Taxi vs. Local Bus: Comparing Your Options

Montenegro's coast has a regional bus network connecting the main towns, and for the right trip, it's a genuinely solid option. For other trips, it's more trouble than it's worth. Here's an honest look at where each one wins.

Where the bus wins

Fixed routes between major towns. Buses running along the coast, Bar to Ulcinj, Bar to Budva, Bar to Podgorica, tend to be reliable and inexpensive for the specific route they cover. If your trip is exactly one of those routes and your schedule has some flexibility, the bus is worth checking.

Budget is the main constraint. If you're traveling on a tight budget and don't mind working around a timetable, the fare difference between a bus and a taxi adds up, especially over several trips. We go into this in more depth, alongside other budget-friendly approaches, in students and budget travelers.

You don't need door-to-door. If your starting point and destination are both near a bus stop or station, and you're comfortable with a short walk on either end, the bus does the job without extra cost.

Where a taxi wins

You have luggage, especially a lot of it. Buses aren't built for hauling multiple suitcases, and neither the boarding process nor the space onboard makes that easy. A taxi picks you up at your door and drops you at your destination's door, no carrying bags through a station.

Your schedule doesn't have slack. If you have a flight to catch, a specific appointment time, or simply don't want your day dictated by a timetable, a taxi runs on your schedule, not a fixed one. This matters most for anything time-sensitive, like an airport transfer or a medical appointment.

You're traveling somewhere off the main bus routes. A lot of what's worth seeing around Bar municipality, specific beaches, Stari Bar, Virpazar, doesn't sit conveniently on a bus line. A taxi can pick up anywhere inside Opština Bar and drop off wherever you're actually headed.

It's late at night or an odd hour. Bus schedules thin out considerably outside daytime hours, and sometimes stop entirely. A taxi is available whenever you need one, subject to the same pickup-zone rule that applies at any hour.

You're traveling as a group. Splitting a taxi fare across several people can end up costing about the same as several bus tickets, without the walking, waiting, or schedule constraints. We cover this specifically in group travel.

What it actually costs

A taxi's cost depends on distance and time of day under Montenegro's metered tariff system, not a flat fare. For real, worked-out numbers on what a short in-town ride, a longer out-of-town trip, or a night ride actually costs, see our fare examples guide. Comparing that directly against a specific bus ticket price for your route is the clearest way to decide which makes more financial sense for your particular trip.

A practical middle path

Some visitors use the bus for the predictable, longer legs of a trip, say, getting from Bar to Podgorica, and a taxi for the shorter, less predictable, or time-sensitive parts, like the final stretch from a bus station to an actual door. There's nothing wrong with mixing the two depending on what a given leg of the day calls for.

The wider picture

If you're also weighing a rental car against both of these, our taxi vs. rental car guide covers that comparison separately. For the full overview of all three options together, see our main comparison guide.

Booking a taxi

When a taxi is the better call for your trip, you can book through the Greencar.me Taxi app on Android or the App Store on iPhone, as long as your pickup point is inside Bar municipality.