Cost of Living in Montenegro. Prices in 2020

On many sites and blogs you can find stories about the incredibly low prices in Montenegro. Sadly, this is not true for the past 10 years, but people still read these reviews, and then are upset upon arrival in the country.

Yes, it’s 2-3 times cheaper to relax in Montenegro than in neighboring Dubrovnik, but we are no longer talking about “almost free”. Although it is worth to note that Montenegro is still one of the cheapest countries in Europe and holidays here are cheaper than at many popular sea resorts.

We have prepared an article with relevant prices, on which you can rely when planning your budget.

Montenegro currency and a little about the prices in the country

The official currency of Montenegro is the Euro. It’s not a part of EU now, but tourism regulations here are the same as in other European countries. Except of tourist registration — in some countries, and Montenegro is one of them, you have to register at police station. But, in most cases, your hotel will do it for you.

Prices in Montenegro are very dependent on the city you staying in. If this is a purely tourist city like Budva or St. Stephen — the prices will be higher. If this is a less popular city for tourists like Tivat, Herceg Novi, Podgorica or Bar — the prices will be noticeably lower.

Among the popular tourist resorts, the highest prices now in Becici, Rafailovici, Pržno, Milocer and Kotor.

What will be the prices in Montenegro in 2020?

Some years earlier Montenegro was associated primarily with budget holidays and “service lower that average”. In recent years the situation has been changing rapidly. It is still easy to relax here with a very limited budget, but without problems you can get a high level of comfort, it just costs more. For instance:

• Accommodation. You can rent a room in a villa for 20-30 euro per day, or a quite comfortable apartments for 80-120 euro. You can rent a full-fledged villa with a pool or luxury apartments, but it will cost you from 200-300 euro per day.
• Transportation. You can ride the bus (3-15 euro per ticket), and you can use transfers and buy group tours for 40 euro. Of course, it’s better to go on individual excursions, which cost an average of 250 euro per car.
• Restaurants. You can eat fast food or set menu for 5 euro per person or cook yourself, you can eat in good restaurants with your companion for 30 euro.
• Beaches. You can sunbathe on towels for free, or you can take 2 loungers for 8-15 euro.

As you can see, there are a lot of options. We will try at least briefly to tell about all of them in this article

Tour prices in Montenegro

We traveled to Montenegro both via trips and on our own. I liked it a little more by myself, but in fact the difference is not fundamental.

For the same amount of money tourists will receive a similar level of comfort. It’s easier to book a trip, but if you travelling by yourself you can organize just such a vacation as you would like.

How to organize vacation in Montenegro by yourself?

Organizing an independent trip will take much more time than buying a ticket. But on a bright side, you can adjust it to suit your needs: choose a convenient arrival time, transfer option, resort, hotel and apartments, insurance, etc. Let’s now go over it in more detail:

1 Air tickets. There are two airports in Montenegro: in Tivat and in Podgorica. It’s better to fly to Tivat, since it is closer to the main tourist resorts — you will spend less on a transfer.

Personally, I usually look for tickets using the low price calendar from Aviasales.

2 Resort. In my subjective opinion, the most optimal resort in Montenegro is Herceg Novi. Next comes Rafailovici, Becici, Budva, St. Stephen, Pržno and Milocer.

I would not advise my friends to stay in Petrovac (the beach is tiny and full of people) or in the Bay of Kotor (there are few beaches, the water is dirtier). Also, if you’re going here via cruise ship, you may consider to stay in Kotor.

A good idea for your trip is to break your vacation into several stages and live in different resorts. For example, to come to Kotor for a week, then move to Budva or Herceg Novi and take a walk around the old city, and then go to mountainous Durmitor for a few days and come back to Kotor.

May come in handy: detailed article about the main resorts of Montenegro with pros and cons

3 Villa or apartments. Those who travel by themselves can choose a hotel or apartment based on their preferences. To do this, it’s convenient to use international services like AirBnB.com or Booking.com.

Compared to booked trip you clearly understand in advance what the apartments will look like, where you will live and where exactly they are located, you can talk with the owners and discuss the details.

