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From a driveway in the Ruhr to the Ionian Sea — six countries, one summer.
Here's a plan that starts exactly where you do: your own front door. In fifteen days you can drive from Düsseldorf to the beaches of southern Albania, watching the landscape shift from Alpine green to Adriatic blue to the wild, pine-and-turquoise coast of Europe's last undiscovered Riviera.
It's roughly 2,300 km one way across six countries — Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and Albania. Ambitious? Yes. But it's mostly motorway to Croatia, then the good, slow, jaw-dropping stuff begins. Here's the full route, the honest pacing, and the paperwork to sort before you leave.
🗺️ The 15-day route
Days | Route | The vibe |
|---|---|---|
1–2 | Düsseldorf → Nuremberg → Salzburg | Motorway miles, Bavarian old town |
3 | Salzburg → Ljubljana (via Lake Bled) | Alps & a fairytale lake |
4 | Ljubljana → Plitvice Lakes | Waterfalls & boardwalks |
5–6 | Plitvice → Split | Dalmatian coast begins |
7–8 | Split → Dubrovnik | The walled city |
9 | Dubrovnik → Kotor | Leave the EU; the great bay |
10 | Kotor → Shkodër, Albania | Into Albania |
11 | Shkodër → Tirana | Buzzing capital |
12 | Tirana → Berat | Town of a thousand windows |
13 | Berat → Vlorë | Where the Riviera starts |
14 | Vlorë → Sarandë (via Llogara Pass) | Europe's best coastal drive |
15 | Sarandë — beach day, or start heading home | Corfu on the horizon |
The five moments that make this trip
Lake Bled, Slovenia (Day 3)
A fairytale detour on the road south.
Break the Salzburg–Ljubljana leg at Bled: a turquoise lake with an island church and a cliff-top castle. Twenty minutes here resets the whole drive.
Plitvice Lakes, Croatia (Day 4)
Sixteen terraced lakes linked by waterfalls.
Go early to beat the crowds and the heat. The boardwalks over the water are the postcard — and the last big green hit before the coast takes over.
Bay of Kotor, Montenegro (Day 9)
Where you leave the EU and the drama ramps up.
This is your first non-EU border, and your reward is the fjord-like bay of Kotor. If you have the legs, the serpentine road up above the bay is unforgettable.
Berat, Albania (Day 12)
The "town of a thousand windows."
White Ottoman houses stacked up a hillside, a castle still lived in, and a fraction of the prices you paid on the Croatian coast. Albania is the value story of this whole route.
Llogara Pass → Sarandë (Day 14)
The grand finale: the SH8 down the Albanian Riviera.
Save energy for this one. You climb the Llogara Pass to over 1,000 m, then drop in switchbacks to the Ionian Sea. Driving south puts the water on your side of the road — the views are out your window, not across traffic. It's ~120 km to Sarandë, but with beach and viewpoint stops, give it the whole day.
⚠️ Sort this before you cross a border
Buy two vignettes online, in advance. You need one for Austria (from ~€9.60) and one for Slovenia. Cameras read your plate automatically — a missing vignette is €180+ in Austria and up to €800 in Slovenia. Get the Austrian vignette here and the Slovenian e-vinjeta here.
Extra tunnel toll: the Karawanken tunnel between Austria and Slovenia costs ~€9 on top of your vignette.
Croatia is pay-as-you-go. No vignette — you take a ticket and pay per kilometre at toll booths.
Two non-EU borders. Croatia→Montenegro and Montenegro→Albania take you out of the EU. Carry your passport, and check your insurance covers both — you may need a Green Card from your insurer.
Cash & currencies: most of the route is euro (Montenegro included), but Albania uses the lek — keep some cash for coffee, tolls and parking.
My honest take
This is a brilliant route — the way it flows from Alps to Adriatic to the raw Albanian coast is genuinely special, and starting from home means no flights and no rental car. Two things to plan for. First, it's one-way: Day 15 ends in Sarandë, ~2,300 km from home, so decide now whether you're driving back (add 3–4 days) or parking the "fly home from Tirana" idea in your back pocket. Second, fifteen days at roughly a stop a day is a lot of driving — if you can add even two rest days (Split and Sarandë are the obvious ones), it turns a marathon into a holiday.
Thinking of actually doing this drive — or spotting a stop I've missed? Reply and tell me. We read every message.
— Germany Diary