Route One — The Adriatic Highway
Trieste → Ljubljana → Split → Dubrovnik → Kotor → Shkodër (Albania). About 1,300 kilometres. Ten days. The Yugoslav coast.
The Adriatic coast was, in Yugoslav times, one of the most-tourist-developed coastlines in Europe. The Adriatic Highway (Jadranska magistrala) — the two-lane coastal road built between 1948 and 1965 — runs nearly the entire length of it. The route crosses Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia (for 20 kilometres at Neum), Montenegro, and Albania. Five countries; five passport stamps. The countries are all comfortable with EU and UK visitors; speak some English in all of them; rent the car in Slovenia or Croatia for maximum convenience.
Days 1–2 — Ljubljana / Bled. The Slovene capital. The lake.
Day 3 — Piran and Trieste. The Slovene coast (47 km) and the brief Italian crossing.
Days 4–5 — Croatian Istria. Rovinj, Pula, the Brijuni islands (where Tito had his summer state residence).
Day 6 — Down the Dalmatian coast. Zadar, Šibenik, Split.
Day 7 — The islands. Hvar or Vis from Split (or a sailing day).
Day 8 — Dubrovnik.
Day 9 — Kotor (Montenegro). The bay and the Tivat submarine pens.
Day 10 — Onward to Shkodër (Albania). Or fly home from Tivat or Dubrovnik.
Route Two — The Spomenik Trail
Belgrade → Tjentište → Petrova Gora → Jasenovac → Vukovar → Subotica → Belgrade. About 1,800 kilometres. Twelve days. Looking for the concrete monuments.
This is a specialist route for travellers interested in Yugoslav-era monumental sculpture and architecture. The spomeniks are scattered across the former federation in remote rural locations; finding them requires patience, a good GPS, and tolerance for unmarked or poorly marked sites. The route crosses Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, and back. Substantially longer than the Adriatic route because the spomeniks are far apart.
Some of the principal stops: Tjentište (Sutjeska memorial); Kozara (Džamonja's fins); Jasenovac (Bogdanović's flower, monument to the victims of the Ustaše camp); Petrova Gora (Bakić's decaying mushroom); Korenica (the Velebit Memorial); Brezovica (the Macedonian memorial near Veles); Mostar (the Partisan Memorial Cemetery, by Bogdanović); Krajina memorial near Knin; Niš (the Bubanj memorial); Belgrade (Avala's Unknown Hero, Bogdanović's Jewish Sephardic memorial at the Jewish cemetery).
Donald Niebyl's photographic book Spomenik Monument Database (2018) is the principal English-language reference for finding the sites.
Route Three — The Sarajevo Road
Belgrade → Visegrad → Sarajevo → Mostar → Split → Zagreb. About 900 kilometres. Eight days. Retracing the war.
This is the most historically serious of the three routes — a journey through the heart of the 1992-95 Bosnian war, designed for travellers who want to understand the conflict rather than primarily to admire scenery.
Day 1 — Belgrade. The capital that ordered (in the view of the ICTY) the worst of the war.
Day 2 — Drive south to Višegrad. Andrić's bridge, the Mehmed Paša Sokolović bridge of 1577, the site of the 1992 Višegrad massacres of Bosniak civilians by the Bosnian Serb Užice Corps.
Day 3 — Cross into Bosnia. Drive west to Sarajevo. Visit Srebrenica en route if you have the emotional capacity for it.
Days 4-5 — Sarajevo. Use the Sarajevo siege tour with the Tunnel Museum, the 1984 Olympic sites on Trebević, the Sarajevo Roses.
Day 6 — Mostar. The bridge and the Mostar war.
Day 7 — Split. The Croatian side.
Day 8 — Zagreb. Croatian capital, end of the line.
End of the routes