Journey
The Adriatic Run
Venice to Dubrovnik the long way round
19 days · 8 stops · 5 countries · 911 km in a straight line
Down the eastern Adriatic, which has the Mediterranean's clearest water and its least developed coastline. The route leaves the sea twice on purpose — into Slovenia's karst and into Bosnia — because the interior is where the layers are: Venetian, Ottoman, Habsburg and Yugoslav, sometimes in the same street. Ferries and buses, not trains, from Split onward.
The route, in order
Every hop is a straight-line distance between two coordinates. This atlas holds no road and no rail geometry, so that number is a floor on the leg and never the leg — Chamonix to Zermatt is 69 km here and about 170 on the ground, round a mountain range. It is here for the scale of the thing, not for planning a day.
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1 Days 1–2 2 nights
Venice Italy
Begin on the wrong side of the sea, in the city that ruled the rest of this coast.
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2 Days 3–4 2 nights
↳ 182 km from Venice in a straight line
Ljubljana Slovenia
Inland to a small green capital, and the caves an hour beyond it.
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3 Days 5–6 2 nights
↳ 94 km from Ljubljana in a straight line
Piran Slovenia
Slovenia's 46 kilometres of coast, and a Venetian town on a spit with salt pans beside it.
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4 Days 7–8 2 nights
↳ 50 km from Piran in a straight line
Rovinj Croatia
Into Istria: truffles, olive oil and a campanile copied from San Marco.
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5 Days 9–11 3 nights
↳ 283 km from Rovinj in a straight line
Split Croatia
South to a Roman emperor's palace that people still live inside.
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6 Days 12–13 2 nights
↳ 112 km from Split in a straight line
Mostar Bosnia and Herzegovina
Inland into Herzegovina, for a bridge that was destroyed and rebuilt from its own river.
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7 Days 14–16 3 nights
↳ 129 km from Mostar in a straight line
Kotor Montenegro
Back to the water, at the head of a drowned canyon, with 1,350 steps up the wall behind it.
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8 Days 17–18 2 nights
↳ 61 km from Kotor in a straight line
Dubrovnik Croatia
The last two hours north up the coast, into the walls. Walk them at opening.
The record
- Length
- 19 days
- Countries
- Italy → Slovenia → Croatia → Bosnia and Herzegovina → Montenegro
- Straight-line distance
- 911 km, stop to stop
- Difficulty
- moderate
- Transport
- ferry, bus, rail
- Accommodation
- mixed
- Budget shape
- moderate
- Curated by
- EuropeDoor editorial
- Estimated cost
- about €2,000 per person
- Months that work
- May, June, September, October
Experiences along the way
Cicchetti and an ombra
Small plates and a small glass of wine at a bàcaro, standing, moving on after one — the Venetian version of an aperitivo.
The palace substructures
The cellars survive because they were filled with rubbish for centuries; they map the imperial floor plan above exactly.
The bridge before the buses
Between six and nine the bazaar is a town rather than a market, and the bridge is a bridge.
The city walls at dawn
Ninety minutes up, the whole bay below, and a small church halfway. Go before eight or don't go in July.
What you will be eating
- Italy — Pasta by region — trofie in Liguria, orecchiette in Puglia, carbonara only in Rome
- Slovenia — Potica: a rolled nut cake, at every celebration
- Croatia — Peka: meat or octopus baked under a bell with embers on top, ordered hours ahead
- Bosnia and Herzegovina — Ćevapi: small grilled minced-meat rolls in somun bread with raw onion
- Montenegro — Njeguški pršut, air-dried ham from a mountain village above Kotor
What to pack
- Water shoes — most of this coast is pebble or rock
- A dry bag for boat legs
- Shoulders and knees covered for churches and mosques
- Sea-sickness tablets for the open crossings
What this estimate covers
About €2,000 per person: 18 nights at the moderate daily band for each country on the route, plus a distance-based transport figure between stops, plus 12%. It excludes getting to the start and home from the end, and it is planning arithmetic from published bands rather than a quote. How these numbers are made →