The minimum price for a hotel room or apartment during the season — 15-20 euro per day. But the conditions are not ideal. Something more or less decent will cost 40-50 euro. Very good apartments for rent costs 80-120 euro. The final price depends on the resort, location, season, reviews and many more factors. By the way, I can’t say that a bit more expensive accommodation will definitely turn out  to be better. You will need to compare.

[air_Kolya t=”Booking through the AirBnB service”]

4 Transfer. Tourists that arrive to Montenegro via booked trip are usually picked up from the airport by big buses. The downside is that at each resort they make only 1-3 bus stops, and then tourists carry their suitcases to a hotel by themselves. Given the heat in August, this is a dubious pleasure.

In order not to fall into such situations, there are services that offer individual transfers. You can use Kiwitaxi, for example.

Transfers from Tivat to Herceg Novi, for example, on these sites are from 22-25 euro

You can order a car via this sites directly to the airport. The driver will meet you with a sign, help with a suitcase and take you directly to your hotel. You will reach both faster and more comfortable.

Of course, you can get to your villa by bus or by hitchhiking, but it is not very convenient to do in such a heat with suitcases.

May come in handy: all ways to get from Tivat airport to your resort in Montenegro

5 Insurance. Insurance is not required for visiting Montenegro. But we strongly recommend to get it. The fact is that medicine in the country is quite expensive. You can easily get a bill for several hundred or even thousands of euros. I would not save on insurance, every year somebody gets into trouble.

It is much better if the insurance company covers these expenses. Weekly insurance prices start at 4 euro per person. More or less decent options starting from 6-7 euro.

6 Tourism tax. If you gonna stay in apartments or villa, you must pay the tourism tax yourself and go through the registration procedure. If this is not done, you can be fined for 200 euros.

There is nothing complicated about it. You just need to go to the information center, tell your name and address of the apartment owner. Then pay the fee, that is usually (1 or 1.5 euro per person per day) and get a check.

If you gonna live in a hotel, they usually register the tourists themselves and include these costs in the price.

7 Excursions. If you are travelling by yourself, you’ve got two options to buy excursions: tourist shops nearby beach (I do not recommend it, poor quality, sometimes your guide don’t speak your language) and on the Internet.

We buy excursions on:

1. Viator — here you will find group and individual tours through the most popular routes. Suitable for those who come here on vacation for the first time.
2. GetYourGuilde — so far here is only individual excursions, but many unusual routes for those who are not here for the first time and saw most popular destinations.

8 Car rental. If you have a good driver in your company, you can rent a car instead of buying excursions. To do so, you can visit site Localrent.com, where already  assembled all the reliable rental companies.

I would recommend to book a car in advance. During the season good options are already taken and I have never succeeded in taking something good and inexpensive on the spot. Plus, Localrent.com solves problem situations well, but I cannot rely on some local distributors.

May be useful: detailed article about car rental in Montenegro

As you can see, it’s not so hard to organize a vacation in Montenegro on your own. Almost everything can be found and bought over the Internet at the same prices as on the spot. Often due to early booking it turns out even more cheaper.

Food and Restaurant Prices in Montenegro

Many tourists live in apartments with kitchens in Montenegro. You can buy food in supermarket or market. The markets are mainly for tourists. Therefore, it is more expensive here. The most popular supermarkets in Montenegro are Voli, Mega Market, Franca, IDEA, Aroma. My favourite — Voli.

We advise you to buy food in IDEA and Voli — there are not so popular as Mega Market, but it’s cheaper here. It turns out that markets are much more expensive (prices for locals and tourists are different), in small shops prices may be cheaper for 2-3 goods (for example, water), when everything else is more expensive.

We recommend you to read: article about food in Montenegro.

Fast food in Montenegro: hamburgers, pizza, pastries

Fast food is also very popular among tourists here. They will cook hamburgers right in front of you, and portions are really big. Depending on the restaurant, it will cost you 1.5-2 euro.

There also popular meat shops (Mesaras) in Montenegro. They will cook meat rolls, grilled meat, barbecue, steaks, etc right before your eyes. All this is sold by weight, the prices are quite affordable.

Also bakeries are very popular here. You can buy fresh bread, a variety of buns and pizza. A slice of pizza, for example, costs 1-2 euro depending on the filling.

Local fruits: where to buy and how much do they cost?

