When you are enticed by the beauty of a place, as seen through the windscreen of a motorhome, how do you have a similar experience without one? In this short guide, we show you a Montenegro tour that allows you to enjoy this mountainous country without a motorhome.

Montenegro is a great destination for outdoor lovers. The hiking is magnificent, the mountains majestic and as long as you keep away from the coast in the high season, you will avoid most of the crowds too. But for many of us, the thought of coming to the Balkans from the safety perhaps of Europe and the possible insurance complications it offers, just makes it too much of a stretch with our leisure vehicles. Perhaps also you have read about (possibly from us) about the roads in Montenegro and some of the death defying roads and it just feels too much pressure when you’re driving a big vehicle. We so get it, we really do. We have had some hairy moments in Scoobie and there are many roads that we didn’t drive simply because of their inappropriateness for our size vehicle and Myles acrophobia.

What if there was another way?

What if you could fly/drive to Montenegro and enjoy everything the mountains have to offer without the stress of bring your much loved motorhome?

After two months in this country this summer, we have found a really lovely tour that you could do over a couple of weeks and still get the same immersion into the country as we did, just without the added stress of travelling through Europe to reach it, catching ferries and worrying about the roads.

So we have mapped out a route that we believe would really capture the best of the Montenegrin mountains and perhaps also a bit of the coast too depending on the time of year you decided to go and the time you have available. So let’s jump in. Click the map below for the full itinerary.

1. Fly into Podgorica and pick up a hire car

Podgorica is Montenegro’s capital and as such you will be able to pick up a flight direct from London’s Stansted and Luton airports with either Wizz Air or RyanAir. If you wanted more flight options, you could fly into Tivat on the Bay of Kotor. We found the whole Bay area far too busy, as with the rest of the coastline, but it might at least give you some better flight options and airport accessibility.

Whilst Podgorica may not have the draw of other capital cities, there is a strong cafe culture and you could use this as a base for travelling out to a few places like the Vineyard area to the south of the city famous for it Vranc wine. Also you have the Niagara Falls, which if you come in spring will be flowing magnificently. You also have the option of driving down towards the Skadar National Park and taking a boat trip at Virpazzar, which gets you into the heart of the National Park and Lake where you might see the rare Dalmatian Pelican.

2. Drive to Riejke Crnojevića

Within 45 minutes of the city you can quickly access a part of the Skadar National Park that offers a very different experience. The rivers that feed the lake have perhaps more character to them than the lake itself. The drive to Riejke is not an easy one for a motorhome but for a car so much better. There’s a great vantage point from the restaurant that looks down to the bow river below and it is quite breathtaking. And Riejke is, without doubt, one of Montenegro’s hidden gems. The town itself is steeped in medieval history and whilst there’s only 300 residents, they focus their efforts on tourism these days. There are accommodation options here and plenty of boat trips to take, which we adored. Getting into the secret corners of the lake that you perhaps wouldn’t expect. There’s also hikes up to a cave and just generally chilling out here with the lovely vibe the town offers. Here’s what you can experience.

You can exit the valley one of two ways. Back the way you came or on the upper route that takes you on the other side of the river. We haven’t done that trip as we had the van, but it is said to be beautiful with more gorgeous views, that being in a car you can probably appreciate better.

3. Ostrog Monastery

Your next stop would be Danilovgrad, which as a town is quite nice and you could use as base. The Panoramic Route 1 takes you up into the mountains above the Zeta River and over to Montenegro’s most important religious site. It is here that people make the pilgrimage to be blessed and actually sleep in the monastery grounds. Now I’m not suggesting that you follow in their footsteps as there are other accommodation options, but this is a must see place. There’s a hotel that overlooks the valley that would provide a great couple of days to enjoy the area.

4. Durmitor National Park and Žabljak

Not more than two hours drive away you enter the cinematic realm of the Durmitor National Park. Words fail me when trying to describe this UNESCO destination. Towering, angular mountains contrasting with meadows full of summer flowers. Lingering snow on the mountains, reluctant to melt and the vague promise of bear sightings, if you are really lucky.

Žabljak is the urban centre-piece of the Park and it is here or close by that you could call home. The town itself is a classical winter season hub for skiers and snow lovers. But in summer it takes on a whole different persona where bikes, boots and drives are the name of the game.

Not only do you have the Durmitor Ring and Sedlo’s Pass to drive (which is more than doable in a hire car), there’s the Black Lake which, all on its own, you could spend weeks chilling at. And then there’s the Tara Gorge bridge if you fancy a bit of high octane Zip Wire or White Water Rafting. Either way this is the pinnacle of your road trip and, if I’m honest, I would implore you to have at least a week in the area especially if you love hiking. The Sedlo mountains are calling for you.

