As I’ve just returned from a trip along the Adriatic Coast and back via Italy/Corsica (I’ll be writing a trip report in the next few days hopefully), I’m a bit biased in my recommendations right now.
But you do mention Ljubljana in your initial list if ideas. I can recommend going there to pay the city a visit, even as a day stop. I had been several years before, but on this trip I wanted my wife to get an idea of the city, so we flew there in the morning, spent a few hours in the city (the Three Bridges, the Castle, and some nice lunch) and went on towards Croatia in the evening. It’s a lovely city with great scenery around.
Now, if you are going in that direction, Croatia has many nice spots to spend some time at, I think in terms of aviation all of them are pretty straightforward (I have not been to all).
A gem that we found on our trip was Montenegro. It had been on my list for a long time but never made it down there. We spent two nights and loved our time there. The airport is fine, the approach beautiful in what they call Europe’s most southern fjord. You do need to give them 36h prior notice. We were very lucky to meet a taxi driver who offered us a full day tour of the country more or less (it’s really kind of small) and while I usually prefer to explore by myself, we accepted his offer and had a great time. Happy to share contact details in a PM, if desired. What I loved about Montenegro is the variety of things in such a small place (the fjord, the mountains, the historical sites, the spectacular views when driving, walking, and flying around, the glamour in the Port of Montenegro area).
Texan-AV8R wrote:
Thanks Robbie for the recommendation!
Also outside the terminal, there’s a bus to the tram stop and a tram into central which is extremely cheap. Taxi is circa 50EUR one way.
Patrick, thanks for the advice on LJLJ. Still on my short list!
Croatia is interesting because I wanna go back sooner rather than later and spend time in Croatia and continue down to Dubrovnik, Kotor, Mostar, etc. I was supposed to take a cruise in 2021 along that route and it got canceled.
With the possible exception of Pula, I think I’ll save Croatia for a later trip.
In a jump ball between Pula and Piran, which would you all choose?
I’d choose Piran personally because although it isn’t a big place, it is very pleasant and the well regarded airport is close. FWIW Poreč and Rovinj and also nice places in Istria, touristy but fun for a day or two.
Ljubljana is also relatively small, similar to Prague in some ways but somehow more charming to me. YMMV.
In Norway, Bergen is probably nicer than Stavanger. In case you want to push a bit further north to Trondheim, I’ll be happy to welcome you (If I’m in Trondheim at that time of course).
Texan-AV8R wrote:
Dubrovnik, Kotor, Mostar
It’s a bit of dealing with bureaucracy but visiting Mostar would add great deal of diversity to your tour. It’s a small town but it’s very famous for its bridge and in general the old town is a gem of Ottoman architecture – you can’t see anything similar in Europe. Luckily you need Jet A1 and refuelling at LQMO will definitely be cheaper than anywhere in Europe (no tax of any kind for foreign aircraft) except maybe in Belgrade. The airport staff is very friendly and the airport practically doesn’t have any traffic. The only drawback is PPR 24 hours with submitting slot request form available for download from airport’s website https://mostar-airport.ba/en/usluge-prijevoznicima/ but I believe it’s worth of visiting.
In a jump ball between Pula and Piran, which would you all choose?
Risking to be a bit biased I would go to Pula and visit Roman amphitheatre – one of the largest and best preserved Roman amphitheatres in Europe. It’s still active featuring concerts and movie projections during Pula film festival. Besides that Pula was big military stronghold of Austro-Hungarian empire and has 26 well preserved fortresses (Fort Bourguignon, Punta Cristo, Castello, Muzil, Maria Luisa being the famous ones) and 60 cannon posts, many of them connected with underground tunnels – brief insight here. I believe it’s the largest system of coastal military fortification on Mediterranean.
Piran is just a small coastal town you visit to spend a day, have a lunch, refuel the aircraft and enter/exit Schengen area.
Emir wrote:
Piran is just a small coastal town you visit to spend a day, have a lunch, refuel the aircraft and enter/exit Schengen area.
Well… I and my wife made a stop in Portorož the other year and spent a day in Piran. We thought it was wonderful….!
One tip is to buy SkyDemon since there are helpful pireps on almost all airports. Mostly from single engine piston drivers.
You can also find ~1000 reports free on our airport database 
and the number is growing all the time. Most of the 1000 was achieved during the 2 lockdown years. Contributions always welcome of course
I hugely doubt SD has “almost all airports” given its main market is the UK and then the usual watering holes elsewhere.
