 2 drinks and paid €11 for everything, a 1L Smirnoff vodka bottle was €10, 2L of beer for €1.79, and a grocery shop done for under €15. Winning!
The tour company organized our accommodation at all the places we visited, so here we stayed at Milingona Hostel Tirana. It was very basic but in a good location for easy access to town. We would have loved to have seen the coastline and beaches of Albania but we didn’t have time on this trip.
Day 3: Albania to Montenegro
Crossing yet another border we reached Montenegro. Montenegro wasn’t as cheap as Albania but it was still cheap. We had some more free time in Montenegro so we hit up the beach. We went to the beach known as the “big beach” by the name of Velika Plaza. A very long sandy beach stretching 8 miles.
They had water sports here so we took the opportunity to go tubing again. I, however, wished she hadn’t this time around as it was so damn fast. If only we had captured the facial expressions!
We were pulled by a jet ski this time rather than a boat and with no communication between us and the driver, he whipped us around like rag dolls, we were flying in the air, smacking the water, flipping over and about losing my swimmer’s bottoms. Jacob found this tubing experience a complete thrill, but Emily called it quits and went in early!
Our favourite part of the trip was staying in the town of Kotor in Montenegro (shown above). Kotor is part of the World Heritage Site dubbed the Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of Kotor. If you are prepared to climb up 1400 stairs then you should make the hike to the top of Kotor’s Castle Of San Giovanni.
It’s recommended to go early for free entry and to avoid the excessive heat. Unfortunately, a very late night out for us meant a late sleep in the morning so we missed this but 2 people from our group climbed to the top to touch the flag.
We stayed at Montenegro Hostel 4U and it was awesome. A real party hostel which we were not expecting in this small town. The hostel was located just outside the old town of Kotor and directly on the water. The Old Town had numerous restaurants and bars and we went on a pub crawl with everyone from the hostel. To our surprise, there was a rather big club here (Maximus) that we all went to and finished off the night with the group.
After leaving Montenegro it was time for us to cross the Croatian border and head to the city of Dubrovnik where we will take a cruise with Sail Croatia for 8 days to many different Croatian Islands.
Married days survived: 142
Photos
Hi Guys,
I stumbled on your blog which is exactly the trip we are planning to do me and my partner.
Looks amazing!
We were thinking of traveling via Montenegro, Croatia, then Austria. My only issue was that i can’t find any car rentals that have one-way deals. There is no way we can come back to Athens to drop off a car.
According to your blog you did a road trip, therefore had a car/van, did you bring the car back to Greece or did you leave it in Montenegro? if so, how did you guys do that?
Thanks for taking time to read.
Cheers,
Jess
Hey Jessica !
Ah very exciting that you and your partner plan to do the same trip. It is the best thing we ever did and are still doing ! 🙂 As for the road trip, we actually went with an organised company called MED experience. It was a mini bus with 8 of us I believe. It worked very well and was very cost effective. I’m not too sure of renting a car but I do know that people often buy 2nd hand cars and then re sell them when they are finished with their euro road trip. I am not sure how long you plan to travel for but it could be a possibility as I am sure the car rentals will be very pricey with cross country one way drop offs. I hope this helps some way and thanks for reading our posts! Have a fantastic trip!
Hi!
Great review!! I’m looking to do this exact trip with Med-Experience in about a month. I was ready to book and decided to do a search and came across some very awful reviews that have started to give me some second thoughts (complaints of bed bugs and spending pretty much all the time driving). I’m glad to see at least two individuals enjoyed their trip.
Hey Alicia,
Shame to see some bad reviews, although there are always going to be bad reviews about everything these days ha! There was a lot of driving, yes, but they stopped regularly along the route and sometimes travel isn’t about getting from A-B the quickest way. You see things you may never see going by car and you don’t have the stress of navigating yourself to do so or having to drive yourself so it is much more enjoyable. Bed bugs are the worst, there is no doubt about that! I’m interested to know where you read that review? in one of the hotels they stay at?
Hi Emily,
Your absolutely right, there is nothing quite like driving through a country. They were on tripadvisor and I think the bed bugs comment was on a facebook review. I think I’m going to chance it. If there is bed bugs well at least I will get a good story out of it :). Love your blog and thanks for responding!
Hi Alicia,
Yep exactly and you will be one of the few people that see the “back” of those countries that not every traveler gets to see by flying right over it all! Plus, you have the chance to meet some other awesome travelers. Bed bugs are my worst nightmare, unfortunately I had them in Colombia twice ( https://justglobetrotting.com/the-flip-side-of-traveling-lessons-learnt-part-2/ ) and at the time I thought the trip was over but they are only temporary and fortunately, although disgusting and itchy, they aren’t life threatening and are all too common with travel and part of the adventure (in a weird way haha)
Thanks again for following! Have a fantastic time and let us know how it is 🙂
Hi Jacob and Emily,
I read you blog with great interest as I plan to do the same trip ( from Croatia to Grease) in my camper van and was interested in possible security problems.
It doesn’t seem to have been a problem for you at all and I was wondering if you had any misgivings at any time during your trip or was that down to the tour organisers?
Any way, thanks for a great blog.
All the best,
Christopher.
Hello Christopher,
I am so sorry for the delayed response, somehow these comments were lost in cyberspace and I am only just discovering them now!
When do you plan on doing your trip? We did ours with a tour company so I am not sure of the logistics of this trip, however, if you are renting a car, I do know there are sometimes problems with the crossing of the countries so be sure to check with the rental company before you hire. If you are driving yourself in your own vehicle then you shouldn’t run into any problems just don’t break any rules 😉
Also, at the borders, they can be quite strict and take quite some time to process you through so allow extra time for this.
If you haven’t gone already, enjoy! If you have, apologizes again for the delay!
Hey Guys,
I know this is an old blog post but hoped you could shed somebody light. I am looking at doing the same drive in reverse but with my own car I’ve bought. What’s the drive like through Albania in particularly Tirana? I heard can be kind of sketchy?
Thanks
Hey Harry,
As we did this with a tour company, we felt safe the entire time (it was also 2 years ago). However, some friends of ours recently tried to do the same trip and found it was very difficult logistically with rental cars crossing borders. If you have your own car it may be slightly easier but just be prepared to spend some time at the borders! Goodluck.
I delight in reading through your blog site. It was rather thrilling. 🙂
Hello! Looks like this agency does not allow children. Can you make a recommendation of a touring company that does allow kids following this same route – Greece to Croatia?
Hey Bonnie,
Unfortunately, we don’t have any other recommendations for tour agencies that allow children. This was one of the only tour companies we could find that did this trip unless you went for a private tour. I’m sorry we can’t be of more help!
Hello there!
I loved the way you described your trip, you must have had a wonderful time travelling through all those countries. I was thinking of doing something similar this upcoming July with a tour company, but my main concern is crossing Albania as I have heard that some roads are not in a good shape and also that the locals sometimes drive a bit crazy. What was your experience of all that?
Hey Jenny. We did it with a tour company on a bus and it was totally fine. I don’t recall the roads being awful at all. Make sure if you are driving yourself the rental car company knows you will be border crossing as some don’t allow this! However, if you are doing it with a tour, you’ll be sweet. The drivers know the roads very well 🙂 Have fun!
Hi, great blog and information. I want to do a similar type of trip. Can you suggest a company which conducts the same. Thanks and cheers..
I am not sure of other companies aside from the one mentioned in the post.
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