Book nowBook the car with full insurance and the Kotor hotel with parking: June is high season on the bay, and parking in Kotor is the hardest thing on the trip.
Hours, prices, road times and coordinates are from general knowledge; re-check them before you fly and on the day.
Six days: two on the Bay of Kotor, a moving day past Ostrog, a day in the Durmitor mountains, Lake Skadar on the way to the coast, a last swim before the flight.
Land at 11:00, the car at the airport, 20 minutes to Kotor. Lunch, the old town's squares and churches, dinner inside the walls.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →20 minheadlights on
The rental desks are in the arrivals hall. Check the car has the green card for Montenegro and a vignette is not needed; headlights must be on day and night. Park at the hotel or the big car park by the north gate, about €1.50 an hour.
€15–25 each
Konobas, the plain family taverns, on the squares inside the Sea Gate. Black risotto with cuttlefish ink and Njeguši ham are the dishes to start with.
A medieval walled town at the end of the Bay of Kotor, a World Heritage site, known for its maze of squares and its street cats.
freecruise crowds midday
Enter by the Sea Gate. The lanes are a maze of small squares; getting lost takes ten minutes. When cruise ships are in, mornings are packed; after 16:00 it empties.
Kotor's Romanesque cathedral of 1166, with two bell towers and a treasury of silver reliquaries.
about €4 eachday's highlight
On the square of the same name. Inside, frescoes of the 14th century survive on the arches; upstairs the treasury and the loggia look down the nave.
The Maritime Museum, two squares away, tells how Kotor's sailors ran the bay for the Venetians; another hour if you have the energy.
€25–40 each
Restaurants with tables in the stone squares; a middle option. Grilled fish from the bay and a bottle of Vranac, the local red.
The climb to Kotor's fortress at 7:00, before the heat and the crowds. Perast and a boat to Our Lady of the Rocks, lunch, a swim, back to Kotor.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →The walls that climb the mountain behind Kotor to the fortress of St John, 260 metres above the town.
about €15 each1,350 steps
From the north gate, an hour up about 1,350 uneven steps, with the church of Our Lady of Health halfway. At 7:00 the path is in shade; by ten it is in full sun. Water and shoes with grip. The ticket booth may not be staffed that early.
A one-street village of baroque captains' palaces and 16 churches, built when Perast's sea captains were rich under Venice.
free
Walk the waterfront. St Nicholas's bell tower, about €1.50, is the climb for the view of the two islands.
A church on an island built by Perast's sailors, who dropped rocks and sunken ships on a reef for two centuries after finding an icon there in 1452.
€5–10 boat, €2 churchday's highlight
Small boats leave the waterfront every few minutes, five minutes across. Inside the church, a tapestry embroidered over 25 years by a local woman, with her own hair worked into it.
Every 22 July the people of Perast still row out with rocks to raise the island. The neighbouring island of St George is closed to visitors. Allow an hour.
€25–40 each
Restaurants with terraces on the water; mussels from the bay and grilled squid.
free or €10–20 for sunbeds
The bay has no sand here: people swim from concrete platforms and wooden jetties along the shore. The water is calm and about 23°C in June.
Kotor to Žabljak, about 3 h 45 min on the road. Ostrog, the monastery built into a cliff, on the way; the mountains by late afternoon.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →A 17th-century Orthodox monastery built into a vertical cliff 900 metres up, the most visited pilgrimage site in Montenegro.
freeday's highlightdress code
Park at the upper car park; the Upper Monastery is a short, steep walk. Two cave chapels are cut into the rock, with the relics of St Basil of Ostrog. Pilgrims queue quietly; keep your voice down.
Shoulders and knees must be covered; women are lent skirts and scarves at the entrance. Allow an hour.
€10–20 each
Half an hour back to Nikšić, Montenegro's second town and home of its beer. Plain grill restaurants round the main square serve ćevapi and a Nikšićko.
The road north through Šavnik onto the Durmitor plateau, a highland of pastures and limestone peaks at 1,400 metres.
1 h 45 min
Through Šavnik on a good but winding road; it climbs into pine forest and opens onto the plateau. Fuel up in Nikšić: there are few stations on the way.
Evenings at 1,450 metres are cool, about 10°C in June; a warm layer.
€15–25 each
Wooden mountain restaurants in the village. Kačamak, a cornmeal mash with cheese and kajmak cream, and lamb cooked under a metal lid in embers, ispod sača, which needs ordering in advance.
A walk round Black Lake in the morning, the Tara canyon bridge and its zipline at midday. The Durmitor ring road over the Sedlo pass in the afternoon light.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →A glacial lake in pine forest at the foot of Međed peak, the best-known sight of Durmitor National Park.
park fee about €3 eachday's highlight
Ten minutes' drive or 30 minutes on foot from the village. The path round the lake is 3.6 km and flat, an hour; it is two lakes joined by a narrow neck in summer.
Rowing boats are for hire at the café by the shore. For more, the path up to the Jablan lake viewpoint adds two hours and a steep climb.
30 min
East on the road to Pljevlja, then down to the river.
A white five-arch concrete bridge of 1940, 150 metres over the Tara river canyon, the deepest in Europe.
free; zipline about €20
Walk across; the middle arch is the drop. Ziplines run across the canyon beside the bridge for those who want them, a minute's ride. Cafés by the bridge.
