Montenegro isn’t quite as well known as a travel destination, apart from Kotor maybe. Most tourism is from neighboring countries like Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia. This tiny country is jam-packed with places that well deserve a visit though and people have started to discover them. Here you can find everything, from mountains to beaches to old walled cities. The largest lake of the Balkans is shared between Montenegro and Albania, with its biggest part within Montenegrin borders. This ultimate guide to Montenegro below follows a route from north to south, with the described places color coded as a must-visit, highly recommended, and if time permits.
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Table of Contents - The Ultimate Backpacking Guide to Montenegro
Traveling Montenegro - Tips & Tricks
When to go: Spring and Autumn are the best, so roughly April to June and September-October. Summer is very hot and busy and after October things on the coast already start closing down and winter is quite rainy as well. I know I always recommend traveling outside of high season and I stress this even more for Montenegro. The coast is only short and so tourism is concentrated. It’s only a small country with about 600.000 people, so infrastructure is not build to absorb all the tourists that come here all at once in summer. This means the road along the coast is just one big traffic jam. Especially the city of Budva is notorious for its traffic and amount of people in summer in general.
Currency: Montenegro uses the Euro, which makes things easier for European travelers. Do note that, unlike many European countries, Montenegro still handles fees for card payments and taking money out of ATMs though.
ATMs: As far as I’m aware there are no free ATM’s in Montenegro and cards are not accepted everywhere either. If they do accept your card, it’s likely that you need to pay a fee. So take plenty of cash if you’re coming from a Euro country.
Transport: Transport here isn’t as extensive and efficient as in neighboring Croatia. Especially in summer, the traffic along the coast is so bad that busses get delayed for hours. Most transport goes to and from Podgorica, so unless you’re traveling along the coast, it’s likely you need to change buses here. The best platform to check routes, schedules and prices is busticket4.me
There are a few train lines in Montenegro, but they are little more efficient. The train tracks from Bar to Podgorica are only one way, for example, meaning trains can only pass each other at stations causing delays as well. As public transport isn’t as reliable, hitchhiking works quite well, especially for small distances from town to town.
Food: Montenegrin food is typical Balkan food, which means it’s delicious! Chevapi is definitely our favorite (or Pjlekavica which is the same but in patty form), but they do good fish too. And you’ve got to love Burek as a hearty snack of course.
Kotor
Kotor is the best-known attraction and the most touristic town in Montenegro. The location on the bay of Kotor is just stunning and the walls going up the mountain to the fortress are impressive. Stroll through the pretty old town and head up to the walls for amazing views of both the town and the bay. This is a must for everyone visiting Montenegro.
From here you can do many daytrips as well. Perast is a very popular one. You can take the bus and visit on your own or take a tour which will take you two the 2 islands with churches (one orthodox and one catholic) as well. I recommend going on your own, as all tours leave at the same time and the place gets really crowded. If you want to see it with as few tourists as possible, stay the night here.
The road up to Lovcen National Park, which houses the Njegos Mausoleum, provides the best views over the bay. Unfortunately, there are not many group tours going there, we only found a private one when we wanted to go. So we decided to hitchhike up and we walked down.
Budva
Budva is a city on the Montenegrin coast, which has a walled old town as well. It misses the dramatic backdrop of Kotor, but it has some really nice beaches to make up for it. This also means that it gets incredibly busy during the high season, but the amount of tourists drops more outside of the high season. Kotor stays very busy. When we passed Budva by bus on the way south in high season, it was so busy, we didn’t see a square meter that wasn’t packed with people and it took hours to get through. When we came back to visit Budva in October, we nearly had the place to ourselves and there was no need to get up early to explore the old town, as was still the case in Kotor.
You can walk the walls of Budva for only € 2 and the entry to the castle (Budva Citadel) is € 3,50 (at the time of writing).
The beaches also had enough space to sit down and relax, but the water was quite cold to go for a swim. Although there were some people in the water who seemed to disagree. Mogren beach is really nice, but there are plenty of other beaches to choose from as well.
From Budva it’s also easy to visit Sveti Stefan. You can take the bus there or even walk if you’re up for it. Note that it is a resort now and you can’t enter the complex itself, unless you are accommodated there, or have a reservation in the restaurant. But the public beach next to it offers nice views over the old city.
Note: It’s possible to visit Kotor and Budva on a day trip from Dubrovnik. These cities deserve a lot more of your time though, so I don’t recommend this. They also get extremely busy during these hours, so better to spend at the very least one night in each town to enjoy them during the quieter hours. There are plenty of other day trips from Dubrovnik you could do!
How to get to Budva from Kotor: There are many buses going between these two very popular destinations. They are also very close to each other and it takes less than an hour to travel between the two (if there are no major traffic jams that is) and a ticket costs between 3 and 4 euro.
Žabljak / Durmitor National Park
Durmitor National Pak is a must for hikers. This beautiful national park is located in the north of Montenegro and the gateway is the town of Žabljak. The entrance fee to the national park is € 3.00 at the time of writing.
The most famous hike here is the one to Crno Jezero (Black Lake). It’s a really easy walk and you can walk there from town. If you want something more challenging, you can hike the mountains too. We had to skip them unfortunately due to bad weather (we visited in autumn).
