Heart of Montenegro: Cetinje, Njeguši and the Cable Car

Montenegro did not begin on the coast. While Venice held the seaside towns, the actual country was hiding in the mountains, where neither fleet nor army reached. This excursion goes exactly there: to the old capital, to the ancestral village of the ruling dynasty, and up to a height from which the whole Bay of Kotor is visible.

The route runs along high mountain roads, and half the experience is the view from the window. It is a full-day coach tour with a guide, from €73 per adult when you set off from Budva; one cable car ride is already included.

The Brajići viewpoint

The first stop is a platform on Mount Brajići, 850 metres above the sea. From here you see the entire Budva riviera at once: the town itself, the island of St Nicholas, Sveti Stefan to the south, and the coastline fading into haze.

This is the view that ends up on postcards, and you cannot catch it from the road — you need this particular platform.

Cetinje

The old capital. Founded in 1482, when the ruler Ivan Crnojević moved his court into the mountains away from the Ottomans. For more than four centuries, until 1946, everything that happened in the country was decided here; today it is a quiet town of former embassies converted into museums. More about it in Cetinje in half a day.

The key site is the Cetinje monastery. It holds two relics that draw pilgrims from across the Orthodox world:

• The right hand of John the Baptist — the hand with which, by tradition, Christ was baptised.
• A fragment of the True Cross.

The monastery remains the seat of the Montenegrin Metropolitanate. Inside you can light candles, leave written prayers, and buy icons and brojanice. If you wear a cross, it is customary to have it blessed by touching it to the relics.

The stone sea and Njeguši

Then twenty kilometres of road through what is called the “stone sea of Montenegro” — a plateau buried entirely in grey karst, with no trees and almost no buildings. The landscape is so unfamiliar that the coach usually falls silent.

Njeguši is the village the Petrović dynasty came from, the family that ruled Montenegro for more than two hundred years. Petar II Petrović Njegoš — poet, bishop and the central figure of Montenegrin history — was born here.

The village is famous for something else, though: pršut. Ham is air-cured and smoked over beech for five to eight weeks in a local microclimate of dry mountain air drawn in from two directions. The programme includes a stop for a tasting of pršut and homemade cheese.

Local advice worth remembering: buy exactly the ham you were given to taste. The leg next to it may be entirely different. More about the village in our article on Njeguši. How the ham itself is made, and why it cannot go home with you to the UK or the EU, is in Njeguši prosciutto.

The cable car above Kotor

The finale. The cable car lifts you from the coast to 1,300 metres, and the Bay of Kotor opens up whole from above: all four basins, the islands off Perast, the hairpins of the old road.

The cabins are enclosed and the ride takes 11 minutes. One ride is included in the tour price (in May the cable car is not part of the programme). If you go up on your own, without the tour, a return ticket costs €25, one way €14, and a child’s return €7.

On the way back the tour stops in Kotor, the town of seafarers beneath its fortification wall.

What it costs

Prices are per person, setting off from Budva:

• from €73 — adult, 12 and over
• from €40 — child aged 4–11
• free — infants under 3 on a lap; from €40 with their own seat

The price depends on the town you set off from: from €83 from Kotor and Tivat, from €88 from Bar.

The company that runs this tour works only with Russian-speaking guides, on group and private tours alike. If Russian is no use to you, the honest alternative is to drive the route yourself in a hire car.

Included: transport, a licensed guide, one cable car ride, the boat to Our Lady of the Rocks (Gospa od Škrpjela) and entry to the island, return to your pick-up point and the carrier’s basic insurance.

Paid separately on site:

• from €15 — optional lunch
• €3–8 — tickets to the Cetinje museums, optional

Entry to Kotor old town is free; the only charge there is for the climb up the fortress walls, €15.

Booking requires no deposit, you pay the guide on the coach, and cancellation is free. The exact figure is confirmed by the company running the excursion.

What to bring

Something warm — at the top station of the cable car, 1,300 metres up, it is noticeably colder than on the beach. Comfortable shoes: Cetinje involves a lot of walking. Clothing that covers shoulders and knees for the monastery. Water, a hat, a camera.

Cash for entry tickets and ham in Njeguši. Bear in mind that the ham cannot go home with you to the UK or the EU; what can is in what to bring home from Montenegro.

When it runs

April to mid-October. It does not run in winter, when snow closes the mountain roads. The booking form shows the next available dates.

Nearby

The deeper, harsher north is the Tara and Morača canyons: Đurđevića bridge, the Black Lake and Žabljak. In autumn 2026 the bridge is closed for reconstruction until 26 October, though it may reopen earlier.

A similar route geographically, but with Njegoš’s mausoleum on the summit of Lovćen instead of the cable car, is Maxi Montenegro, though the organiser is not running it in 2026.

The full list of destinations is on the things to do page; group tours with prices are under tours in Montenegro.

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Prices checked in September 2026.