Montenegro Tips and Recommendations

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We are off to Montenegro soon and I just wanted to ask the hive mind if there’s anything you think I may not have thought of.

We will be staying in the Tivat area and already plan to get buses (or taxis if necessary) to Kotor and Perast. Plan to walk along to Dobrota from Kotor one day. We have a day trip booked on the ferry to Dubrovnik.

We are self catering so it would be handy to know what the supermarket options are and how much meals out may cost for a family of four.

I fancy a trip to Lake Skadar but hadn’t realised it’s about 2.5 hours away and it’s going to be 35’C so don’t think the kids will be keen.

I may send the older teen up to the coaster on the Kotor cable car with their Dad!

Thanks for any recent experiences people can share 🙂

A relative of mine just got back after two weeks there. The taxis had to be booked and only took cash. Traffic was really bad.
They thought the food was overall pretty bad. From what they said Becici was nice.

Edit; just asked and he said in Becici at least there were supermarkets everywhere. Recommended taxis instead of buses as there was so much road work and sometimes pass controls.

They paid 80-100 euro for 50 min taxi ride to where they went a couple of times.

It was so hot they found it hard to be outside during the day so maybe cooling towels for your children even though it doesn’t seem to be quite as hot there now.

A meal out (like pasta dish) about 10-15 euro.

Ok sorry, one more 😅 He said there is a taxi app (not uber, but like uber) and you could pay by cash or card, they picked card but then it turned they couldn’t tap the card (card on your phone or Apple pay) and didn’t bring a physical so had to go to an ATM to withdraw cash. There were only 50 or 100 notes and driver had no cash. So they had to try a few different ATM’s until they found one that had smaller notes too. At night taxis cost more because of traffic.

They had to use Google translate to speak with taxi drivers.

Ok, now I’ll be quiet. 😂

We went two years ago and had an amazing time, such a beautiful place.
there are food shops to the east of Kotor old town, cheap, usual Lidl type food.
there is a way to get into Kotor castle for free - with your back to the sea, you will see a path going up to the left through old walls and orchards. If you follow the path to an old tower, you climb through the window of the tower and up to the castle.
great fun.
there is a little square in the north west corner with lots of lovely cats
and head out over the bridge by this square there is a good cheap restaurant on the opposite bank of the river, it often shows films in a projector.

food was cheap, beer was very cheap, we hired a car - great holiday.

Also, we went hiking in the north which was beautiful and will be cooler.

We are not long back from Herceg Novi, we had four nights in Dubrovnik first. Pp is right about taxis, they seem to only take cash. In Kotor do the cable car (although it’s quite expensive!) in fact eating and drinking out is quite expensive, we were a little shocked at how much everything cost. Perast is lovely (very small though),we got there by boat which then took us on to Kotor. Any trip you plan do it early in the morning.

Budva up the roads is as lovely as KOTOR and much cheaper for everything

We went a couple of years ago and split our time between Kotor (just outside the walled city) and Budva. Taxis I had a recommendation from the TripAdvisor forum and we used them 5 times: to and from Tivat airport, from Kotor to the cable car station and back and from Kotor to Budva. They were very reasonably priced, but that was before the war between the US and Iran. Tivat Airport is tiny and pretty much one room! The landing there was awful as it's between mountains and there was a cross wind - the two flights ahead of us got diverted due to a storm.

Get a local sim from a kiosk for your holiday. I walked the Kotor city walls to the top. It was challenging! You have to register as a tourist. In Kotor we were in an Airbnb and went to the townhall to do this. Our host in Budva did it for us online. We stayed near the old town there.

I don't remember finding it expensive but they'll be affected just as we are by macro economics - it's a small country with no industry to speak of. The food was okay. Better in Budva if you had fish, etc. but like lots of places, everywhere had the same menu! I had amazing octopus in Budva. Becici is a modern resort - we went past it on the bus and thought it didn't look our kind of place.

If you want any more info, feel free to PM me.

OK so cash for taxis is a must.