5. Tara Gorge – Panoramic Drive

Being Europe’s deepest gorge, the Tara Canyon has a reputation all of its own. But if you take the P4 route right, before you cross the still closed Tara Bridge, then you have a completely different experience. A snaking road that seems to match the energy of the aqua green river sheltered by 15 tunnels and record breaking black pine forests that scale way above you.

There’s no denying that you can do this drive in a day, but, this is a road trip not a race. So we have found a spot for you where you can chill for a few days in a log cabin, listen to the sounds of the mountain and stillness around you and be cooked for by a local Montenegrin family. Sounds idyllic to me.

The Eko Oaze Camping – Tear of Europe campsite has four lodges you can rent out and from here you can walk the steep slope to the river or take the road for 20 minutes and go visit the Dobralovina Monastery that is well worth the trek. Set in the valley with a mountain backdrop as your morning view, there can be no better sanctuary to stop a while.

6. Biograd National Park and Kolašin

Your final stop – well it is our final recommendation – I’m sure there are extensions you could easily do to make even more of this trip – is to head south towards the Biograd National Park. It is primeval forest with a stunning lake and whilst we didn’t get to it in Scoobie, I’m sure using Kolašin as your base, you could very easily make this a destination for hiking.

Kolašin has a variety of accommodation options and with its old Turkish heritage, and 23 conquests and liberations, there’s plenty for the history lovers in you. Not more than 20 minutes up in the mountains is the 1450 and 1600 Ski Resorts the latter of which has a ski lift that takes you to the heady heights of 2035m with walking routes to your heart’s content. You could easily have 3 or 4 days here without taking one of the 4×4 tours into the remote parts of the mountains. It’s a charming place to base yourselves and you are no more than hour to run back to the airport at Podgorica.

And once here, if you head out of town for just a kilometre do search out The Sherpas Restaurant. Oh wow what fabulous food, great service and a price that will surprise you.

Do bear in mind that as you head west to Podgorica you will have to pay a toll fee on the A1 route. I am unsure what the price is as we didn’t do this one, but keep mindful of that additional cost.

7. Additional Extra – The Riviera, Kotor and Cetinje

Of course no good tour guide would leave a road-trip without an option to extend. So for Montenegro, where might that be? Well from Podgorica you are an hour away from the coast. Straight down to Bar using the toll tunnel will bring you to the city where you can turn left for the Long Beach and Ulcinj – even Albania if you fancy it (but you would have to check with your hire car insurance as to whether you are covered). Or turn right towards Budva and Kotor.

It wasn’t our favourite place to visit, but of course if you are coming this far, you might feel tempted by the FOMO not to do it. We have plenty of information in our eBook on Montenegro to show you how to best enjoy the Bay area. But if there was one recommendation I would make whilst you have your car it would be these two things:

• Visit and perhaps even stay at Petrovac. It’s not touristy and is quite charming. It’s half way along the riviera coast. You could also swing into Sveti Stefan, which we were unable to reach in the motorhome and it looks quite pretty.
• And secondly if you are going to do Kotor, then I would take a boat trip to the Lady of the Rock and Perast, with a final trip up on the Cable Car for the most incredible view.

If you decided on this add on, or you felt that it was easier to fly into Tivat, then you could experience the Serpentine route that takes you up into the Lovćen National Park and on to Cetinje. This gives you an easy route to Podgorica. And your round trip is then totally complete.

Additional thoughts

Before I leave you to contemplate, a couple of extra thoughts to help you. Of course all this and more is in our Ebook guide, but for completeness;

• Montenegro is not in Schengen so it is a Schengen free trip for 3rd country nationals. Whilst it is planning to join Europe in 2028 this won’t necessarily automatically put them into the Schengen gang.
• They use the Euro as currency, many Montenegrins speak some English and prices you can expect to be on a par with Italy.
• Diesel, however, is cheaper than most European countries.
• We hired a car for four days and it cost us just €69. We took out an Excess Cover insurance as we always do for car hire and this takes away the obscene charges for excess cover they charge you.
• The roads are not brilliant in Montenegro but I say this having experienced roads in Ireland, England, Morocco and Italy. Expect pot holes, crazy drivers and honking as they overtake you.
• Eating out is not overly expensive unless you are in the tourist areas. Certainly cheaper than the UK but not as cheap as you might imagine for a Balkan country.
• They are a friendly and welcoming nation – tourism is an important industry that is expanding massively.
• There are lots of stray dogs around, but they are super friendly and never in packs. So don’t feel intimidated.

So I hope that this might pique your interest. If you have any questions, do feel free to drop us a comment below or email us at themotoroamers@gmail.com.

Happy travels, where ever they might take you.