Dubrovnik Day Trips: 3 Day Itinerary
Three days builds on the 2-day spine and adds a Peljesac wine day with no border and no queue as the recovery from Montenegro. Day 1 is the Elaphiti Islands, Day 2 is Kotor and Perast in Montenegro, and Day 3 is Ston’s salt pans and oysters plus two or three Peljesac wineries. See the 4-day through 7-day versions for Cavtat, Mostar, Korcula, and Mljet, or the full Dubrovnik day trips guide for the ranked list. Check visitdubrovnik.hr for current border and transport advisories before you lock in dates.
Book these before you go
- A Kotor and Montenegro day tour for Day 2.
- A Peljesac wine and Ston tour for Day 3.
- An Elaphiti Islands boat tour for Day 1, or take the public ferry instead (see below).
- Where to stay in Dubrovnik , your base for all three nights.
| Day | Focus | Travel time from Dubrovnik |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Elaphiti Islands (Kolocep, Lopud, Sipan) | ~25-60 min by public ferry |
| Day 2 | Montenegro (Kotor and Perast) | ~2h drive plus a 10 min to 2h+ border queue |
| Day 3 | Peljesac wine and Ston | ~1-1.5h via the Peljesac Bridge |
Day 1: Elaphiti Islands
Ferry lines 807 and 831 leave from the Old Port and reach Kolocep in about 25 minutes, Lopud in 35 to 40, and Sipan in up to an hour, roughly EUR 5 each way. Skip the organised “three islands” booze-cruise boats (EUR 30-75 or more per person for a rushed lunch-and-swim loop) and ride the public ferry to Lopud instead, then walk 15 minutes to Sunj Beach. Check jadrolinija.hr for the current timetable, which thins out fast outside July and August. Be back by early evening and sleep well; tomorrow starts before sunrise.
Day 2: Montenegro (Kotor and Perast)
Leave by 7 to 7:30am. Montenegro is outside Schengen, so the crossing at Karasovici and Debeli Brijeg is a genuine international border, passport required, with queues that swing from 10 minutes off-peak to multiple hours at a summer midday. An organised tour runs roughly EUR 30-68 per person; an independent bus from Gruz costs about EUR 25-33 one-way, with departures from around 7:15am. Stop in Perast for the short boat to the Our Lady of the Rocks islet (sometimes included, sometimes a EUR 5-10 add-on), then Kotor itself for its walled Old Town and a fortress climb above the bay, around EUR 15 (free November to April). See the Bay of Kotor for why it rivals Dubrovnik’s own bay with a fraction of the crowd, and check montenegro.travel for current Kotor hours.
Day 3: Peljesac wine and Ston
This is the recovery day: no border, no queue, just the Peljesac Bridge, opened in 2022 to replace the old detour through Bosnian territory at Neum. Organised wine-tour days run roughly EUR 130-150 per person for tastings at two or three family wineries growing Plavac Mali, the protected red grape of the Dingac and Postup slopes, plus a stop in Ston. Ston’s own draw predates the wine: salt pans worked continuously for centuries, among the oldest still active in Europe, and oysters farmed a short walk from where you’ll eat them. Check tzdubrovnik.hr for current Ston opening hours if you’d rather walk the salt pans independently. Compared to yesterday’s border crossing, today should feel like a genuine day off.
Why put the wine day after Montenegro instead of before it?
Sequencing matters here. Montenegro rewards an early, alert start and a full day of concentration at the border; Peljesac has zero border logistics and a naturally slower pace built around lunch and tastings. Doing the hard day first and the easy one second gives you a real recovery day rather than front-loading the trip with two demanding ones back to back.
Is three days enough for Mostar too?
Not on top of this spine. Mostar alone is a 2.5 to 3.5 hour drive each way and a second non-Schengen border, which doesn’t fit cleanly alongside an Elaphiti day, a Montenegro day, and a Peljesac day without turning the trip into a transit marathon. Add it on the 4-day or 5-day version instead.
Book the Peljesac wine tour for Day 3 specifically, not Day 2; doing it the day after Montenegro means you’re not driving yourself anywhere; you’re free to actually taste the wine.