Bridge on Una river between Croatia (right) and Bosnia & Herzegovina at Hrvatska Dubica-Kozarska Dubica Border Crossing

We had a comfortable night's sleep at Zagreb, after our long day crossing in from Venice via Slovenia's Lake Bled and Ljubljana. The morning sun rose, golden light slipping between baroque spires and red-tiled rooftops. It was the kind of morning that practically demands a flaky pastry and strong coffee—which is exactly how we started our day, perched in a café off Tkalčićeva Street. Today was another legend, we overlanded three countries on our beloved Shehzadi (meaning "the Princess") and also paid our respects at profoundly somber memorials at a horrible Yugoslav concentration camp site.

The D8 (Adriatic Highway) at Podimoć, Croatia: One of Europe's Most Beautiful Roads

Iceland & South-Central Europe Road Journey

This 12-episode travel series follows a sweeping journey from Washington, DC to Iceland’s volcanic wilderness and onward into the imperial heart of Central Europe. What begins as a full circumnavigation of Iceland’s Ring Road evolves into a cross-border road loop through Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Slovenia.

Along the way, the series moves from glaciers and geysers to Habsburg palaces, medieval old towns, Alpine fortresses, film locations, Tesla’s birthplace, and the dramatic Adriatic coast. It is a geographically continuous, historically layered, self-drive journey linking raw landscapes with Europe’s cultural and architectural backbone.

The D8 highway at Pisak, Croatia, where the road clings to cliffs like a determined lizard This view explains why car sickness bags were standard equipment in Yugoslavian rental cars

After our inland detour to visit the childhood home of Nikola Tesla in Smiljan, we came back down to the coast for the drive everyone told us was the good one. Split to Dubrovnik. Two spectacular Croatian cities, one coastline, and a route that sounds simple right up until you look at a map and notice a small strip of Bosnia and Herzegovina sitting directly in the way. The Neum Corridor hands you bonus passport stamps on what should be an afternoon drive.

The D8 Adriatic Highway, known locally as Jadranska magistrala, runs 643 kilometers along the Croatian coast and is widely considered one of the best scenic drives in Europe. It stitches together the Dalmatian coast with the stubborn persistence of a grandmother sewing a quilt. Built through the 1950s and 1960s, this road has seen everything from vintage Yugos puttering along to modern tourists in rented SUVs white-knuckling the curves.

We drove it in July. The plan was straightforward: get from Split to Dubrovnik, eat seafood, avoid plunging into the Adriatic and maybe learn to pronounce "Živogošće" correctly. We managed three out of four. Our route map looks like someone tried to draw a straight line and got interrupted by mountains, sea and that pesky bit of Bosnia.