Tivat Airport: Getting to Budva and Kotor

Budva is 20 kilometres and half an hour away, Kotor 7 kilometres and fifteen minutes. Tivat airport sits almost exactly between the coast’s two main resorts, and that is its best feature: you get from the plane to your hotel faster than you reach the centre of most European capitals. In July and August allow one and a half to two times as long: the coast road jams.

There are four ways out, and the prices are far apart: a fixed-price transfer (from €58 per car to Budva), an intercity bus from Tivat bus station (usually €5 to Budva), a hire car from €25 a day, and a taxi, the most expensive of the four.

Transfer: a car waiting for you at a fixed price

You book it in advance, and the driver meets you at the exit from arrivals with a name sign. The price covers the whole car, seating four, one way: from Tivat airport it is from €58 to Budva and from €44 to Kotor. Split four ways, Budva comes to roughly €15 each. Prices for every town are on the airport transfers page.

What you are paying for is certainty: the price is known before you fly, you give your flight number when you book, and an hour of waiting at the airport is included. With children, a lot of luggage or a late arrival, it is the calmer option.

Bus: cheap, but not from the terminal

No bus leaves from the terminal itself. The nearest stop is on the main road, about 400 metres away, but whether intercity services call there has not been officially confirmed. The surer bet is Tivat bus station: 1.4 km, about 20 minutes on foot. The road has no pavement, so it is hard going with suitcases.

From Tivat bus station, 26 buses a day run to Budva, usually €5 and about 35 minutes; 17 go to Kotor, about €3 and about 15 minutes. That is the autumn timetable, and in summer there are usually more. Times and fares for your date are on busticket4.me, the shared booking system of Montenegro’s bus stations, where you can also buy a ticket online. How the buses work across the country, and where they genuinely reach, is in Montenegro without a car.

Car hire: if your plans go beyond the coast

The rental desks are in arrivals and the cars sit in the car park opposite. Handover takes fifteen to twenty minutes, and hire starts at €25 a day.

Taking the car at the airport makes sense if Lovćen, Durmitor, Ostrog or Lake Skadar are on the list: by public transport you either cannot get there at all or it takes the whole day. If you are here for the beach and the old town, the car will spend the week in the hotel car park — cheaper to pick it up two or three days later.

How the handover works and what to prepare is in car hire at Tivat and Podgorica airports. Options and prices are on the car rental in Tivat page.

Taxi: the most expensive option

We would not start your trip with one. At the airport, and anywhere in high season, a taxi is the dearest way to travel; if you do take one, agree the fare before you get in. Booking through Viber and sending your location on a map usually costs less, but fares at the airport and in summer stay high all the same. Uber and Bolt do not operate in Montenegro. If you want to know the price before you land, that is what a transfer is for.

Landing at night

The airport does not run around the clock. Buses do not operate at night at all, and a taxi at night is the same expensive option as by day.

If you land after midnight, a pre-booked transfer is the safe answer. And tell the rental company if you are collecting a car: not all of them staff the desk overnight, and it is agreed at booking.

Where else you can go

• Budva — 20 km, 25–30 minutes; transfer from €58, bus from Tivat bus station usually €5
• Kotor — 7 km, 15 minutes; transfer from €44, bus about €3
• Tivat, Porto Montenegro — 10 minutes; transfer from €41
• Herceg Novi — an hour with the Kamenari–Lepetane ferry; transfer from €116
• Podgorica — about 85 km, an hour and three quarters; transfer from €136
• Sveti Stefan — about 30 km, 40–45 minutes; transfer from €72

The Kamenari–Lepetane ferry runs around the clock: every 20 minutes from 6:00 to midnight, hourly overnight. It costs €5 for a car and saves about 30 kilometres and anything from half an hour to an hour, depending on the traffic around the bay.

What is worth planning in advance

For a week that mixes sea and mountains, the usual arrangement is: a transfer from the airport to the hotel, then two or three days with a hire car for the inland routes, with the sea covered by a boat. A skippered yacht from Tivat starts at €390 for four hours, for the whole vessel and your whole group — see yacht charter.

If you would rather not drive at all, a coach excursion handles the north: a guide, hotel pick-up and no parking. Bear in mind that these tours, group and private, run only with a Russian-speaking guide. Routes and prices are under things to do.

What to do in Tivat itself — the marina, the submarine museum, the Luštica beaches — is in Tivat and Porto Montenegro.

Prices checked in September 2026; the bus timetable is the autumn one, and in summer there are usually more services. Confirm transfer costs when booking.