MONTENEGRO TRAVEL GUIDE: 30+ Tips We Wish We Knew! (& What Not to Do!)

If you want to make sure you don't waste your time, your money, or your sanity on a bad trip to Montenegro, well keep watching. If we had to start over and plan a perfect trip to Montenegro from scratch, this is exactly what we wish we knew. We're breaking down everything from how to save money, how to get there, how to get around, what to see, what to do, and most importantly what to eat because on this corner of YouTube we think that's the best part of travel. By the end of this video you're going to have everything you need to plan the most perfect trip to this underrated country. If you're just starting to plan your trip and you're wondering if Montenegro is even worth visiting, well let us tell you that it's unreal beautiful. Like jaw-dropping scenery here. We're talking mountains that look like fjords, we're talking medieval towns, we're talking the bluest water. Like when Caleb and I came into Montenegro we were like stopping at every single corner, getting out of our car, taking pictures. The contrast of like the beautiful bays with the mountains and the medieval towns is unreal. Like totally unreal. It's kind of like we would say it's kind of like Croatia's like lesser known younger sister and we definitely think that just the scenery alone is worth checking it out. The food is also amazing. It's such an underrated foodie country. Like it's the kind of place you go for the views but stay because like you're now in a committed relationship with the prosciutto and the wine. It's so good but more on the food in a second. Also if you're Americans like us and you only get a week maybe two weeks of paid vacation per year, Montenegro is a great trip for you because it's really compact and if you rent a car you can see almost the whole country. It is starting to blow up on social media so if you can go, go now because we do kind of fear that it's going to turn into one big Instagram selfie with battling selfie sticks and flowy dresses and sunsets everywhere if you know what we mean. And if you like epic outdoor adventures, Montenegro is absolutely for you. You have of course the breathtaking Adriatic seas and you can do boating or beach days. Then there's Dermerder National Park which is stunning and crazy. It has the deepest canyon in Europe or Lake Skadar where you can go wine tasting or explore the biggest lake in the south of Europe. So practical tips for planning your trip. Instead of flying into the two airports which are Podgorica and Tivat in Montenegro, we opted to fly into Dubrovnik for a couple reasons. It's way cheaper to do this because the airports in Montenegro are really small and they're hard to get to. There's not that many flights so it's more expensive. Dubrovnik airport has a lot of those cheap kind of budget airline flights so we did that and then we rented a car from there. It's actually cheaper to rent a car in Dubrovnik as opposed to in Montenegro and then you only have to drive like an hour to Montenegro. It's really easy. The border is super easy and if you're going to return your car to Dubrovnik, which you're most likely going to, there's a lot more cheaper budget airline flights around Europe from there as well. So not only does it make it easier and cheaper to get to Montenegro, if you have more onward travel after, if you're continuing your Europe adventure, it will be a lot easier to do it from Dubrovnik airport. So now when to go. If you love sweating through your clothes, battling selfie sticks and trying to find space on the beach, go in the summer. But if you're like us and you don't like that, go on the shoulder seasons. We'd recommend March through June or maybe like September, October. We went early October and it was perfect. It was still hot, probably like 80, sometimes 85 degrees really warm and warm enough to swim but it did feel a little bit less busy. Prices were a little bit lower and we thought that was like the perfect time. So try for spring or fall. Now how long to stay. If you just want to do like the beaches, the more laid back coast highlights, you can do that in just a week. But if you want to see like the whole country, you want to go into the mountains, you want to see Podgorica, then we'd say probably two weeks. If you're okay kind of like missing some of the mountain towns or maybe like leaving one little coast town off your itinerary, you could do 10 days comfortably. So anywhere from like one to two weeks is the perfect time to see a good chunk of Montenegro. Now budget breakdown. So we have to be totally honest with you, we expected Montenegro to be like a super budget vacation. And while it is cheaper than a lot of countries in Europe, I think recently because the tourists are starting to come, it has gone up a lot and it was not as cheap as we planned for. So with that in mind, here's kind of a breakdown, like a general guideline of what Caleb and I spent each day as a couple. So prices here are per day for two people, general guideline. For food, we spent $50 to $100 per day and we usually went