Seeing Montenegro Without a Rental Car: Trains, Taxis, and What Actually Works

Montenegro's mountain roads, questionable signage in places, and the general stress of driving unfamiliar switchbacks put a lot of travelers off self-driving, and honestly, you don't need a car to have a great trip here. Between the railway, buses, and taxis, most of what visitors actually want to see is reachable without ever touching a steering wheel.

The scenic backbone: the railway

If your trip includes both the coast and Serbia, or you're just after one of Europe's more talked about scenic train rides, the Belgrade-Bar railway is a genuinely good use of a travel day, not just a way to get from A to B. It's slow by design (or at least by the age of the infrastructure), but that's part of the appeal. We cover the full ride in The Belgrade to Bar Railway.

Within Montenegro itself, the same line also connects the coast to Podgorica, which opens up rail as an option for at least part of an inland trip, even if it doesn't reach every destination you'll want to visit.

The workhorse: intercity buses

For everywhere the train doesn't go, and for shorter regional hops, buses are the practical backbone of getting around without a car. Bar's own bus station connects to a long list of Montenegrin towns and cities, and regional bus networks generally cover the coastal towns and major inland destinations reasonably well, if not always frequently. It's not glamorous, but it's cheap and it works.

The flexible layer: taxis

This is where taxis earn their keep. Trains and buses run on fixed schedules and fixed routes; a taxi doesn't. For day trips to specific destinations, for the last mile from a station or bus stop to your actual accommodation, or for anywhere public transport simply doesn't reach conveniently, a taxi fills the gap. Our day trips guide covers reaching Kotor, Budva, Perast, Cetinje, and a number of other popular destinations directly from Bar, without needing your own car or waiting on a bus schedule.

A practical way to think about it: use the train or bus for the long, fixed legs of your trip, and taxis for the flexible, time-sensitive, or off-the-beaten-path parts.

What this actually looks like for a typical trip

A reasonably common pattern for car-free visitors: fly or take the ferry into the coast, base yourself in Bar or a nearby municipality town, use taxis for day trips to Kotor, Budva, or inland destinations, and if the itinerary includes Serbia or Podgorica, work the Belgrade-Bar railway in as a scenic leg rather than a means to an end. It's not the fastest way to see the country, but it removes the stress of mountain driving entirely, and lets everyone in the group actually look at the scenery instead of watching the road.

Where the pickup zone matters

One practical note if taxis are doing a lot of the work in your itinerary: we can only pick up within Opština Bar municipality (Bar, Sutomore, Čanj, Dobra Voda, Šušanj, Stari Bar, Virpazar, Utjeha), though drop-off is anywhere. If your trip has you moving between towns outside that zone, you'd want a different local taxi service for pickups originating there. Full details on the zone are in our airport transfers guide.

Traveling in the quieter months

If you're visiting outside peak summer, fewer taxis are generally on the road, which changes the math slightly on how much you should plan ahead versus hail a car on the spot. Off-Season Arrivals: Getting Around Bar When Fewer Taxis Are on the Road covers the adjustments worth making.

For the arrival side of this whole picture, ferry, train, bus, or boat, see our pillar guide to arriving in Bar. And you can book taxis for any of these legs through the Greencar.me Taxi app: Google Play or the App Store.