While most end up visiting Kotor as a day trip from Dubrovnik, Mr AW and I spent 4 days in Kotor, exploring places in Kotor Bay and nearby, and road tripping through Montenegro. Here’s my ultimate Montenegro road trip itinerary and a travel guide and that takes you from the changing landscape of the coast to the mountains within a span of 3 hours.
Getting there
By flight: Montenegro has two international airports – Podgorica and Tivat. If you’re planning to stay near Kotor, Tivat is the ideal one being only 10 km away. You could also fly into Tivat and leave from Podgorica depending on how you plan your itinerary.
We decided to fly into the Dubrovnik airport (70 km from Kotor) instead because that was the cheapest option and that way we could combine Montenegro and Dubrovnik in one trip. Almost a BOGOF, no? 😉
Want to know how to spend 2 days in Dubrovnik? Read my Dubrovnik Travel Guide.
By car: We had pre-booked the car with Enterprise at Dubrovnik airport itself. We made sure that we had all the documents regarding the vehicle registration and most importantly, the European Green Card insurance (Read more here) that is valid in Montenegro.
If you’re flying straight in instead, read a fellow blogger’s tips on renting a car in Montenegro.
The Green Card insurance is needed to travel to non-EU countries (e.g. Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia, etc.) by car. Some rental companies charge a per day fee for the Green Card Insurance but Enterprise charged us a one time fee of 50€ that not only covered the cross border fee but also additional insurance for 24 hours road assistance, vehicle replacement, etc.
There is a lot of information online about the Green card insurance fee which only led to more confusion. For example, this mentions a fee of 15€ for 15 days which would have been way cheaper than what we paid. I also found out that in case you forget about the Green card insurance, you can get buy it near the passport control checkpoint. However, I didn’t know how any of these options would work out with a rental car. Ultimately we went for the easiest option of renting the car from Enterprise with all-inclusive insurance! Also, we opted for a medium-sized car with a bigger engine which would make tackling the Montenegro roads easier.
Crossing the border between Croatia and Montenegro
In case you didn’t know, although Montenegro is in Europe, it is not part of EU. This means passport checks at the border and possible delays due to slow moving queues. Do factor that in when you plan the itinerary, specially if you are travelling in the peak months of July and August.
After around 15-20 minutes of leaving the airport, we joined the vehicles queuing at the Croatian border (yes, it’s that close 🙂 ). It took us about 45 minutes to reach the Croatia Passport Control checkpoint and complete the exit immigration. Since we are Indian passport holders, we had to show our Schengen visa to the immigration officer and get the exit stamp.
It was No Man’s Land for the next 5 km or so until we hit the queue for Montenegro Passport Control checkpoint. Here, we had to show a valid visa for entry into Montenegro as well as the European Green Card insurance document. As Indian citizens, we could enter with any of our UK/Schengen/US visa under their Visa waiver programme. It was considerably faster on this side and we were done within 15 minutes or so.
Note: Refer this for Visa requirements.
Where to stay
Budva and Kotor are both quite popular with the tourists who like to be where the action is and you can find both hotels and Airbnbs at surprisingly affordable prices.
However, we opted to stay outside of Old Town Kotor in a residential place called Dobrota.
Hotel Alkima is a newly opened family-run hotel that I cannot recommend enough. The warm, ever-smiling staff went out of their way to make us feel welcome and comfortable, always ready to offer help and answer our questions. We really appreciated their little gestures like courtesy ice cream after a long day spent driving in the summer heat!
All tourists in Montenegro are required to be registered with the tourist office. If you’re staying in a hotel or an apartment that’s registered to rent, it’s the responsibility of the hotel/apartment admin to register you. Please confirm this at the time of check-in. If you’re staying in a private residence (e.g. family/friend), it’s your own responsibility to find the nearest tourist office to get registered.
Food & Drinks
Being a vegetarian is not easy in Montenegro. Almost all my meals consisted of grilled vegetables – not that I am complaining. It tasted delicious along with a portion of Shopska salad, followed by ice cream 😉
Also, if you are fond of wine then you must give Montenegrin wine a go!
Things to do – Itinerary
We reached Montenegro in the late afternoon and hence had about 3.5 days. However, the things we did can be squeezed into a fast-paced 3 day itinerary or spread over a relaxed 5 day itinerary along with adding a couple of places that we missed.
Day 1
Perast
Considering our day was mostly spent travelling to Montenegro (flight from London to Dubrovnik, followed by a drive to Kotor), we decided to take it easy on our first evening. We spent the evening in a gorgeous little village called Perast which was only 20 minutes away from our hotel. We took a boat ride to one of the nearby islands, strolled along the single village street and had a candle lit dinner by the water! There couldn’t have been a more charming introduction to Montenegro 🙂
Note: For more details, read my post on Things to do in Perast.
Day 2
Kotor Old Town
The Old Town of Kotor is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is a beautiful blend of Venetian and medieval influences.
The best way to see this crown jewel of Montenegro is from St John’s Fortress sitting atop the the town with an unforgettable view of the red rooftops striking a perfect contrast with the blue waters of the Boka bay (also known as Bay of Kotor).
