Dubrovnik Day Trips: 5 Day Itinerary
Five days extends the 4-day spine with Mostar, the second non-Schengen border crossing on this list and the longest day of the trip. Days 1 through 4 stay the same: Elaphiti Islands, Montenegro, Peljesac wine and Ston, then Cavtat. Day 5 adds Mostar, Bosnia’s Old Bridge, and a genuinely long day on the road. See the 6-day and 7-day versions for Korcula and Mljet, or the full Dubrovnik day trips guide for the ranked list.
Book these before you go
- A Kotor and Montenegro day tour for Day 2.
- A Peljesac wine and Ston tour for Day 3.
- A Mostar and Kravice Waterfalls tour for Day 5.
- Where to stay in Dubrovnik , your base for all five 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 4 | Cavtat | ~30-45 min by bus |
| Day 5 | Mostar, Bosnia | ~2.5-3.5h each way plus a second border |
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 and take the public ferry to Lopud instead, then walk 15 minutes to Sunj Beach. Check jadrolinija.hr for the current timetable.
Day 2: Montenegro (Kotor and Perast)
Leave by 7 to 7:30am for the non-Schengen crossing at Karasovici and Debeli Brijeg, 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. Stop in Perast for the boat to the Our Lady of the Rocks islet, then Kotor for its walled Old Town and fortress climb, around EUR 15 (free November to April). See the Bay of Kotor for the comparison to Dubrovnik’s own bay, and montenegro.travel for current hours.
Day 3: Peljesac wine and Ston
No border today: just the Peljesac Bridge, opened in 2022 to bypass the old Bosnian detour at Neum. Wine tours run roughly EUR 130-150 per person for two or three wineries growing Plavac Mali, plus a stop in Ston for centuries-old salt pans and oysters. Check tzdubrovnik.hr for current Ston hours.
Day 4: Cavtat
Bus Line 10 reaches Cavtat in 30 to 45 minutes for EUR 4-5, or a seasonal ferry (June to October) covers it for EUR 15-20 return. The Racic Mausoleum, by sculptor Ivan Mestrovic (1922), is the one planned stop; otherwise this is a slow-lunch marina town with no border and no long transfer, the recovery day between Montenegro and tomorrow’s longer trip to Mostar.
Day 5: Mostar, Bosnia
Be honest about the time cost before you commit: Mostar is 2.5 to 3.5 hours each way depending on traffic and the border, and it’s a second non-Schengen crossing into a country that isn’t in the EU at all, so this is the longest day of the trip regardless of how it’s organised. Tours run EUR 45-55 per person and typically pair Mostar with Kravice Waterfall or the pilgrimage town of Medjugorje. The centrepiece is the Stari Most, the Ottoman-era Old Bridge destroyed in the 1990s war and rebuilt stone by stone, part of the Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar UNESCO listing and the Old Bridge itself. Expect a 10 to 12 hour day door to door.
Should Mostar go earlier in a five-day trip instead of last?
No. By Day 5 you’ve already handled one non-Schengen border on Day 2, so the Mostar crossing on Day 5 is a known quantity rather than a first-time unknown, and putting the longest day at the end means nothing else on the trip gets disrupted if it runs late.
Is five days too many straight day trips without a break?
It’s close to the limit. Five consecutive gateway days, two of them full international border crossings, is a real amount of transit; if you feel it dragging, drop Day 4’s Cavtat and use that day to simply stay in Dubrovnik instead. Nothing else on this spine depends on it.
Confirm your passport’s remaining validity before this trip; both Montenegro on Day 2 and Bosnia on Day 5 are genuine international crossings, and a passport with only a few months left can be refused at either border.