Croatia Travel Forum

This is going to sound very silly, but my husband and I may not be ALLOWED to travel through Bosnia due to his security clearances for his job. I know it is only for a few miles, but if his work vetoes it, that pretty much cuts Dubrovnik out of our trip since we are going to be travelling by car. The US State Dep't recently warned US citizens not to travel to Bosnia, and I have a feeling that his company will see that and forbid him to enter the country, no matter how short the time period.

I was hoping someone could suggest a way around it-I read somewhere that there may be a ferry that could carry us from one side of the border to the other? Anyone know about this, or have experience with going around this border? I REALLY don't want to miss Dubrovnik!

Ok.
1. In my experience, the border guards across the small stretch of Bosnia you would have to travel won't even stop you; though even if they do, you are only spending 5 minutes crossing their territory. How would your husband's company get to know about it?
2. You can of course avoid BiH. Take a Jadrolinija ferry from Split/Zadar/Rijeka to Dubrovnik, or else a much shorter one from Ploce to Trpanj on the Peljesac peninsula.
Hope this helps,
Stefan

how would the company know where you traveled to anyways?

Because of his security clearances, we have to let them know where we are going. If he goes to an unauthorized area, he can lose his job. His job is government dependent, so what the US government says does actually affect our plans, no matter how stupid I think it is!

This is nothing compared to his time in the military, when we weren't allowed to even leave the island he was stationed on when they were on high alert. Wew just wanted to fly to a different island in Hawaii, and we weren't allowed...

I told him what a pain this would be, and he understands that. But we have to abide by their rules, or we can't pay the mortgage ;P

typical us government i guess...about as lame as jailing a person using a us passport and going to cuba for vacation and you are leaving from another country...talk about communism that the usa is always afraid of, that is very controlling

I agree with Halikowski - you'll hardly notice the 5-min pass through Bosnian territory, the gards may make you slow down just to see your face and passport, but won't put a stamp on it.
And of course, you can take Jadrolinia, but that will eat up at least one day of your vacation.

We recently drove down the coast to Dubrovnik in a hire car. We were a little worried about the border crossing and getting through because we were not insured for Bosnia (only Croatia). (By the way if you hire your car outside Croatia or Slovenia you will not be insured for Bosnia and they can stop you from driving through).

However, we just drove straight through the transit lane and didn't even stop or have to show any passports or hire car documentation. This was the same for going down and back up again. They definitely will not stamp your passport if you do get stopped.

Take the ferry from Ploce to Trpan' and then drive to Dubrovnik, in this way you avoid the stretch of Bosnia and do not lose too much time. Also, you may pass Orebic and visit Korcula in this way.

I faced the same situation. Not that I'm forbidden to go to Bosnia but I need a visa. And about border-crossing, I lerned it sudenly, when sitting in the bus Dubrovnik-Zagreb. But they let me in without any problems, and let me in to Croatia again when the Bosnian several kilometers finished, although formally my Croatian 1-entry visa expired because I double-crossed Croatian territory. But I was shivering, just becauase it waqs very unexpected and God knows how it might end.

When coming back home to Ulraine, I called Croatian embassy and asked them about this Bosnian border-crossing. They said that I don't neded any 2nd Croatian visa and those who cross this small territory by bus can go. They have a sort of agreement.

If going with Croatian licence plates you don't need to stop at the border, so going with rented car is not a problem. You just go slowely through "transit" lane and you will not be stopped.

For foreign licence plates, I'm not sure.

Ferry Split - Dubrovnik is also solution.

We have driven those few short miles from Croatia - Bosnia-Croatia twice in a rented car with Croatian plates and we barely had to slow down. We were not stopped. We also, three weeks ago went thru there twice on a Croatian bus. Buses are always stopped at each end and the border guards come on and look at all passports. When they saw our USA blue colored passports, they walked past without touching them or stamping them. In fact, I do not believe they even carried a stamp with them. I only saw two snags on the bus. One was when a tourist couple did not know about the mini-border and left their passports in their luggage below the bus. They had to go get them. The other was a long look at a young girl's passport. Afterwards, she told us she was from Montenegro and they always look hard at her passport. Otherwise, the border is a friendly short passing. I would think it doesn't really count in the international scheme of things regarding your trip. It is just a strip of land that Bosnia has for access to a nice looking resort on the sea.

twice this evening i have seen a message referring to a "blue" usa passport...what other kinds are there? i have only ever seen blue usa passports

Just to clarify - our hire car was from Italy and we had Italian plates. We still drove through the transit lane and were not stopped. They just waved us through???

We just came back from Croatia, and it's realy a five minute drive with nobody stoping you. But as everyone sugested below, you can avoid it with Jadrolinja ferries. Go to their website and you will see all your option for shorter or longer bypass