to like a cheap bakery for breakfast, kind of like a quick service kind of place for lunch and then like a nicer date night place kind of dinner. So those days that we went to like a nicer dinner was more on the $100. Sometimes we did something quick for dinner and that was more of like the $50 per day for food. For alcohol, we spent like $15 to $20 per day. We love going to like fancy craft cocktail bars, but we found the wine in Montenegro was so good, which more on that later, that we ended up going to a lot of wine bars. We had like two glasses a day each and they're like anywhere from five to seven dollars a glass. A couple days we did go for craft cocktails and they were more like anywhere from 10 to 12 euros. Definitely more on the high end than we expected. Accommodation, this was what we thought was the most reasonable. We spent like 60 to 70 dollars per day and we consider our travel style to be like bougie backpacker. We're not budget people staying in hostels, but we're also not looking for the most luxurious place. As long as it's like comfortable, it's clean, it's got a bathroom so we can get ready, and it's in a good location because we're pretty much there to sleep, get ready, and leave. Let us know in the comments if you like the bougie backpacker kind of style or what is your travel style, but that is what works for us and that 60 to 70 dollar range really checked all the boxes. We were really happy with the prices of accommodation. And rental car, which we thought was super reasonable. We spent about $30 per day. This is picking the rental car up in Dubrovnik airport and that is also including gas. For language, the official recognized language is Montenegrin, but there's also a handful of other languages that they recommend or recognize as their official language like Albanian, Serbian, and Croatian. So if you're using your Google Translate app, which we always do and we love it, it's gotten us out of so many situations, we found that the best options were usually Croatian or Serbian to use because Montenegrin is not going to be an option on the app, which gets confusing. Just a couple other planning tips that we wish we knew. So one, cash is king, like king, king, king in Montenegro. There's a lot of places, most places actually don't even take credit card. And this is really important to know if you're using booking.com to book your hotel, which we always do. We didn't know this. We booked a hotel on booking.com, went to the hotel and then they're like, oh, that's, you know, $400. It was for a week or whatever and you're going to pay cash. And we're like, what? We didn't bring $400 in cash to pay. We thought this was going to be taken care of online because that's how it normally works on booking.com. So make sure you read the fine print if you're using like hotel booking websites, because sometimes it'll say pay at the property or pay online. And if it says pay at the property, you are nine and a half times out of 10 going to have to pay cash. We didn't see any of those like cash exchange stores where you can go and talk to a person and exchange cash. It was all ATMs with very high fees. So we ended up going to the bank to exchange cash, which was the best conversion rate we found. But you do have to have your passport on you. And then just a couple of things to pack. Make sure you bring some water shoes if you're going to do a bunch of beach days, because the beaches are nice, but some of them are more like pebbly than like soft sand. Like it's not like a Caribbean beach. So you don't want to hurt your feet when you're walking around. And also if you're going in the summer, mosquito repellent, especially if you're going to like Dermer National Park or like Skadar, they can come out in hordes. So now you have to plan your itinerary and figure out where to go, what to see, what to do, all that good stuff. If you want to know exactly what we did, where we stayed, what we ate, what we liked and didn't like, we have a Montenegro guide that we will link in the video description that you can download. If you want the iconic bay experience, then you should make sure you see Kator and Parast. Pro tip for Kator and also for Parast, they are the best in the early morning and at night. From like 9 a.m to 5 p.m, they're loaded with tourists. One, Parast has the Lady of the Rocks, everyone goes on a boat cruise and it's kind of during that time. And Kator is the biggest, most busiest city in all of Montenegro. And the cruise ships come, you will see them in the bay, they're huge, they're really hard to miss. They usually kind of dock around 9, tourists get off and then they explore the old town and they leave at 5. And it's crazy in the old town. So you can go in the morning and at night, it's really more magical. We feel like Kator feels so much more authentic. You can explore at your own pace. You're not sardined with other people and that's when we recommend you going. Now Parast, we love the Lady of the Rocks boat cruise and we think that you should absolutely not miss it. It was great. But also like give yourself