Montenegro: Better late then never

I wasn’t totally sure what to expect from this trip. Partly because I’d done no research. My contribution to the organisation was replying once or twice in a group WhatsApp and putting my credit card down where needed. I had no input and was the ultimate tag along. All I knew was that I was with some awesome girls and Montenegro was meant to be really beautiful.

We rented a car (eeep), downloaded google maps on an iPhone (no data out there!) and off we trotted. Our itinerary went something like this - Fly into Podgorica, get car, drive to Budva for a few days, then on to Ulcinj. What could go wrong?

Thoughts on Budva? It’s a cute and fairly touristy town with a load to do. Funfair, good. Food, good. Beach, ehh. There’s better. That said it made a good hub to travel from, it's fairly central along Montenegro’s coast line. Definitely explore Budva’s Old Town, as you can see above it’s very photogenic.

We trekked down to Žabljak to the Durmitor National Park. This was worth the 8 hour road trip (note it wasn’t meant to be that long!). We followed Google Maps to a T with very mixed results. We took a few weird turns and I got a little nervous. I distinctly remember saying “Mmm. You do hear about those people that follow Google Maps to their death”.

Sure enough, this was nearly us a few times. We followed the signs and genuinely ended up off roading, knee deep in mud and screaming. We could hear the crunch of metal as we hit more rocks and the road got less even and more steep. We called it. We got out of the car to assess before deciding that the road got thinner and more hectic and we probably should have got a 4x4. Back we go! We followed another map given to us by our lovely car rental man Pavel (Pavel was actually to be our hero on many occasions).

We finally made it to The Black Lake, which is described as one if the most beautiful lakes in Montenegro. It’s the largest and the best known of 18 lakes on mountain Durmitor. Look at me with facts and that.

I’ve never seen anything like it. It took our breath away and was worth nearly writing off the car. It really is breathtaking. The air is so clean you feel like you aren’t really on earth any more. We made more dog friends (this is a theme of my trips!) I just wish we had longer, I’d love to have gone for a hike. Note to future self, leave more time for road trips when abroad, especially if you don’t have data etc - you will probably get lost a few times and lose a few hours...

We’d also heard some random beach was good and read online the journey was super easy. It wasn’t. This ended in more accidental off roading. I get terrible vertigo. It’s my not so secret secret, along side getting car sick - which weirdly wasn’t an issue on this trip. This beach point is really vague and irrelevant, I think my point is don't trust google directions when finding a random beach in the Baltics.

I can’t forget to mention we did visit the Tara Bridge. You can get a zip wire over this if you so wish, we were too busy calming down after the hectic drive where we nearly died x10.

Lastly, on the way home from the beach, we ended up on the border of Montenegro and Albania which turns out is the most stunning viewpoint as you can see below! There was a rainbow. I had feelings. I think I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

We spent our last few nights in a wonderfully quirky Air BnB in Ulcinj. It was a flat in a family home and our hosts were so lovely. You'll notice I haven't mentioned many foodie spots in this trip, we pretty much ate whatever we would (road kill) whereever we could in random restaurants and stops. The further afield we went, the less appetising the food got. It was all fine, but for us veggies, it was just salad, pizza, and pasta. On repeat, for most of the trip!!

If you were wondering, yes we were pulled over for speeding when taking me to the airport. Always happens like that doesn’t it. Few tears and we still had to pay a fine, but I got my flight because luckily it was delayed by oh, 4 hours! What else happened... we nearly accidentally crossed the border to Croatia (Montenegro is small, especially when taking a wrong turn!) and needless to say we didn’t get that deposit back for the car! We probably did scratch it, but they will charge you an arm and leg so watch out for that! 💛

So, parting thoughts on Montegro? Perfect if you an outdoorsy, random adventure-y trip. I’m so good with words aren’t I. This made me want to do it all over again. Rent a car and disappear for a bit longer, get some hiking in and keep driving into the rest of the Balkans.