Routes

Ready-made road trips around Montenegro: a day-by-day plan, a budget guideline, key stops, and a map. The country is compact but mountainous — a car opens up what’s hard to reach by public transport: the Kotor serpentine, the lakeside villages of Skadar, the Durmitor ring, and the canyon roads of the north.

How to choose a direction. The coast — the Bay of Kotor with Perast and Kotor, Budva and Sveti Stefan down to Ulcinj; the centre — Cetinje and the Lovćen mausoleum, Ostrog monastery, Lake Skadar; the north — Durmitor and the Tara Canyon around Žabljak, and the forests of Biogradska Gora near Kolašin; to the mountains — the climb from the bay over Lovćen. And to see it all in one trip, there’s a grand tour of Montenegro, roughly two weeks long.

Season and preparation. The best time for most routes is from late spring to autumn. In winter the mountain sections (the high passes to Durmitor, the Lovćen and Njegoš roads, the northern canyons) are harder, and passes are sometimes closed because of snow — check road conditions before setting off. For the high mountains and narrow serpentines, take a smaller, manoeuvrable car or an SUV. The mileage, days, and budget in the cards are guidelines, not exact measurements: it all depends on the number of stops, the season, and accommodation.