that full day to explore Parast because most people go, they do the boat cruise, which is like an hour or two, they see the Blue Cave, Lady of the Rocks and then they leave. But Parast is really beautiful on the little side street. So stay for a drink, stay for the evening. And if you're like us and you used Kator kind of as a base and then you drove to Parast, it's like 20 minutes, it's still easy to go back in the evening. And just know there is a little parking lot right at the start of Parast town. You have to pay for it unless you book a boat cruise there, then it's free. So we didn't know that and we bought, we booked a boat cruise when we were in Kator to go to Parast and then we had to pay for parking. Two things that you should not miss in Kator is the Ladder of Kator, which is a hike. It's got switchbacks after switchback, so it is a little bit hard. We chose the hottest day of the week to go and do it, which we do not recommend you do. That part was awful, but it was beautiful. You get to see the Bay of Kator. There's like a cheese shop at the top if you want to grab a hard cider and some cheese and prosciutto. That was beautiful. And our favorite thing in all of Montenegro was the underwater wine bar. It's called the Kraken. You have to do this if you want one of the coolest experiences. You have to book in advance. You can't just show up. They will be busy. They take you to this floating wine bar in the middle of the Adriatic Sea. You get to have the most fresh seafood that they just like pull up from the water and this wine that has been aged in bottles at the, under the sea. So it ages quicker. It's boozier. It's stronger. It's so good. It is such a unique experience. We're going to link all these applicable things in the video description, links to these wine bars and these restaurants that we're recommending so that you can make your reservations. Do not miss it. So freaking cool. Keeping with that coastal experience, if you want to keep doing the beachy vibe thing, then make sure you also visit Budva. This has some of the best beaches in all of Montenegro. There's actually Mogran Beach, which is apparently one of the most beautiful on all of Europe. We loved it. The old town is gorgeous in Budva, but just the whole vibe does have that more like beach town, laid back, more chill vibe. It felt a lot more kind of authentic and local than Qatar. There were still tourists, but I think a lot of people just take their cruise, go to Qatar and leave Montenegro. So Budva kind of gives you that more real authentic Montenegro vibe, but with like the beautiful beaches and the Adriatic blue water. Now, if you're wine and outdoor lovers like we are, you cannot miss Lake Skadar. This is the biggest lake in the south of Europe. It borders Albania and it's one of the coolest, most unique and beautiful lakes that we've ever seen truly. The main like little town on the lake is called the Vir Pazar and that is where you're going to board the boat cruise. There's some restaurants, that kind of thing. Pro tip, park your car at parking Vir Pazar, just Google Maps parking Vir Pazar. It's like a five minute walk to the town, but it's free and it's way easier than all the little parking lots in town, which you will probably get stuff like squished together with other cars if you use those parking lots. They're absolutely crazy. Take the boat cruise, but afterwards make sure that you hike. It's like an hour walk to Godinge. This is Montenegro's kind of like really cute, medieval, old little wine city. It's in the mountains. It's gorgeous. There's some amazing wineries. We'll link to them in our Montenegro road trip video. We visited some. We recommend not staying in Vir Pazar just because it is very touristy feeling and doesn't have that like authentic charm. We drove to, it's called Lamanjani. L-I-M-L-J-A-N-I. And we stayed at this adorable little villa called Villa Lamanjani. It's in the mountains. It's completely isolated. There's like maybe two other hotels around. It's just like a 10 minute drive from Vir Pazar, but this was so authentic. The hospitality was amazing and the food was incredible. We had breakfast and dinner there for super cheap. The hotel itself was like 20 bucks a night. This massive dinner was like $10. They make their own wine. They're so kind. We had the biggest storm of the century, like where we lost power, we lost water. They still made us dinner. Their kitchen was flooded. If you like local authentic cultural experiences and food, you cannot, like hear me when I say this, you cannot miss staying in Villa Lamanjani. One of the coolest best experiences that we had in all of Montenegro. Now if you're an adventure lover, you have to see Dermerder National Park. You've got rafting, hiking, mountain views, all the things you want if you love adventure. We do have to let you know though, driving in the mountains in general in Montenegro is terrifying. The roads are like only big enough for one car, but it's a two-way road. It's like a sheer cliff that you're driving on with no barricade. You have to reverse half the time