The Kotor–Lovćen Road: 25 Hairpins Above the Bay

Twenty-five hairpins in eight kilometres and a climb of 900 metres. The Austrians built the old road from Kotor to Lovćen in 1879–1884, and it has barely changed since: the same bends, the same width — a lane and a half in places — and no barrier.

It is one of Montenegro’s best-known roads and the one people ask about most: “should I really be driving up there?”

Who should not go

An honest answer, because there is nowhere to turn round halfway:

• If you have never driven a mountain road. There are no difficult manoeuvres, but there is height, narrowness and oncoming coaches.
• If you are afraid of heights. On the way up the drop is on your right, with no guardrail.
• In a large SUV or a van. Some bends need reversing to get round.
• In rain or fog. The surface is polished in places and visibility on the switchbacks drops to fifty metres.

Everyone else should go. You climb at 20–30 km/h, nobody overtakes, and in half an hour you are at the top. The whole road from Kotor to Njeguši is 22 kilometres and takes 45–50 minutes.

Where to stop

The bends are numbered — the figures are painted on the rock.

• Bends 12–14 give you the first real view: the whole bay, Kotor, Dobrota and Our Lady of the Rocks as a dot on the water.
• Bend 17 has a larger pull-in, where the coaches stop.
• At bend 25 the road reaches the plateau and the bay disappears. From here the landscape changes into the karst “stone sea”.

Stop only in the pull-ins. Stopping on a bend itself means blocking the coach behind you.

What is at the top

Lovćen National Park, €3 per person, free for children under 15. Parking in the park costs €1 an hour. What else the park offers — Ivanova Korita, trails, the adventure park — is in Lovćen National Park.

The main point is Njegoš’s mausoleum on the Jezerski Vrh peak, 1,657 metres. A flight of 461 steps leads up through a tunnel cut into the rock, and the mausoleum has a separate €8 ticket. It is open from 15 April to 15 November, 9:00–18:00 (arrive by 16:30), and closed in winter. Inside is a 28-tonne statue of Njegoš in grey Jablanica granite, the work of Ivan Meštrović. Who Njegoš was and how the mausoleum came to be is told in Njegoš and his mausoleum.

Behind the mausoleum is a circular terrace known as the eagle’s nest. In clear weather you see almost the whole country, with the Adriatic on the horizon.

Onwards

You do not have to come back down the same way. From the mausoleum the road runs to Cetinje, the old capital: 20 kilometres, 35 minutes. From there a wide road takes you down to the sea at Budva — 28 kilometres, 40 minutes — and Kotor is another half hour from Budva. Njeguši, where the famous ham is made, lies on the way up, just past the top of the hairpins. The loop Kotor — Njeguši — Lovćen — Cetinje — Budva — Kotor takes a day with stops and is considered one of the best drives in the country.

On the village and its product: Njeguši. On the old capital: Cetinje in half a day. How the ham itself is made and what it costs: Njeguši prosciutto.

If you would rather not drive it

The road is worth travelling, though not necessarily at the wheel. The coach excursion that followed exactly this route — Cetinje, Lovćen, Njeguši — is Maxi Montenegro, and it is not running in 2026.

The nearest replacement, with the cable car instead of the mausoleum, is Heart of Montenegro: from €73 departing Budva, from €83 from Kotor or Tivat and from €88 from Bar, with hotel pick-up and a driver who does this road every day. The company behind it works only with Russian-speaking guides, on group and private tours alike. All routes are under things to do.

The cable car from Kotor also runs on its own: it climbs to 1,300 metres in 11 minutes, and a return ticket costs €25.

If you are driving

Take a compact car: the hairpins are noticeably easier. What to check at handover and which contract clauses matter is in insurance and deposit. Options are on the car rental in Kotor page.

Fill up before you start: there are no petrol stations on the climb or the plateau. See fuel and petrol stations.

Since 7 August 2026 Montenegro has had a new road traffic law, and fines have roughly doubled or tripled. What has changed is in driving rules in Montenegro.

Park entry, mausoleum and cable car: prices checked in September 2026. The mausoleum is closed in winter, and the Lovćen road is shut when it snows.