Kamenovo beach and Adriatic coastline near Budva, Montenegro

Jul 27, 2026 · Greencar.me Taxi

Taxi, Bus, or Rental Car? Getting Around from Bar, Montenegro

Every visitor to Bar ends up asking some version of the same question in the first day or two: what's actually the best way to get around here? The honest answer is that it depends entirely on what kind of trip you're having, and the three main options, taxi, local bus, and rental car, are genuinely good at different things. This guide is meant to help you figure out which one fits your situation, without pretending any single option is right for everyone.

The short version

If you're here for a few days to a couple of weeks, mostly sticking to Bar municipality with maybe a day trip or two further along the coast, a taxi is usually the simplest and most stress-free option. No parking to think about, no unfamiliar road rules to navigate, no insurance paperwork, just a car when you need one and nothing to manage when you don't.

If you're on a tight budget and your schedule can bend around a timetable, the local bus network along the coast is a genuinely workable option for certain routes, and we've written a full comparison in taxi vs. local bus.

If you're planning a multi-week road trip covering a lot of ground, want total flexibility to stop wherever you like, or you're moving around daily with a full car of luggage or gear, a rental car starts to make more sense. We go into exactly where that tradeoff sits in taxi vs. rental car.

None of these is a universal answer, and honestly, most visitors end up using more than one at different points in a single trip.

Taxi: best for flexibility without the hassle

A taxi in Bar means calling up a car when you want one, riding, and being done, no vehicle to return, no fuel to think about, no parking search at the end of a long day. For visitors, this is usually the path of least resistance, and it scales well from a single airport transfer to daily use over a longer stay.

The tradeoff is cost per trip if you're moving around constantly, and the fact that pickup through Greencar.me Taxi is limited to inside Opština Bar municipality, Bar itself, Sutomore, Čanj, Dobra Voda, Šušanj, Stari Bar, Virpazar, and Utjeha. Drop-off anywhere is unrestricted, so a taxi from your hotel in Bar to Kotor or the airport works fine, it's the pickup location that has to fall inside that zone. We explain the full reasoning behind that rule in our airport transfers guide.

Montenegro's taxi fares are metered, not negotiated, so the price reflects an actual published rate structure rather than a curbside conversation. If you want to see exactly what that looks like in practice, with real numbers, our fare examples post walks through a handful of common trips start to finish.

Local bus: cheapest for the right route

Montenegro's coastal towns are connected by a regional bus network, and for certain fixed routes, particularly Bar to Ulcinj, Bar to Budva, or Bar to Podgorica, it can be the most affordable way to cover ground, especially if you're not in a hurry and don't mind working around a timetable rather than the other way around. It's a solid option for students, budget travelers, and anyone comfortable with a bit of unpredictability in exchange for a lower price.

Where it gets harder is anywhere off the main routes, at odd hours, or with a lot of luggage in tow. A bus won't come to your door, and once you're at your destination, you're often still relying on a taxi or a walk to get to wherever you're actually headed. We break down exactly where each option wins in taxi vs. local bus.

Rental car: best for multi-week road trips and full flexibility

Here's where we're going to be straightforward, even though it's not in a taxi company's obvious interest to say it: if you're planning a multi-week trip covering a lot of Montenegro, want to wake up and change your itinerary on a whim, or you're the kind of traveler who likes stopping at every viewpoint on a coastal drive, a rental car is probably the better call. Nobody knows your travel style better than you do, and a taxi service, however good, isn't a substitute for having your own car when that's genuinely what the trip calls for.

The tradeoffs are real too: unfamiliar mountain roads, parking in old towns that were never built with cars in mind, fuel costs, and the mental overhead of navigating and driving in a country that isn't home, on top of whatever else you're trying to enjoy about the trip. Our full comparison goes through this in more detail, including situations where renting for part of a trip and using taxis for the rest turns out to be the actual best answer.

Special situations that change the calculation

A handful of specific situations come up often enough that they deserve their own guides, since the "which option is best" question looks different depending on what you're actually trying to do:

Traveling with a pet. If you're bringing an animal along, it's worth knowing what to expect and what to ask ahead of time. See traveling with pets.
House-hunting or property viewing. Looking at apartments or houses across the municipality has its own logistics, different from a typical holiday. See house-hunting in Bar municipality.
Medical appointments and pharmacy runs. Getting to a clinic or pharmacy reliably matters more than sightseeing logistics usually do. See medical appointments and pharmacies.
Traveling on a student or tight budget. See students and budget travelers.
Coordinating a larger group. Weddings, family reunions, and bigger parties need a different approach than a solo traveler booking one ride. See group travel.
Traveling around a public holiday. Schedules, prices, and what's open all shift. See Montenegro's public holidays.
Figuring out how far things actually are. See our distance and time guide, which pulls together the real numbers from our other guides in one place.
A rainy day. See a rainy day in Bar for what changes and what's still worth doing.
Wanting a slower, more deliberate day out, photography, sightseeing at your own pace, rather than point-to-point transport. See hiring a taxi for a custom day.
Interested in the region beyond the coast. The Crmnica wine country near Lake Skadar and the hike up Mount Rumija are both genuinely worthwhile and both reachable from Bar. See wine and olive oil country and hiking Mount Rumija.

How to actually decide

A rough way to think about it: the more your trip looks like point A to point B, with clear plans and a limited window of days, the better a taxi fits. The more your trip looks like an open-ended road trip with a loose itinerary and no fixed schedule, the more a rental car earns its cost and hassle. And if your budget is the deciding factor and your schedule has slack in it, the bus is worth a serious look for the routes it actually serves well.

None of these choices are permanent for the length of a trip, either. It's entirely normal to rent a car for a week of exploring, then switch to taxis for a few days of relaxing without the responsibility of a vehicle, or to take the bus to Budva one day and a taxi back the same evening because the timetable didn't line up. Mixing and matching is often the actual smart move.

Booking a taxi when you need one

Whichever way you land on the bigger question, when a taxi is the right call, you can book through the Greencar.me Taxi app on Android or the App Store on iPhone, as long as your pickup point is somewhere inside Bar municipality. For the fuller picture on why riders choose the service, see our main guide to Greencar.me Taxi in Bar.