to let someone around the corner. It's blind turns. It's scary. So just make sure that you drive defensively and drive slowly and you'll be just fine. And if you want some really small authentic little villages for culture, go to Cetinje and Neguse. We unfortunately did not have time to go to Cetinje, but we love Neguse. It gave us like little Swiss Alpine town vibes and this is the home of the best prosciutto you will ever eat. It is worth going. Just eat the prosciutto and the pork steak, which we'll talk about in a minute. For getting around, we think you absolutely have to rent a car. Public transportation is unreliable. They do have taxis. There's not really ride share that we saw at the time of recording and even if there was, you don't want to be relying on these things to get between city to city because if you're going to such a compact country, you are more than likely going to see more than one city. So a rental car is a must for flexibility, freedom, and it is so affordable to do so. So like why not? A couple pro tips for renting your car when you are picking it up. If you are getting it from Dubrovnik airport like we suggest, make sure you tell your rental car company that you are going to go to Montenegro because they need to give you a green card for your car that allows you to cross the border. If you don't have it, you're going to get into some trouble. So just give them a heads up. Make sure you get rental car insurance if your credit card company doesn't have it already built in. We have a Chase and a Venture travel card which actually comes with built-in rental car insurance. If you don't know if yours does, call your company. Read the fine print. You don't want to pay for something that you don't need, but if you don't have it, make sure you get it, especially if you are driving in the mountains. Like I said, you're going to be reversing, backing up. You might scratch your car on the side of a mountain or a tree and you don't want to have that very high deposit. In Europe, rental cars are cheaper, at least that we found, than the states, but the deposits are a lot higher. It's not uncommon to pay $1,000 or $2,000 for a deposit and you want to make sure that you get that back. And take pictures and video of the rental car the day that you get it so it's time stamped before you start driving. Just like walk around with your phone, do a little loop-de-loop with a video, and then take pictures of all things even if there is nothing to document because you just don't want to get into any kind of she-said-at-the-end-of-your-trip and not get that deposit back. We talked about some of the scariness of the driving conditions. If you're staying on the coastal roads, there's really only one main road, so it's really hard to get lost. The road conditions were totally fine. It's just really in the mountains you have to be more concerned, especially if you get stuck in a storm like we did. And if you're going at high time, we started to drive the mountain towns around 10 a.m., which was a mistake. Try to do it earlier in the day or later at night because in the afternoon you have the tour buses coming through the mountains, and they are wider than the road, and we got stuck behind a tour bus that was trying to go around a hairpin turn for literally two hours. I'm not exaggerating. We were stuck behind there for two hours. Everyone's having to like reverse around the corners to try to get this tour bus around. It's a nightmare. Apparently, this is a common problem. When we told locals about it, they knew about it. So try to avoid the mountain towns during the high time for that reason. A couple tips for once you get to Montenegro. Tipping is not expected, but it is appreciated, and five to ten percent is enough. In terms of staying connected, if you are American like us, we love Google Fi. It's literally changed how we travel. This is kind of like Sprint or Verizon. It is your phone service carrier that you can get. It's Google's version of cell service, and you can get a plan that gives you unlimited coverage in the entire world. Data, phone, call. That is what we use. It's amazing. So you just get off the plane anywhere you go. We've had it in the Amazon jungle, and you can use your phone like normal. No extra rates. No extra charges. Nothing. We absolutely love it. We will leave a link to that in the video description, but if you don't have that option, or you are American, but you don't want to change your cell service, then make sure you get a SIM card. You can get them at the airport, but our favorite option before we had Google Fi was Airlo. These are eSIMs, so you can just get the Airlo app on your phone, and you can just buy pre-paid eSIMs. So you can get data packages. You can top it up right from your phone. It's really easy, really convenient. We'll also link to that. Those are kind of the two options for staying connected, because Wi-Fi is a little bit spotty. Even places that they said had Wi-Fi didn't. If you're going into Durham International Park, or the mountains of Lake Skadar, or even just the mountain