When planning your road trip, you have to be somewhat strategic about where you choose to overnight.
Where to stay during your Montenegro road trip
When planning your road trip, you have to be somewhat strategic about where you choose to overnight. Obviously you need a place with parking – but not all hotels or guesthouses offer a space on site. We found much better options for our price point ($30-$50/night) on Airbnb.
In bigger, busier places on the bay such as Kotor and Budva, it’s very difficult to drive in and get a street park if you’re visiting for the day. I much prefer to stay in smaller towns, but a dedicated hotel parking spot in Kotor/Budva is worth its weight in gold.
We stayed in Rijeka, Sveti Stefan, Kotor and Perast during our Montenegro road trip. This gave us a good mix of bigger and smaller towns, and allowed us to split the driving into manageable chunks. We started and ended our road trip in Podgorica, so we also spent a couple of nights in the capital.
Podgorica: Montenegro Hostel B&B has an unbeatable location in the heart of the Old Town. Doubles with shared bathrooms and dorm rooms are available, all for a very reasonable nightly rate. For something more upmarket, Hotel Hemera is well-positioned and features a lovely outdoor terrace as well as designer-finished rooms.
Rijeka Crnojevica: There’s only one place you should stay in Rijeka, and that’s Konak Perjanik. This historic stone house is built into the old bridge (the Prince used to sleep here on his visits), giving you wonderful views of the river from a small terrace. The owners, Ljudmila and her husband, are helpful and cook up a mean breakfast.
Sveti Stefan: We chose this Airbnb to stay at in Sveti Stefan. It’s absolutely huge, with two bedrooms, a terrace, a full kitchen, and on-site parking.
Kotor: In Kotor, we stayed at this petite but comfortable studio just outside the old town. Nancy is an amazing host and even jumped in our car to help us navigate the narrow streets around her place. Balkans experts Allison and Stephanie over at Sofia Adventures suggest staying in the nearby town of Prcanj to avoid driving in Kotor, which is honestly a bit of a nightmare. Here are their Kotor accommodation recs.
Perast: Perast is my favorite place on the bay (you’ll find out why soon enough). It’s small, but there are loads of pension-style guesthouses in the hills above the water. We stayed in a small but sufficient apartment at Apartments Jovanovic. The owners are lovely, there’s ample parking on site, and everything of note is within walking distance.
If you can afford it, Conte Hotel on the waterfront is the best boutique accommodation in town and probably the nicest hotel on the whole bay.