Tivat Airport to Herceg Novi
About 25 km via the Kamenari–Lepetane ferry, which cuts across the narrows; a taxi runs €35–50 and the crossing takes minutes.
A town of staircases at the mouth of the bay, built up a steep slope with an Ottoman clock tower, two fortresses and a mimosa festival each February.
Every way to get there
Our verdict: for Herceg Novi, 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
The ferry runs continuously and takes about ten minutes, saving roughly forty minutes of driving. Without it, Herceg Novi is an hour and a half away instead of forty minutes.
Where to catch it: Most drivers take the Kamenari–Lepetane ferry across the narrows rather than driving the full way around the bay. Confirm whether the ferry fee is included.
Best for small groups in a hurryBus / shuttle
Under eight euros. The bus station in Herceg Novi is on the upper road; the old town is downhill from it, which is the easy direction on arrival and less so on departure.
Where to catch it: Into Tivat, then a westbound coastal bus which uses the same ferry crossing.
Best for solo & budget travellersPrivate transfer
This end of the bay is also the closest to Dubrovnik, about forty minutes on to the Croatian border. Cross-border transfers need to be arranged as such, not improvised.
Where to catch it: Herceg Novi is built on a slope and many addresses are reached by steps rather than roads — worth telling the operator in advance.
Best for families, groups & late arrivalsCar rental
If you intend to drive into Croatia, check the rental agreement and the green card insurance. Montenegro is not in the EU and cross-border permission is a specific clause rather than an assumption.
Where to catch it: The ferry takes cars and charges a few euros; queues build on summer afternoons.
Best for travellers who want to exploreHerceg Novi & 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 Herceg Novi
Herceg Novi is a town of staircases. It climbs a steep slope at the mouth of the Bay of Kotor, and almost every street connects to the next by steps rather than a gradient. That single fact shapes arriving here, staying here and walking anywhere once you have arrived — and it is worth telling a transfer operator in advance, because a good many addresses have no road access at all.
The ferry that halves the journey
Twenty-five kilometres from Tivat Airport, and forty minutes — but only because most drivers take the Kamenari–Lepetane ferry across the narrows of the bay. It runs continuously, takes about ten minutes, and saves roughly forty minutes of driving around the shore. Without it, Herceg Novi is an hour and a half away.
What it costs
A taxi runs €35 to €50 from the official rank — confirm whether the ferry fee is included when you agree the price. The bus route goes into Tivat and then west on a coastal service using the same crossing, costing under eight euros and taking about eighty minutes.
The bus station is uphill
It sits on the upper road, and the old town is below it. That is the easy direction on arrival and the harder one on departure — allow more time and more energy for the climb back than the map suggests.
The old town
A small quarter of squares and terraces with an Ottoman clock tower as its gate, the Sahat Kula, and two fortresses — Forte Mare on the water and Kanli Kula above, the latter now an open-air theatre. The town has been Bosnian, Venetian, Spanish, Ottoman, French, Austrian and Yugoslav in turn, and each left something.
The mimosa
Herceg Novi calls itself the town of mimosa and holds a festival every February when the trees flower — which they do here earlier than almost anywhere on this coast, because the slope faces south and is sheltered. It is the town's main event and it fills the place in a month when the rest of the coast is closed.
Botanical, by accident
Sailors and captains brought plants back from everywhere for two centuries and planted them on the terraces. The result is an unusually varied urban flora — palms, agaves, camellias, eucalyptus — and a town that is greener than its neighbours.
Swimming and the promenade
The Pet Danica promenade runs several kilometres along the water below the town, past small beaches, concrete platforms and swimming ladders. It is the flat part of Herceg Novi and where everyone walks in the evening.
Igalo and the mud
The suburb west of the town has a therapeutic mud institute that treated patients through the Yugoslav era and still operates. It is a spa rather than a resort and it draws a particular clientele, which is part of why Herceg Novi has a longer season than the beach towns.
Croatia, forty minutes on
Dubrovnik is about forty minutes further, and this is the closest Montenegrin town to the border. Cross-border transfers need to be arranged as such rather than improvised — and if you are driving a hire car, permission and green card insurance are specific clauses rather than assumptions.
The Luštica and Boka bays
The mouth of the bay opens out here, with the Blue Cave and the Mamula island fortress reachable by boat from the waterfront in season. Trips run several times a day through the summer.
Staying here rather than in Kotor
Herceg Novi is cheaper, quieter, takes no cruise ships and has an actual town life outside the season. What it does not have is Kotor's walls or its immediate drama — and the steps are a genuine consideration for anyone who would rather not climb several flights to reach dinner.
Why the fortresses face different ways
The town was founded in 1382 by the Bosnian king Tvrtko I as a saltworks and a port, and it changed hands repeatedly for the next five hundred years because it controls the entrance to the bay. Forte Mare guards the water, Kanli Kula the landward approach, and Španjola on the ridge above was begun by the Spanish during their brief occupation in 1538 — three fortifications built by three different powers against three different threats.