towns, there is a good chance that you're going to lose service, so you want to have something as a backup. We always recommend learning some of the local phrases and part of the language, so you can be a good tourist and try to speak that language. So here's three things that you might want to learn. So hello is Dravo, thank you is Hvala, and cheers is Zivoli. Now you're basically fluent, so you're ready to go. In terms of booking in advance, if you go in the high season, you will probably want to book boat cruises and things like that in advance. Because we went in the shoulder season, we were able to just show up for our Lady of the Rocks boat cruise, our Budva little boat cruise, our Lake Skadar boat cruise. We booked those the day of or the day before with absolutely no problem. All right, the best part of Montenegro, and traveling in general, if you watch any of our videos, we focus on food. So food tips. But first of all, comment prosciutto in the comments if you're a real one and you're still watching. We covered pretty much all the traditional foods and like the best places to get them in the whole country in our foodie Montenegro road trip videos part one and two, which we'll link here. But here are 10 of our favorite things that we think you can't leave the country without trying. So one is cevapi, which is these little like minced meat grilled sausages. They're fatty, they're flavorful. Their chefs kiss amazing. Two is burek, which is like a oily, delicious, crispy, greasy, amazing phyllo pastry filled with like cheese or spinach, sometimes meat. It kind of gives us the vibe of a Greek spanakopita. Great for on the run breakfast or a quick, easy, super cheap snack in the afternoon. Three is isopod sacca. It's like meat and potatoes all slow cooked under a big lid. Traditionally it's goat or lamb, which we absolutely love. It's so flavorful. It's more traditional in the mountains, but we did share a place near Budva that we had that is apparently the best in the whole country and it was pretty dang good. Four is negusi steak. As you suggest, it's from the adorable little village of Negusi. This is not a beef steak, it's a pork steak. It's wrapped around cheese and prosciutto covered with more cheese, so it can't go wrong. It's probably one of our favorite things that we ate in the whole country. It's just incredibly delicious. Five is negusi prosciutto. Negusi is just the hall of pork things. This is honestly, like honestly the best prosciutto we've ever had and I'm gonna duck as the Italians throw tomatoes at me because we've been to Italy and we think the prosciutto in Negusi is better. You have to try it. It is incredible. And six is just the fresh seafood in general, especially if you're doing the coast. The most famous dish is mussels in gluzzara, which is a big hit in all the Balkans. Fresh mussels in like an olive oil white wine sauce. It's so simple, so fresh. Glass of white wine, a little bit of crispy bread. Seven is peras cake, which you have to get in the city of Peras. It's this dense almond flour cake, so it's a little bit crumbly, but they soak it in this maraschino cherry liqueur. It's usually served with a cold almond like gelato ice cream on the side. It's sweet, but not too sweet. It's dense. It's really one of the most perfect little sweet treats that you could have in the afternoon or great with breakfast with a little cup of coffee. Eight is colesan cheese, which is a protected cheese from Montenegro. You actually can't find it outside of the country. You find it in the mountain towns. It's actually layered and it's made with cow's milk. Nine is prijanica, which is like this little puffy dough that's fried, so it puffs up and then you put like jam or honey on it. Really traditional for breakfast or a not super sweet dessert. They are one of our favorite things and Villamond, like we said, you have to go to Villamond in Lake Skadar. It makes the absolute best ones in their breakfast spread. And last but not least, number 10 is Montenegro wine. It is such an underrated wine country. The wine was absolutely incredible. There's so many wineries and it's really cheap, really flavorful. Tell us in the comments if you would try the red first, the white first, or if you're just wanting to try them all. We approve of both. And something that you should know, breakfast is not a big thing in Montenegro. Most Montenegrins will just go to a bakery and grab like a pastry, which do you need another excuse to do as the locals do and start your day with pastries? We think not. And our last tip for finding the best food in Montenegro is to watch our Montenegro foodie road trip video right here. We have all the best foods to try, where to try them, and we also put all the other tips together in this video into one big itinerary to save you all the time planning. As always, thank you so much for watching. Let us know in the comments if you found this helpful. If you have any other questions, we will respond to all comments. We're happy to help. Make sure you like and subscribe for future foodie travel tips and inspo.