4 Scenic Drives for your Next Eastern European Visit
Andrew Villone | Savor the Experience Tours
Regardless if you’re the type that takes up the challenge of driving while overseas, here are some memorable scenic driving routes to consider. Underneath each pick, I’ve put in prefered method of getting around, as well as starting and ending points.
Vrsic pass — Kranjska Gora to Trenta, Slovenia
Self drive
This 50-switchback drive through Slovenia’s Julian Alps is the drive I’ve done the most on this list. The Vrsic pass is 1,611m and connects the gorgeous outdoor sports capital that is the Soca Valley with an area that’s close to the famous Lake Bled. Misty in spring or ripe with autumn colours in October, a drive through here will elicit countless oohs and ahhs. Starting in Kranjska Gora, you will end up in the Soca valley, arguably the most gorgeous spot in Slovenia.
Dalmatian coast — Split to Dubrovnik, Croatia
Self drive
With my wife an artist, I look at countries having color palettes. The drive from Split to Dubrovnik down the Dalmatian coast is primarily 3 colors: deep Adriatic blue, bone grey from the islands the pop their contrasting heads up from the sea, plus a kind of scruffy greenish-brown color of the vegetation in the Dinaric alps that run along the coast.
This drive has loads of possibilities for detours, including numerous opportunities to hop a ferry to one of Croatia’s many islands, so it’s best to do it without any timetable or reservations. The most beautiful part is the last hour starting near Peljesac Peninsula where a stop for oysters and Plavac wines is in order at the tiny Mali Ston village. For the best viewpoint of the Jewel of the Adriatic, Dubrovnik, you’ll actually need to drive past the town as you head towards the airport and Cavtat.
Georgian military highway — Tbilisi to Russian border, Georgia
Hire a local guide to drive or public transport (bus from Tbilisi to Stepantsminda)
This ‘highway’ ain’t the Autobahn, but what it lacks in high-speed driving conditions it more than makes up for in jaw-dropping panoramas.
It starts in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, and takes you past ancient fortresses, incredible viewpoints, borders with fake countries (looking at you South Ossetia), borders with real countries (Russia), shepherds with their flocks, and too many lush valleys to count. And if that weren’t enough, you have the Greater Caucasus Mountains to gawk at, including Mt. Kazbeg where Prometheus was said to have been chained and bound.
Crimea — Bakhchisaray-Alupka-Yalta-Nikita, Russia/Ukraine
Hire a taxi to drive
There are some places you only get to visit once and hauntingly linger with you forever. Whatever the Crimea was when I visited 11 years ago is now no longer that. Illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, this is a journey that I can’t fathom taking now. But what a trip it was—Black Sea on one side of the road, grand mountains on the other, cave cities tucked away in the interior alongside Tatar towns and mosques. Among the castles and palaces that sprinkle the coast is the eye-catching Livadia Palace in Yalta which hosted Stalin, FDR and Churchill back in 1945 as they had a little chat about the borders of post WWII Europe.
