Tivat Airport to Budva
About 20 km south over the hill; the taxi fare is €25–35 and buses via Tivat town cost a few euros.
A small fortified old town on a promontory with a wall of modern hotels and apartment blocks behind it, the busiest resort on the Montenegrin coast and its loudest nightlife.
Every way to get there
Our verdict: for Budva, a private transfer is the easiest door-to-door option (from €55). Travelling light on a budget? The bus is cheapest (from €4) but slower, with a change in the city.
What it costs for your group
The bus is charged per person, while a taxi or private transfer is one price for the whole car — so the more of you there are, the better door-to-door value looks.
| Group | Bus (per person) | Private transfer | Best value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo · 1 traveller | €4 | €55 | Bus |
| Couple · 2 travellers | €8 | €55 | Bus |
| Family of 4 · 4 travellers | €16 | €55 | Bus |
Which option should you choose?
| If your priority is… | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest price | Bus | From €4, though slower with a change in the city. |
| Speed & comfort | Private transfer | Door-to-door, fixed price, a driver waiting for you. |
| A group of 3–4 | Transfer or taxi | One flat fare splits cheaper than several bus tickets. |
| A late-night arrival | Transfer or taxi | Both run 24/7 when buses and the tram have stopped. |
By transport mode
Taxi
Half an hour over the ridge and down to the coast. Budva's old town is pedestrian; the modern town behind it is not, and most accommodation is reachable by car.
Where to catch it: From the official rank. Confirm the figure before departure — the published range for Budva is wider than for Kotor and operators differ.
Best for small groups in a hurryBus / shuttle
Under seven euros. Montenegrin intercity buses are frequent along this coast and tickets are bought at the station kiosk or from the driver.
Where to catch it: Local service into Tivat town, then a coastal bus south to Budva's station, which is a ten-minute walk from the old town.
Best for solo & budget travellersPrivate transfer
Roughly double the taxi fare. Budva's summer season is intense — the town's population multiplies and the coast road backs up from late afternoon.
Where to catch it: Fixed price agreed in advance, useful for late arrivals when the local buses have stopped.
Best for families, groups & late arrivalsCar rental
Useful for reaching the beaches south of town — Jaz, Mogren and the Sveti Nikola boats — and for the Lovćen mountain road behind Budva, which is one of the great drives in the Balkans.
Where to catch it: Half an hour by road; paid parking behind the seafront, expensive and scarce in August.
Best for travellers who want to exploreBudva & Tivat in photos
Buying tickets in Tivat
Tivat is small and close to everything: Kotor 20 minutes, Budva 30, Porto Montenegro barely 10. The cheap way out is the Blue Line bus between Tivat and Kotor — roughly hourly from 06:00 to 22:00, €2 paid to the driver in cash, about an hour because it runs as a local service around the shore. Montenegro publishes official taxi tariffs, and for 2026 the figure to Kotor is €15, with Budva €25–35. That produces something unusual: the metered taxi is often cheaper than a pre-booked transfer, which start near €50 to Kotor and €60 to Budva — the reverse of almost every other airport here. One piece of local geography saves a great deal of time: the Kamenari–Lepetane ferry cuts across the narrows of the bay and runs continuously, turning Herceg Novi into a 40-minute trip instead of an hour and a half around the shore.
Taxi scams & safety in Tivat
The rule that matters at Tivat is about who approaches you. Licensed operators are prohibited from soliciting passengers inside the arrivals hall, so anyone who offers you a ride before you reach the official rank outside is, by definition, working outside the system. Walk past, use the rank or an app, and in peak summer agree a fixed price before setting off even where an official tariff exists. Because the published fares are low — €15 to Kotor — the gap between a legitimate fare and an opportunistic one is wide enough to be worth the thirty seconds it takes to ask. Two further points. Kotor's old town is entirely pedestrian and the bay road is a single lane each way that jams when cruise ships are in, so a hire car is a liability for a Kotor stay. And Montenegro is not in the EU despite using the euro: crossing into Croatia towards Dubrovnik or into Albania beyond Ulcinj needs explicit permission in the rental contract and green card insurance, not an assumption.
Getting from TIV to Budva
Budva is the busiest resort on the Montenegrin coast and its loudest. There is a small fortified old town on a promontory, and behind it a dense wall of hotels, apartment blocks and clubs that has grown enormously since the 2000s. Twenty kilometres from Tivat Airport, half an hour over the ridge, and the taxi fare is €25 to €35.
The fare, and the rule
Montenegro publishes official rates and Budva's range is wider than Kotor's, so confirm the figure at the rank before departure. As everywhere at this airport: use the official rank outside, never a driver who approaches you inside the terminal — licensed operators are banned from doing that, so anyone who does is not one.
The bus route
A local service into Tivat town, then a coastal bus south to Budva's station, which is a ten-minute walk from the old town. Under seven euros and about seventy minutes. Montenegrin intercity buses along this coast are frequent and tickets are bought at the station kiosk or from the driver.
The old town
A compact walled quarter of narrow lanes, three churches in one small square, and a citadel at the seaward end with a library and a view. It is genuinely old — the site has been settled for two and a half thousand years — and it was substantially rebuilt after the 1979 earthquake, carefully enough that the reconstruction is not obvious.
What is behind it
The modern town, and it is a different proposition entirely: high-rise apartments, a marina, a strip of clubs along the Slovenska Obala, and construction that has continued at pace for two decades. Visitors who come for the old town and stay in the new one are sometimes surprised.
The beaches
Mogren, reached by a cliff path from the old town, is the best of the near ones and gets crowded. Jaz, a few kilometres west, is larger and hosts concerts. The pebble beach in front of the town is convenient rather than good.
Sveti Nikola
The island offshore, known locally as Hawaii, reached by boats from the town beach in ten minutes through the season. It has three small beaches, a couple of bars and a walking path, and it is where people go when Budva's own beaches are full.
Nightlife, honestly
Budva is where the Balkan summer party scene concentrates. In July and August the clubs run until dawn and the old town streets are busy all night. Outside those months it is a quiet coastal town. Which version you get depends entirely on your dates.
Where to stay instead
Bečići, immediately east, has the better beach, hotels with their own parking, and a twenty-minute coastal path into the old town. A good many returning visitors stay there and treat Budva as somewhere to walk to.
The Lovćen road behind
The mountain road from Budva up towards Cetinje and the Lovćen mausoleum is one of the great drives in the Balkans — serpentines, a view back down over the whole coast, and the old royal capital at the top. It needs a car.
Parking
Paid and scarce behind the seafront, and expensive in August. If you are hiring a car for the interior, staying somewhere with its own parking matters more here than almost anywhere else on this coast.
The season
Budva's population multiplies in July and August, the coast road backs up from late afternoon, and prices rise accordingly. June and September have warm water and a manageable town — the difference is substantial enough to shape when you book.
Getting to Kotor from here
Half an hour by bus over the ridge, and the two towns are the standard pairing on this coast — Budva for the beaches and the evening, Kotor for the walls and the bay. Buses run frequently through the day and the fare is a couple of euros, which makes staying in one and visiting the other entirely practical.
The Riviera beyond
South towards Petrovac and Buljarica the coast quietens sharply within twenty minutes, and the beaches get longer and emptier. Sveti Stefan is fifteen minutes down the same road. If Budva in August is more than you wanted, the answer is a short bus ride rather than a different country.