I would like to highlight local fruits and especially figs (costs about 3 euro per kg). So we recommend you to try them, it is very tasty. The easiest way to buy figs is to go to  small stalls that you can find on almost any tourist street. The prices here are about the same as in supermarkets, but fruits are fresher.

It is worth to say that the local products are eco-friendly and very good for your health. But during the season a lot of imported fruits, vegetables and meat are sold in markets and supermarkets, so in this case you should be careful.

May come in handy: fruit ripening seasons in Montenegro and their prices

Prices in restaurants: from budget ones to fancy

To be honest, even when we come here to rest for 2-3 weeks and rent apartments with a kitchen and everything necessary, we almost do not cook at home. We prefer to have lunch in restaurants. They come in different price categories:

1The cheapest lunch is available in restaurants offering set menus. Usually they offer some simple soup, a meat dish and a salad. Without wine, it turns out about 5 euro per person. It is quite okay, but not very tasty. Examples of such restaurants in Budva are Drina or Pod Lozom.

If you are not too limited in finances, then you will not want to order a complex lunch more than once.

2In the same restaurants you can make your own choice from the menu. Usually it turns out about 10 euro per person, the quality of dishes becomes slightly higher. But still, there is no any special taste.

3In better restaurants, the price tag rises to 15-25 euro per person without alcohol drinks. For this money you will be able to enjoy national cuisine. We most liked restaurants Grape, Kuzina, Garden Cafe, Disney, Vivaldi, Restaurant Lim and Mercur. I arranged them in order of personal preference.

Restaurant Parma in 2019 somehow disappointed us with both the quality of the dishes and the service, we no longer planning to go there.

4There are also elite establishments in Budva with the best chefs, for example, Dukley Beach Lounge. But we haven’t been there yet, so we can’t say anything about them.

Dish size often vary depending on location. Somewhere huge dishes will be served, but in tourist towns everything will turn out more modest.

Nevertheless, the prices here are quite affordable, and the food is tasty and eco-friendly.

Fruits here deserve special attention. They are very tasty and healthy.

It is also useful to mention that in some restaurants, for example, Kuzina, you can take away food or even ask for delivery. All will be packed and brought directly to the apartment. Sometimes it makes sense.

Prices for excursions in Montenegro in 2020

Prices for excursions usually do not rise. Moreover, they fall from time to time, a variety of promotions encourage you to purchase 3 or 4 excursions in advance.

We often buy excursions on the site Viator. They offer high quality tours and prices are slightly lower than some major tour operators.

Another option is to use GetYourGuide service. You can look at their offers both on their website and in the form below:

Personally, we can advise you to visit next tours:

• North Montenegro tour, (49 euros — the most important, in our opinion, excursion around the country, where you will be able to enjoy simply fantastic landscapes and learn a lot about the Montenegrin people.
• Kotor Boat Tour (15 euro) — short and inexpensive excursion, which is in no way inferior to the rest in terms of interest.
• Lady of the the Rocks and Blue Cave Kotor Boat Tour (31 euros) — three hours excursion, you will visit the most famous places on Boka coastline, see the church on artificial island and swim in neon-blue waters of the Blue Grotto.
• Monastery Ostrog (65 euros) — during the monastery tour you will be able to visit the world famous monastery of Ostrog, the excursion starts and ends in the capital of the country — Podgorica.
• For those of you who stay in Kotor it may be interesting to visit 2 hour Kotor Walking Tour (20 euros) and learn more about it’s history and architecture.

• Tara Montenegro Rafting Tour (70 euros)— full day tour with boat rafting for those, who like active sports.

These are excursions that we visited personally. We really liked them and they were 100% worth the money spent.

In general, Montenegro is a country where you should go on tours. It’s very beautiful and will surprise you with a variety of landscapes. In terms of hotel service, living conditions and beaches, Montenegro is slightly behind the popular resorts of Italy, Turkey or Greece. Especially if you book a budget hotel.

Car rental in Montenegro: how much will it cost?

If you compare to European countries, it is very easy to rent a car in Montenegro.

We used the site Localrent.com. I liked that you will have all the information you needed: it is clear which car you will get, how much it will cost, what kind of security is needed and what insurance covers. In order to rent a car you do not need to make a 100% prepayment.