I have read elsewhere that Budva is very lively and mostly beach and business areas, not as picturesque?

I watched a vlog about walking up to the fortress the free way and climbing through the window but I read on FB that they have blocked off that route?

Thanks everyone, plenty to take in here 🙂

I have considered a local sim as it’s not EU so good to have that seconded. I will look for the restaurant in Kotor.

Budva has a marina and a large walled old town which is lovely and a much bigger beach (es)

The through a window bit is a different walk iirc.

Budva has an old town which was faithfully rebuilt after an earthquake and a harbour area. If you're near there it's pretty picturesque. It felt to us like holidaying in Spain or Greece when we were kids. It was fairly laid back although there was some sort of music festival when we were there, but it was small.

Our taxi driver from the airport gave us a potted history of Montenegro in English.

— For taxis I recommend using Red Taxi - just send them a message via WhatsApp and they’ll respond with a price.
— I’m not a fan of either Budva or Becici. I much prefer the towns around Boka Bay. However Budva Old Town is worth going to
— I would say your teens would enjoy Lake Skadar. They can dive off the boat and it’s very beautiful.
— combine your trips to do lots on one day as the traffic at the time of year is terrible. For example you can stop off at the Sveti Stefan view when going to Lake Skadar.
— If you’re going to Kotor it’s best to go after about 5 as then the cruise ship passengers will be back on board
—- Use a speedboat hire to beat the traffic to Perast. Your teens will love it!
— Do not give your money to people in the Old Town Kotor purporting to collect it for the cats. (Note this includes the Cat Museum). The only places that genuinely help the cats of Kotor are the UK registered charity Kotor Kitties and The Cats Shop.

Rose is a beautiful little village with a beach. You can get a boat to it.

That’s a good tip re KOTOR. When we went a huge cruise ship blocked all the view at one end of town and there were tons of tour groups and cruise groups

Look at the free walking tours - not really free as you are expected to tip generously. They were really informative.

We hired a car and went round lake skadar and then went to a castle in skadar itself. Re entered Montenegro from the bottom and travelled back up the coast via ulcinj. Was a nice day out but a long drive.

We also hired a car and drove into the centre of Montenegro to the old capital. Can’t recall an issue with cabs - but there are 5 of us and we never fitted into a normal taxi anyway. We stayed near Sveti Stefan and on our last day paid 110Eu to use the private beach there 😲 We did an organised tour to Albania and 11’years later the kids still recall that as a holiday highlight of their entire lives.

I have heard of Red Taxi a lot so will definitely use them.
Thanks for all this info, I have been a bit worried about the kids getting tangled up in the cats stuff in Kotor.
Does the speedboat make rubbish sailors seasick? I have a contact for one but am worried about my usual queasiness 🫤

I’m not sure what you’re referring to ‘cats stuff’.

There will be plenty of souvenir shops selling Cats Stuff (my advice would be to only shop in Danijela’s Cat Shop) as she’s the one that cares for the cats.

The rest of them just take the profits!

If you’re referring to cat poo etc - I must say I’ve never seen it. I think the streets must be cleaned daily. The cats may well have fleas and may not be that well (a lot of cats in one area spread disease amongst their own species - not harmful to humans).

As for sea sickness I can’t guarantee anything unfortunately!

I had read that there were a lot of cats around which were not very well treated, however I also saw that Kotor likes cats as they say they can predict earthquakes so 🤷‍♀️ That’s what I meant.

It’s a first time I’ve heard an earthquake reason, most say the high cat population was to do with past sailors and rodent elimination! The real reason is, that up until the charity Kotor Kitties were involved, sterilisation was rare and frowned upon. It’s getting better - but very slowly. Animal welfare standards in Montenegro are still very low sadly.

we never even noticed cats any more than many other places we’ve been

I just contacted the taxi firm most people recommend on various FB groups and they don’t take bookings.
We have to be at a couple of places on time during our week, in order to get onto trips we have booked. Does anyone who’s been recently have details of anyone they found provided a good service without being a rip-off?