We also did a day trip to the Tara Canyon, which looked amazing in Autumn. You can take rafting tours here, but we decided to just hop on a bus headed for Pljevlja and hopped off at the bridge. The drive takes about 30 minutes. If you don’t want to go rafting, this is the best place to see the canyon. We hopped on the next bus back to Durmitor. Do note that transport isn’t very frequent, so check busticket4.me for the current schedule. We took the first bus Pljevlja at 12.30 pm arriving at 1 pm and the last one back at 4 pm, arriving at 4.30 pm.
If the views from the bridge aren’t enough for you, there is a zipline too. If you want to go rafting, best to contract a tour from Žabljak due to the limited public transport. If you have your own transport, that is not an issue of course.
Food tip: Check out restaurant Or’o in Žabljak for not only amazing food, but also a great atmosphere. The slow-cooked Durmitor lamb and beef are amazing. Combine with some potato and salad and you’ll be rolling out of the restaurant with plenty of energy to tackle your hike the next day.
How to get to Žabljak from Budva: There is no direct bus from Budva to Žabljak, you’ll need to travel via Podgorica. The trip takes about 6-7 hours, including waiting time in Podgorica.
Prokletije National Park
The south of Montenegro has some beautiful mountains too. Prokletije (accursed mountains) National Park is lesser known than Durmitor, but not less beautiful. These are part of the same accursed mountains that stretch to Albania, and it’s even possible to hike to Theth in Albania from here. But you’ll need multiple days for this.
You can hike to Rosni vrh (Rosni Peak) from Vusanje if you’re fit enough, but note that it’s 10 km with a 1,500 m elevation gain one way. So if you’re not in a rush and have camping equipment, it’s better to take an extra day. You can camp close to Oko Skakavice Grasshopper eye), which is a nice day trip in itself as well. If you have a car you can drive here and hike up to Rosni vrh as well.
As for daytrips, we hiked to Ropojansko jezero (Ropojan lake) which was dry when we went there. The views are nice though and we stopped at Oko Skakavice and the Grlja waterfall on the way. And another day we hiked to the Čardak refuge. Our goal was Velji vrh (Velji Peak) but it was quite a tiresome hike to the refuge, we arrived a little late and the views from there were beautiful already. So we decided to head back from there.
Where to stay to explore the Accursed mountains in Montenegro
We stayed in the town of Gusinje. But you can also opt for Plav or Vusanje. Which one is best depends on what you are looking for. Gusinje and Vusanja are close to different hikes than Plav. Plav is the biggest town of the three and Vusanje is the smallest. Vusanje is closer to the main hikes than Gusinje, but public transport only goes as far as Gusinje. If you have your own transport, it doesn’t really matter where you are staying. They are all a short drive from one another. If you don’t, the location is something to consider.
How to get to Prokletije National Park from Žabljak: You’ll have to go via Podgorica again. There are a few buses that go straight to Gusinje from Podgorica, but the majority goes to Plav and you’ll need to get another bus to Gusinje from there. The trip takes almost 9 hours, including waiting time in Podgorica, and costs about € 22 to Plav or 23 to Gusinje.
Bar
Bar is a city on the Montenegrin coast. The modern city doesn’t offer much to tourists, but the attraction here is the old city of Stari Bar (Old Bar). The ruins of the cold city are something different compared to the rebuilt Kotor and Budva and less touristy as well. Signs give background information and as the city was built on a hilltop, you’ll get some nice views as well. The old city is only small, so you can visit it in a day. Choose to stay the night, or visit on a day trip from Budva for example. Access to the ruins is € 2 for adults and € 1 for kids (at the time of writing).
How to get to Bar from Proklije National Park: Unfortunately, again no direct bus and you’ll need to connect in Podgorica as well. In Podgorica you can switch to to either the train or another bus to Bar. The train is the cheapest (€ 2.40), but the bus is quicker (if there are no traffic jams)
Lake Skadar / Virpazar
Lake Skadar (or Shkoder in Albanian) is the biggest lake in the balkans and divided between Montenegro and Albania, with the biggest part in Montenegro. Virpazar is the main gateway to the Montenegrin part of the lake. It’s a great starting point to spend some time at the lake. Spend a day kayaking on the lake (join a tour or rent one) or join a boat tour. There are some nice hikes you can do here as well. 3 days in Virpazar is a good amount of time to really enjoy this beautiful place and get a real feel for how big and beautiful this lake is.
How to get to Virpazar from Bar: There is plenty of transport between these two places and you can either take a bus for € 3.00 (less than an hour) or a train for € 1.20. The train is supposed to take half an hour, but they often get very delayed as they have to wait on other trains that need to pass.
Other places to visit
Probably the most obvious one that I left out of this guide to Montenegro is the capital city of Podgorica. That is because the city doesn’t offer much to tourists (nor locals) so we didn’t bother spending time here with so many other awesome places to visit. The Ostrog Monastery is a popular stop-off point for people driving to Virpazar. It’s easy to visit if you have your own transport. Due to its popularity, it’s better to visit really early if you’re visiting in the high season, as there can be 2-hour long queues to get in. Cetinje is the former capital city of Montenegro and has a nice old center. It’s located between Kotor and Budva, so easy to fit into your itinerary. If you can’t get enough of beach towns, check out Herceg Novi as well. And if you can’t get enough of old fortresses, Sutermore has one in the hills with nice views over the city and coast. And if it’s more nature that you want, Biogradska Gora located roughly in the middle between Durmitor and Prokletije national parks.
This was the Ultimate Backpacking Guide to Montenegro
