A new guide over at PW Insider covers the practical side of renting a car and exploring Serbia and Croatia, and it's worth a read if the Balkans have been sitting on your list. This is exactly the kind of region where having your own wheels pays off.

My biggest takeaway, and I say this as someone who has wedged a rental into spaces that were barely suggestions of parking spots: get a small car. The guide gets into car types and navigating narrow streets, which tells you the shape of the problem. Croatian old towns in particular were built for foot traffic, not your midsize SUV. The streets are narrow, the stone walls don't yield, and parking is more of a concept than a guarantee. Something the size of a hatchback will save you stress and probably a side mirror.

My rule of thumb holds over there too: skip the places clustered right where the highway lets off and drive into the actual towns for lunch. In my experience the food is better and the prices kinder the farther you get from the obvious stops, though your mileage may vary, literally.

One thing you'll want to sort out before you book: if you're crossing between Serbia and Croatia in one rental, tell the agency. Let them know every country on your itinerary, and ask directly what paperwork and insurance you need for the trip you're planning, because they'll know the current requirements better than any article will. That's the kind of detail that's a lot easier to handle at the reservation stage than at the border itself.

The thing is, this is exactly the kind of trip a car was made for. The best swimming cove or mountain viewpoint is rarely on a bus route. You want the freedom to stop when the light gets good and linger over lunch. A small car, a paper map as backup, and low expectations for parking pretty much cover the whole recipe.

When's the last time you let a road, rather than an itinerary, decide your day? A place with this much coastline and this much interior is a good spot to remember how that feels.