July 24, 2018 – There can’t be many countries in the world which are in two separate pieces, but Croatia is one. How to get from Split to Dubrovnik by car without driving through Bosnia and Hercegovina?
A few months ago, we headed down to the island of Korcula for the May Bank Holiday and the excellent Spring Food and Wine Festival called Korculanske Pjatance. We left our home from near Varazdin north of Zagreb, looking forward to a few days of family fun and relaxation. Our plan was to go via Ston and then up the Peljesac Peninsula and then the ferry from Orebic to Korcula. Easy.
There was little traffic and all was going swimmingly somewhere south of Split when it hit me.
“My passport. I forgot my passport.”
It is not something you normally think about when you are driving from one part of a country to another, but as with more things in The Beautiful Croatia, things are a little more complicated. For to reach Ston and Dubrovnik from Split and elsewhere, you have to drive through another country – the 23km of the Bosnian Riviera. Although I have permanent residency here with my own ID card, foreigners cannot cross borders with ID cards as locals can.
I looked in the mirror at my two patients daughters and sighed. How was I going to break the news to them that that long-promised beach just might not happen after a cold winter in Varazdin where temperatures plummeted to as low as -18?
“Isn’t there a ferry from Ploce or something?” asked my ever-practical wife.
(Credit Dubrovnik Online Travel Guide)
A quick search on the Jadrolinija ferry page showed that yes, indeed, there was a ferry from Ploce to Trpanj on the Peljesac. Mercifully it seemed the timetable had been written for us and we made the next one with 15 minutes to spare, arriving at Lesic Dimitri fo the 20th birthday of the amazing Grk winery just in time.
Of course, if you are going from Split to Dubrovnik and don’t want to cross through to EU borders in Bosnia, the ferry is an option. Simply take the ferry from Ploce to Trpanj and then turn left for Dubrovnik. Check out the timetable on the Jadrolinija website.
This route should be a temporary solution, as the Peljesac Bridge looks as though it will finally be built. Once done, Croatia will no longer be a country of two parts, but joined by the bridge.
Looking for different ways to get from Split to Dubrovnik, including information on what happens at that Bosnian corridor? Click here.
