For Montenegro: two routes and one that is not rushed
There are two ways to get to the sea, and the difference is not in kilometers, but in how many times you will stop and where your brakes slacken.
A car with Belgrade plates on Krstac above Kotor, at three in the afternoon, with the trunk full and the air conditioning on maximum — that's the scene where the same conversation happens every year. Someone in the back seat says it smells like burning. Those aren't the neighbors' brakes. Those are yours.
Short answer for one who is only looking for a route:from Belgrade to Podgorica you go via Čačak, Užice, Nova Varoš and Prijepolje to the Gostun-Dobrakovo crossing, then through Bijelo Polje and Mojkovac to Kolašin — about 460 km and, with the border crossing, seven to eight hours.The alternative via Novi Pazar and Rozaje is similar in mileage, slower on asphalt and almost always emptier at the border. Everything else in this text is about how not to make those eight hours exhausting eight hours.
Route via Bijelo Polje: fast while the highway lasts
The first two hundred kilometers are the easiest part of the day. The E763 highway from Belgrade through Obrenovac and Ljig to Preljina near Cacak, and further along the section to Pozega, swallows time —Belgrade-Pozega is about 175 km and less than two hourswhen it's not rush hour. This is where the highway ends and the real journey begins.
From Užice via Zlatibor, Nova Varoš and Prijepolje, there is a two-lane road that is nice and slow. The ascent to Zlatibor, then the descent to Kokin Brod, then the ascent to Prijepolje — all on one lane, with trucks and with a convoy forming behind each slower vehicle. This is where the time saved by the highway is lost, and here mistakes are made in overtaking, which we wrote about separately in the text aboutovertaking on a two-lane road in summer.
TransitionGostun-Dobrakovois the main direction and therefore in the season it can be the slowest point of the entire road. On Saturday mornings, between seven and eleven, waiting for an hour and a half is no exception. Whoever starts at five from Belgrade is at the border around noon — the worst possible time. Whoever leaves at two in the morning or in the afternoon passes by.
| Share | Km | Time | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belgrade - Požega | 175 | 1 h 50 min | Highway, Billing |
| Požega - Prijepolje | 110 | 2 h | Two-lane, ascents, columns |
| Prijepolje – Gostun border | 25 | 25 min + wait | Narrow, along Lim |
| Dobrakovo – Mojkovac | 65 | 1 h 10 min | Tara Canyon, don't rush |
| Mojkovac – Podgorica | 85 | 1 hr 15 mins | Motorway section + Morača |
From Mateševo to Smokovac near Podgorica workssection of the Bar-Boljare highway, about forty kilometers of bridges and tunnels through the terrain through which it was previously crawled. It is the biggest change in this direction in the last decade and shortens the descent to Podgorica by a good half an hour. The billing mode on it has changed since opening, so we don't override it — check before you go.
Part way throughmorača Canyon, where there is no highway, is narrow, with tunnels without lighting and with a rock hanging over the roadway. Sunglasses are removed before entering the tunnel, not in the tunnel.
When going to the sea from Podgorica
Here the road offers a choice that most make poorly, because they make it through navigation.
The first is,Sozina tunnelin the direction of Podgorica-Sutomore, just over four kilometers, with payment. He cuts through the mountain and throws you out to sea in about twenty minutes. Without it, you can take the old road over the Suthorman, which is twice as long, full of serpentine and in the heat cruel to the brakes and passengers. Sozina is paid and worth every cent.
The second is entry intoBoku. Anyone going to Herceg Novi, Tivat or Kotor has a ferryKamenari–Lepetanethrough the straits of Verige: the sailing takes ten minutes, operates non-stop and shortens the tour of the entire bay by about half an hour. In summer, you stand in front of the ferry, but you stand in the shade and by the sea, which is not the same as standing in a queue in the sun.
Serpentine above Kotor, and why is there no hurry
The old Kotor-Njeguši-Cetinje road is the most beautiful and challenging section in this part of Europe. It climbs from sea level to the Krstac pass at almost a thousand meters, through a series of sharp serpentines, some of which are barely the width of a vehicle, with a stone wall instead of a protective fence and with a view straight to the bay.
There are two things that bring people down. The first isdescent: who drives it on the brake, in five minutes it has hot brake fluid and a sinking pedal. It is lowered in the second gear, by the engine, and the brake is used briefly and decisively, so it is allowed to cool down. We have given a complete explanation of why the liquid is boiling rather than the tile in the text onbrakes fly, and the technique of guiding through the curve itself in the text onserpentines.
The alternative via Novi Pazar and Rozaje is similar in mileage, slower on asphalt and almost always emptier at the border.
It's the second onepassing. In narrow sections, there is no agreement on who has the upper hand — there is only whoever is closer to the expansion. Stop at the extension, wait, panic. Buses and vans ply here and are always yielded to, without thinking.
The ascent from Kotor to Njeguši is more pleasant than the descent and less burdensome on a hot day. If you have a choice, climb here in the morning and take the highway back.
Night or day, and where it stops
There is an old division between those who leave at two in the morning and those who leave at six. Both schools are right, but for different reasons.
The night departure solves two things at once: the highway to Požega is empty and the border is empty. The price is that you drive the entire two-lane section over Zlatibor tired, in the dark, on a road without lighting and with game that comes out on the road at dawn in August. If you decide to stay the night,a break of fifteen minutes every hour and a half is not a recommendation but a requirement, and the driver who was working that day should not get behind the wheel.
The daily departure is safer, but it requires patience at the border and a climate that really works. The smartest compromise we use in the newsroom:departure around four in the afternoon, the two-lane section is crossed in light and without columns because then everyone returns, the border is caught around nine in the evening when it is most empty, and the descent to Podgorica falls into the night when the highway is empty anyway.
A simple rule applies to breaks: stop on the uphills, not the downhills, and stop before you need to. The last reasonable big break before the border is in Nova Varoš or Prijepolje; after the border, in Bijelo Polje or Mojkovac. Between them is a canyon in which one does not stop for no reason.
Hidden gems
A crossing that no one uses.Apple near Prijepolje is a smaller crossing a few kilometers from the main one and is regularly empty when Gostun is congested. The road to it is narrower, but the loss of ten minutes on the asphalt returns an hour on the ramp.
Route overRožaja and Berana— entry at Špiljani near Ribarić — is longer by half an hour per hour, but is almost always passable and leads through an area that the highway will never cross. For the return, when there is no hurry, it is better than the arrival.
And one little thing everyone forgets:pumps in the Morača canyon are rare. The tank is filled in Mojkovac or Kolašin, not after them.
For the car itself before departure, what we explained in the text aboutpreparation for heat and 1400 kilometers: tire pressure for a loaded car, brake fluid that is not older than two years and air conditioning that works. Nothing is being repaired at Krstac.
Questions & answers
short and to the point- How long is the journey by car from Belgrade to Montenegro?
- To Podgorica about 460 km and seven to eight hours via Čačak, Užice, Prijepolje and the Gostun-Dobrakovo crossing. Count another hour to Budva via the Sozina tunnel.
- Which route to Montenegro is better, via Prijepolje or via Rožaje?
- Via Prijepolje, it is shorter and faster on asphalt, but the Gostun crossing is the busiest in the season. It takes about half an hour to cross Rožaj, and the border is almost always empty.
- Can the serpentines Kotor-Njeguši be driven with an ordinary car?
- I can, but the descent is driven with the engine in second gear, not on the brake. In places, the road is barely one and a half vehicles wide and is bypassed on extensions; buses are always given way.
