Montenegro – Balkans car trip

Montenegro – Balkans car trip

Let me start this blog by explaining that this trip was a little different for me. I wanted to see a lot of Montenegro as I had seen and heard so much about this small, but apparently beautiful country. If I mentioned it to people in the UK the reaction was usually …” where is that?”.

Even if some had heard about it, they knew it only for the cheap beach holidays. They went to one resort, stayed there for the sun and sand and returned 7 days later having seen nothing but the inside of a hotel and one beach. This was not for me.

I read up on the country and saw that it has picturesque lakes, scenic mountains, ancient churches, remote villages, mediaeval buildings and the most fantastic fjord style inlets around. All anyone seemed to know about it was several tacky tourist resorts and crowded beaches.

Planning my trip from Podgorica

I did my research and noted down where I wanted to go see ie Podgorica, Budva and Kotor city.

I planned initially on catching a cheap flight from London into Podgorica, the capital and catching a few buses between a couple of places. I would return to Podgorica to catch my flight back home.

Ok, that seemed enough and I started planning. During my planning I read about Herceg Novi …. and then what about Perast and the wonderful view around Kotor Bay.

So, should I add these in as they are so close by and extend the trip by several more days.

That seemed logical so I added in a few more days to accommodate these extra places. I then realised that Dubrovnik – who would not want to see famous Dubrovnik !!! – was only a few miles away from one place and that if I was in Dubrovnik it meant I would have to cross the border into Croatia.

I had been to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia but Dubrovnik was a totally different ball game ….. it was added to the list. I’ll work out how to cross the border later I thought.

So there it was – my 3 destinations had now become 6. That was enough.

But hold on, if I was in Dubrovnik then the border with Bosnia-Herzegovina is only a few kilometres away and I’ve never been there. Sarajevo was the logical choice but it was far into the interior and not easy to get to. I saw Trebinje was nearby and when I looked it up. it looked so picturesque …. I couldn’t miss this off.

Ok, I’ll fly into Podgorica and out of Dubrovnik …. easy …… until I saw the prices of flights out of Tivat, (Dubrovnik) airport …. horrendously expensive and predominately British Airways flights who seemed to have a monopoly on UK flights and thus massively high prices.

It would take forever to get back to Podgorica and a cheapo Ryanair/Wizz air flight back at a quarter of the price. I then saw that the mountains between B-H and Montenegro were wonderful.

I could get back to Podgorica by bus from Trebinje to Niksic, across the border and then back to Podgorica.

Buses are available but not always convenient

Now I needed bus schedules and was dismayed at seeing some of the timings. Buses often left at the most inconvenient times for me to travel between the places eg Trebinje to Niksic, arrived at bad times and then involved transfers to get where I wanted to be. Some were good however – Budva to Kotor virtually has an hourly cheap shuttle service.

The route I had now planned – which had now become 9 places to stop, was a logistical nightmare. Bus stations were often not in the centre of towns, so involved a taxi or overly long walk to get to them and info was fairly scant and unreliable.

I threw my arms up in despair and thought I just can’t do this the way I want to. ie use public transport swiftly and easily to avoid my 2 week trip becoming 1 month.

Having almost abandoned my plans I considered something I rarely do – hire a car. My experience has always been that hire cars are expensive and cannot be used in cities due to traffic issues and a lack of parking. I was also fearful of other driver’s bad standards of driving and the road conditions in underdeveloped countries. I avoid car hire wherever possible.

But this was going to be the only way I could get around on the schedule I wanted. I dismissed it and slept on it. Next day I went shopping and accidently bumped into an old work colleague that I hadn’t seen for a while.

He told me all about his last holiday – a road trip around Montenegro and Croatia by car. He said it was cheap, easy, safe and really good fun. I was hooked and when I got home I tentatively checked out car hire from Podgorica.

Shocked at the prices I definitely was ….. but not because they were expensive but because they were so cheap. This could not be true so I checked many of them for the exclusions that get added on and no, they were all inclusive.

Insurance to cross borders is required.

Not believing this I trolled through dozens of reviews of different car hire companies in Podgorica and all said that they found no hidden extras and the experience was generally good. They did however warn that there would be an extra cost for insurance if I wanted to take it across borders and that drop off in another country was a big no, no.

Do not attempt to cross borders without the extra insurance from the rental Company. I had heard that some people said it was not necessary but I found it was. The car’s papers were checked on each side of every crossing in/out of Croatia and B-H and specifically insurance was checked. It is needed!

I gave it a few days and researched more and eventually found a car hire company that had lots of great reviews, was cheap and all seemed good. My car hire was going to cost me £55 for 10 days fully inclusive and an extra £20 for insurance to take it across the borders. This was so, so cheap !

Montenegro – Balkans car trip

I felt I had done all the calculations, checked bus schedules and time needed to travel and how to get from bus station to accommodation. It was working out well for the car instead of public transport which is my favoured form of travel

My Montenegro – Balkans car trip was now beginning to look viable!

The swiftness of car travel meant that I could save at least 6 extra days hotel accommodation. I could leave and be at the next destination within hours rather than a day trip and not have to leave at stupid o’clock the next morning. The car hire was actually saving me a lot of money and time.

Ok, I needed to pay for petrol which amazingly was only about £40 for a full tank and that just about did the whole journey but that still made it so much more convenient, gave me peace of mind and actually …. dare I say it, the driving would be a new adventure in itself. I took consolence in the fact that most trips would just be a few hours between cities so less chance of accidents, than if I was doing a full day’s driving.

Looking for parking availability at any place I booked was also easy enough – I was convinced ….I booked it online – payment would be made on collection by credit card and got a confirmation back immediately.

Car hire was the best option 

I used Rentalcars.com – click here for their website as the car booking agents and noticed that the local agent I would collect from was called Surprice. Hertz and Avis etc were available too but at about twice the price – I gambled on a local company and it was fine.

The car was to be collected from the airport after I had seen Podgorica for a few days and the local agent was friendly, helpful and spoke great English.

As I had checked if I could pay the extra to take it into Croatia and B-H the insurance cost was taken (about £20), my credit card details taken for any damage not insured, papers stamped for border controls and I was handed the keys to a lovely new VW Polo.

Montenegro – Balkans car trip here I come.

Good road conditions.

I assumed the worse about the road conditions and driving standards. It was unfounded.

Roads were pretty much the same as in the UK, well maintained and often quite clear of traffic. Even the mountain crossing was a great road and I couldn’t believe my luck at how empty the crossings were of traffic, the ease to get through (minutes) and the joy of the scenery from the car.

Driving standards of the others on the road were good, I never had any issues.

I had totally mistaken the size of the country and really didn’t check distances between cities – why I don’t know, unlike me to do that.

Montenegro is actually smaller than Wales, a country I would drive to in the UK as a day trip destination. It was so much smaller than I thought so driving each leg of the journey was often only 45 min or a few hours on the longest one – so easy.

Would I do it again ….. yes, definitely

Montenegro – Balkans car trip

Montenegro – Balkans car trip

Feb 2018