Note: For more details on this must-do hike, read my post on Hiking to St John’s Fortress in Kotor.
A strenuous hike and a couple of hours later, we were back in the Old Town to spend the rest of the afternoon wandering quite aimlessly, admiring the stone-walled buildings and the shuttered windows, clicking a thousand pictures and browsing the various boutique shops for that perfect souvenir while the sounds of soulful music wafted into our ears as we got lost in the myriad little cobbled lanes.
Sveti Stefan/Budva
If you have only 3 days, you can easily spend the day exploring Kotor Old Town and then the evening in Perast. Alternatively, you can travel to Sveti Stefan to watch a glorious sun setting over the bay of Kotor or to Budva to sample some nightlife.
Day 3
Today’s the day to put those wheels to some serious use. Although the stops were few, it did involve a lot of driving. We headed out from Kotor towards Nikšić, the second largest city in Montenegro. As soon as we hit the P11 road, the beautiful panoramic view of the Boka bay was to our right!
Lake Slansko (Slansko Jezero)
Our next stop was the Slansko lake in Nikšić, one of the three artificial lakes created for a hydro-power plant. From the viewpoint, the lakes look like a big water body consisting of many small islands. The view from the top is amazing and felt very peaceful with no one except us.
Note: Coordinates for the viewpoint: 42.758427, 18.822343
Ostrog Monastery
Our next destination took us through the stunning Zeta Valley via treacherous roads of hair-pin bends to Ostrog Monastery, a monastery of the Serbian Orthodox Church. It is one of the most popular and revered pilgrim sites in the Balkans.
We first parked our car right outside the Lower Monastery and went inside to see the Church of the Holy Trinity and the monks residence. We then drove further (more hair-pin bends 😀 ) to the Upper Monastery which is about 3 km away. The tradition is that pilgrims make the journey from Lower to Upper Monastery on foot and we saw many people doing it. Turned out, we walked a part of that journey too because the car park was at quite a distance.
The Upper Monastery is dedicated to St Basil of Ostrog (whose relics are buried here) and seems to have been carved somewhat impossibly out of a vertical cliff. This cave-church is quite a sight with its balcony looking out over Montenegro. The courtyard was completely filled with pilgrims who intended to sleep there, all ready with their blankets – a sign of their dedication and belief!
Note: Dress code – It is ideal to wear clothing that covers your legs and shoulders.
While driving to our next destination, we stopped at Hotel Sokoline for some refreshments. It could not have been better located with the restaurant offering commanding views over the verdant and fertile Zeta river valley. With soft music wafting through the air and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, we spent some time simply marvelling at the stunning landscape and spotting the main road, the train tunnel, the fields and the hair-pin bends as far as we could see.
Rijeka Crnojevića
Rijeka Crnojevića is a beautiful small but historic place owing to the fact that it was on an important trading route in the ancient times. What brought us to this place, however, was the famous horse-shoe bend of Lake Skadar.
After all, who won’t be attracted to nn uninterrupted view of nature’s work in the gorgeous combination of vivid greens and blues?
The best place to see the horse-shoe bend is the not so easy to find Pavlova Strana Viewpoint.
Day 4
Durmitor National Park
Today’s the day of exploring the gems of places in Durmitor National Park! It’s all about the unforgettable scenic beauty of craggy mountains and glacial lakes, turquoise rivers and lush green valleys, the best roads for driving enthusiasts and a day full of adventures.
Durmitor National Park is truly an underrated gem of Europe and 1 day is not enough to see it but we managed to squeeze into our itinerary the Black lake, Tara river canyon and bridge, Piva lake and Sedlo pass.
Note: For more details, read my post on Durmitor National Park.
Being such a small country that’s filled with amazing sights, Montenegro is ideal for road tripping and I hope you enjoyed my ultimate guide to Montenegro Road Trip. Have you been to Montenegro or planning to go? Let me know in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you!
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Cheers,
Ameeta xx
Wow this looks amazing! And also a bit more affordable than similar places over in Croatia! You say it wasn’t easy add vegetation, how would you say Montenegro would be for vegan?
Thank you for such an insightful post. I will save it for when I next plan my trip to Montenegro!
Wow, absolutely gorgeous! Never been to Montenegro before but now I want to go!
Your photos are gorgeous! Montenegro is high on my list and now I have your guide to help me as I plan my trip!
Montenegro off the beaten path looks stunning! I’ve not come across much about travel here other than to Kotor and I’ll delighted to see there are many more beautiful places. Your idea of a road trip seems excellent, there’s much more to explore here than I realised.
ooh Montenegro has crawled onto my radar lately. I feel like it’s such an underrated European country!
I loved Montenegro – wishing to go back after seeing your post. A small country with SO much to discover!
The Old Town looks beautiful! I’m so glad to know that y’all spent more than one day there too. I think I would need at least 2-3 days. Any restaurants specifically that you liked? Hotel Alkima looked so cute too! I want to try and plan a trip next May after Croatia and this was the perfect trip.