Itinerary After The Fact

1. The most distance-efficient way to see the Western Balkans area: at least Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro.

Take a crescent route (as we roughly did with the loop up to Trieste) from Zagreb, Rijeke, Opatije, Labin, Pula, Trieste (Italy), through corner of Slovenia back to Rijeke, Senj (and the Uskoks), Pag, Nin, Zadar, Sibenik, Trogir, Split, Sinj (and the 600 horsemen)

• Then no change, but the same Bosnia: Mostar, Medjugorje, Capline.
  
• No change and back to Croatia: Dubrovnik, Cavtat; and
  
• No change, Montenegro: Kotor (on the fjord), Budva (on the sea), Cetinje (in the mountains), Ostrog (monastery in cliff at impossible height)

But then, once back in Croatia,

But then, on the way back from Montenegro-Croatia, drive north through Serbia - there is a straight line up - through Sarajevo and back to Croatia.
Serbia: just through checkpoints in mountains
Bosnia: in this part, the cyrillic alphabet is used

Croatia: past Dubrovnik, to Ston, Orabice, ferry to Korcula and back, then Makarska, Sibenik again, Karlovac

Slovenia: Ljubljana, Lake Bled, Kranj

Croatia: Zagreb (Strossmayer and Stepinac), Busevac, Lekinik, Sisak, Jasenovac, Osijek, Nasice, Orahovica, Topolje, Koska, Valpovo, Slatina, Verazdin, Zagreb
In Croatia, we saw most of the star-type attractions, but did not use this kind of list for more than general ideas. major attractions list, sample