The cost of car rental depends primarily on the season, the duration of the rental and the car manufacturer. For example, you can easily find a decent car for 9 euro per day (when renting for a week in winter), but in summer prices start from 25 euro for the same car for the same period.

We’ve got the prices for more or less decent cars on Localrent during the season (summer, closer to August). To rent a car at the indicated prices, it is better to start booking it early. Maybe even right now.

You can search for cars for the dates you need by yourself. To do this, I add to the site a search form from Localrent.com. So you can go directly to them and search.

It would be useful: detailed article about car rental.

Prices for souvenirs and shopping in Montenegro

Most of the popular resorts here are not suitable for shopping. The goods are mainly Chinese and Turkish made, and the prices are quite high. There are also a lot of fakes.

There are many different souvenirs in Montenegro, all kinds of magnets, cups, saucers, t-shirts, key chains, etc. There are almost no local souvenirs, so I’m not sure whether it is worth buying something like that at all. I will list the prices below:

• Magnets with views of Montenegro: 1 euro for the simplest, 1.5 euro for decent ones, 2.5 euro for pretty ones.
• T-shirts with inscription “Montenegro”: 10 euro for cheap fabric, 15-20 euro — somewhat better.
• Towels with inscription “Montenegro”: 8-15 euro. The quality is almost the same everywhere, they are pricier nearby beaches.
• Cups, mugs, ashtrays: 5-7 euro.
• Keychains: 1-3 euro

It would be more interesting to buy some national food as a gift:

• Local delicacy prsut costs around 13-20 euro per kg. It’s better to buy it in branded stores.
• You may also look on olive oil “Barsko zlato”. 0.5L bottle Extra Virgin will cost only 5 euro. There are also some cheaper oil.
• Tasty large olives, stuffed with almonds or peppers cost about 2-5 euro.
• You can buy local wine or rakia. Highly promoted local wine “Vranac pro corde”, infused on grape seed which is considered useful for the heart is worth 6-8 euro per bottle. It tastes good, but nothing special.

It’s better to go shopping in non-tourist cities. Locals go shopping in Podgorica or Bar. You can buy Italian clothing, shoes, jewelry, Serbian textile (very high quality) and other interesting things.

You shouldn’t expect to buy Italian brands at low prices — there are a lot of fakes, and real clothes costs like at home.

We recommend you to read: detailed article about souvenirs and shopping in Montenegro.

The price for loungers and umbrellas

Despite the fact that almost all the beaches in the country are free, in the last year or two all the best places have been taken for loungers zones. If in 2015 you could easily find a place and sunbathe on a towel, now it’s easier to rent a lounger and swim comfortably.

Loungers are rented for the whole day with a set of two loungers and an umbrella. Cost depends from a resort, beach and distance from the sea. The more people on the beach and the closer it to the sea — the more expensive lounger would be.

For example, in Budva on the Slavic beach loungers costs from 10 euro  to 12-15 euro per set, depending on distance to the sea. The last few rows offer for 8 euro. In addition to some loungers there is free WiFi, but not all beaches have this option.

Slightly above average prices in Mogren, Pržno and Petrovac. During the season even the middle row can cost you 15 euro. The fact is that the beaches there are small, there is not enough space for everyone.

The most expensive loungers on the territory of Villa Milocer and to the right of the St. Stephen island. The price there starts from 120 euro per person.

If you want to buy an umbrella on the spot, then cheaper one will cost you from 10 euro, somewhat better at 15-20 euro.

Internet and Mobile

Montenegro has 3 mobile operators. It’s Telenor, T-Mobile and M:Tel. A local SIM with 10GB of Internet for a month cost us 15 euro.

Every season there are special deals for tourists, but there is some trick almost all the time. For example, T-Mobile was selling SIM cards with 500GB of Internet for just 5 euro in 2019. As a result, people bought these SIM cards and start spending these free gigabytes. So Internet wasn’t working all the time, except at night.

Tired of local SIMs, their registration in offices and obviously not cheap tariffs, we switched to international sim cards. Such SIM cards are more expensive than usual. But now we both have Internet and the whole vacation costs us around 3-5 euro. We use DrimSim.