Why Montenegro
The country covers thirteen thousand square kilometres and rises from the sea to two and a half thousand metres in forty kilometres. The Bay of Kotor, a drowned river canyon, is World Heritage listed and forms the most spectacular bay on the Adriatic.
The north — Durmitor, the Tara canyon, one of the deepest in Europe — is as empty as the coast is busy. Lake Skadar, shared with Albania, is the largest in the Balkans.
May–June and September–October: the sea already or still swimmable, without the saturation of July and August. The north is hiked from June to September and skied from January to March.
Entry and stay
Montenegro is neither in the European Union nor in the Schengen area. It is a candidate country, and entry rules fall under Montenegrin law.
Requirements depend on nationality. Check yours with the Montenegrin authorities before booking.
No duration is quoted here, for want of an official source verified at the time of writing — 22 September 2026.
Getting around
The Belgrade–Bar railway crosses the country and ranks among the most spectacular in Europe: four hundred and thirty-five bridges and two hundred and fifty-four tunnels, for a few euros. It remains real transport, not an attraction.
Elsewhere, coaches cover the essentials, from the bus stations at Podgorica, Kotor and Budva.
A car is useful for the north, but the mountain roads are narrow and winding. The Lovćen road and its twenty-five hairpins is better driven one way than the other.
Money
Montenegro uses the euro without being in the eurozone: it adopted it unilaterally. So there is no exchange to make and no conversion risk, but the country has no seat at the European Central Bank.
Prices remain a good third below neighbouring Croatia, and the gap widens out of season.
Before you go
Kotor is a cruise call. When two ships anchor on the same morning, the old town becomes impassable between ten and four. The call schedule is public.
A tourist tax is added to the nightly rate and is paid locally. Registering your stay with the police is in principle compulsory within twenty-four hours: hotels do it, private rentals not always.
Durmitor park and the Tara canyon are three hours from the coast on slow roads. Chaining them in a day from Budva does not work.