€15–20 each
Thirty minutes back. Lamb soup, cheese from the plateau, and blueberry pie.
The P14 panoramic road through Durmitor National Park, over the Sedlo pass at 1,907 metres among bare limestone peaks.
1 h 30 min loopnarrow road
Drive south-west from Žabljak towards Plužine and turn back after the Sedlo pass, or drive the full loop via Trsa, two and a half hours. Stop at the pass: Bobotov Kuk, the highest peak, is above you. Sheep on the road; snow can linger by the pass into June.
Žabljak to Budva, about 4 hours on the road. A boat on Lake Skadar's water lilies at Virpazar on the way, the coast by evening.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →3 h
Via Mojkovac and Kolašin along the Tara and Morača valleys, past Podgorica, then the road to Bar. The Morača canyon stretch is narrow and busy with lorries; overtaking is the local sport, not yours.
The largest lake in the Balkans, shared with Albania, a national park of reed beds, water lilies and pelicans.
€20–30 each for 2 hoursday's highlight
Small boats leave from Virpazar's little harbour; agree the route and price first. The two-hour trip goes up the channels through water lilies, which flower in June, past the ruined island fortress of Lesendro.
Dalmatian pelicans nest here; you may see them in the distance. Bring sun cream; the boats are open.
€15–25 each
Konobas by the harbour serve carp from the lake, smoked bleak and the local Crmnica wines; some wineries in the villages around offer tastings.
A small walled town on a promontory, rebuilt after the 1979 earthquake, between Budva's two main beaches.
free
Ten minutes from the hotel. Walk the lanes and the citadel, about €4, for the view of St Nikola island. A swim at Mogren beach, through a passage in the rocks from the old town.
€25–40 each
Restaurants in the old town's squares; a middle option. Avoid the loud promenade bars; the old town is calmer.
Check out, bags in the car. The view of Sveti Stefan and a last swim on the beach beside it, lunch, and the car back to Tivat for the 18:00 flight.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →15 min
Bags stay in the car. Park in the paid car park above the beach; keep valuables out of sight.
A 15th-century fishing village on an islet joined to the shore by a sandbar, turned into a luxury hotel in the 1950s.
free to viewday's highlight
The island itself is the hotel's and closed to visitors; the view is the point. The best one is from the road above, by the church of St Sava.
Walk down to the beach on the left of the causeway, which is public.
free; sunbeds €20–40
The public beach of rosy pebbles on the left of the causeway. Clear water; water shoes help. Two hours.
€20–35 each
Five minutes north. Fish restaurants at the water's edge; a long last lunch.
35 minat the airport by 16:15
The road through Budva is slow in summer afternoons; leave a margin. Fill the tank before returning; there is a station on the airport road.
Roads are good but narrow and winding; plan by time, not by kilometres.
Dipped headlights on day and night, all year. Speed limits are 50 km/h in towns, 80 outside, 100 on the few fast roads; police with radar wait at village entrances, and fines are paid on the spot or at a post office. The alcohol limit is 0.03%, nearly zero. Seat belts front and back.
Locals overtake on bends and drive close; keep right and let them pass. Mountain roads have sheep, cattle and fallen rocks; slow down on blind corners and sound the horn on hairpins. Fuel stations are sparse in the mountains: fill up in towns.
Kotor and Budva use zone parking paid by SMS or at machines, about €1–1.50 an hour; the big car parks by the walls fill by mid-morning in June. Elsewhere parking is easy and often free.
Covered shoulders and knees; women are lent skirts and scarves at Ostrog. Speak quietly; photos inside the cave chapels are not allowed.
Montenegro uses the euro. Cards work in hotels and larger restaurants; konobas in villages, boatmen and parking want cash. Tip about 10% in restaurants.
For two, 6 days and 5 nights in Montenegro: two nights in Kotor, two in Žabljak, one in Budva. Covers the car, fuel, tolls and parking, the rooms, tickets, boats, every meal and a buffer. Flights are not included.
| Item | Economy | Comfort | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rental car, 6 days with full insurance | €240 | €380 | |
| Fuel, toll and parking | €110 | €130 | About 600 km |
| Hotel in Kotor, 2 nights | €220 | €360 | With parking |
| Guesthouse in Žabljak, 2 nights | €100 | €180 | |
| Hotel in Budva, 1 night | €100 | €180 | |
| City and tourist taxes | €15 | €15 | About €1–1.50 a person a night |
| Fortress, cathedral, park fees, Sveti Stefan sunbeds | €60 | €100 | |
| Boats at Perast and Lake Skadar | €60 | €80 | |
| Lunches | €200 | €300 | 6 lunches for two |
| Dinners | €220 | €340 | 5 dinners for two |
| Coffee, water, snacks | €60 | €90 | |
| Buffer | €100 | €200 | The zipline, a winery, a parking fine |
| Total | €1,485 | €2,355 |
Realistic figure: About €1,750–2,000 for two, without flights
Keep €100–150 in cash for parking, boats, the tunnel and village konobas; cash machines are in every town.
All of them: the WayFriend guide library.
