Croatia

Montenegro. Mostar is three hours each way if the road is kind, and you cross a border more than once doing it. Six or seven hours in a vehicle to buy yourself three hours in a town, with a ship leaving at eight. I would not. Kotor is about two hours each way and the bay is on both sides of you for the last half of the drive, so the road is part of what you are paying for.

I will disagree with Sofia, politely. Mostar is the one that stayed with me. The Neretva valley road is not dead time, that hour is the best hour of the day. Three hours in the town covers the bridge and the bazar at a walking pace with a coffee by the water afterwards. Our crossing at Neum in September took maybe fifteen minutes. She is right about the clock, though. With a ship going at eight I would want to be standing on the quay at six, not seven.

One practical thing that catches people. Medjugorje is often attached to the Mostar day and it adds about an hour and a half once the stop is included. People assume it sits on the way and it does not, it is a detour. If you are not going there for the reason people go there, ask before you book whether it is in the route, because it changes the arithmetic completely.