Tivat Airport to Porto Montenegro (Tivat)
About 4 km from TIV — the shortest transfer in this guide; a taxi runs €8–12 and it is walkable in half an hour.
A superyacht marina built on a former Austro-Hungarian naval base at the edge of Tivat town, with berths for the largest vessels afloat, a naval heritage museum and a promenade of shops behind it.
Every way to get there
Our verdict: for Porto Montenegro (Tivat), a private transfer is the easiest door-to-door option (from €25). Travelling light on a budget? The bus is cheapest (from €1.5) 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 | €1.5 | €25 | Bus |
| Couple · 2 travellers | €3 | €25 | Bus |
| Family of 4 · 4 travellers | €6 | €25 | Bus |
Which option should you choose?
| If your priority is… | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest price | Bus | From €1.5, 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
Four kilometres, so this is barely a journey. Crews joining boats here often walk it in good weather — the road follows the water most of the way.
Where to catch it: Ten minutes along the shore. Use the rank rather than anyone approaching you inside the terminal.
Best for small groups in a hurryPrivate transfer
Expensive for the distance, and routinely booked anyway because guests arriving with a season's luggage do not want to work out a rank. The marina has its own arrangements with several operators.
Where to catch it: Arranged by the marina or the yacht's agent as often as by the guest; give the berth number.
Best for families, groups & late arrivalsBus / shuttle
A euro and a half. The walk from the town centre to the marina gate takes about ten minutes along the promenade.
Where to catch it: The local bus into Tivat town centre stops a few minutes' walk from the marina entrance.
Best for solo & budget travellersCar rental
Not worth it for the marina itself. Worth it if Porto Montenegro is your base for the bay — Perast, Kotor and the Lovćen road are all short drives from here.
Where to catch it: Paid parking within the marina complex, at marina prices.
Best for travellers who want to explorePorto Montenegro (Tivat) & 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 Porto Montenegro (Tivat)
Four kilometres. That is the distance from the runway at Tivat to the berths at Porto Montenegro, which makes this the shortest transfer in this entire guide — ten minutes by taxi at €8 to €12, and genuinely walkable in half an hour along the shore road if the weather is kind and your luggage is not.
What the marina is
A superyacht harbour built on the site of the Arsenal, the Austro-Hungarian and later Yugoslav naval base at Tivat. Development began in 2006 and it now takes some of the largest private vessels afloat, with a promenade of shops, restaurants and apartment buildings behind the pontoons.
The naval heritage that survives
The Naval Heritage Collection sits within the marina and holds two submarines hauled out on the quay, torpedoes, and material from the base's century and a half of operation. It is small, it is well done, and it is the reason the place is not simply another marina development.
Arriving to join a boat
Give the berth number to whoever is collecting you. Crew and guests are often met by the yacht's agent rather than a taxi, and the marina has arrangements with several transfer operators — worth asking the boat what is already organised before booking anything yourself.
The €25 transfer question
Pre-booked transfers run €25 to €40 for a four-kilometre journey, which is a poor rate per kilometre and routinely paid anyway. Guests arriving with a season's luggage do not want to negotiate a rank, and that is the whole calculation.
The cheap way
The local bus into Tivat town centre costs a euro and a half and stops a few minutes' walk from the marina entrance. From the town centre to the gate is about ten minutes along the promenade. Perfectly reasonable with a bag.
Tivat town itself
Ordinary, pleasant and considerably cheaper than the marina it adjoins. There is a waterfront, a park with old trees at the Buća palace, and restaurants at prices that bear no relation to those on the pontoons. Most people who work at Porto Montenegro live here.
Using it as a base for the bay
Kotor is twenty minutes, Perast half an hour, Herceg Novi forty via the ferry. Tivat is more central to the Bay of Kotor than Kotor itself is, and it has the airport. For a trip built around the bay rather than around one town, it is the practical choice.
The ferry shortcut
The Kamenari–Lepetane crossing is ten minutes up the coast from Tivat and cuts across the narrows of the bay, saving about forty minutes of driving to the western shore. It runs continuously, takes cars, and costs a few euros.
Swimming here
The Lido at the marina is a paid beach club. Public swimming is better at Plavi Horizonti on the Luštica peninsula, twenty minutes south — a genuine sandy bay backed by pines, and one of the few real sand beaches in Montenegro.
Luštica, generally
The peninsula south of Tivat is the quiet part of the bay area — villages, olive terraces, coves reached down rough tracks, and a large resort development at its far end. A car helps considerably; the bus service is minimal.
The practical summary
Ten minutes, twelve euros, and you are at the water. Whatever else is complicated about arriving in Montenegro, this particular journey is not one of them — and the rule about ignoring anyone who approaches you inside the terminal applies here as it does everywhere at Tivat.
The Arsenal, before the marina
Tivat's naval base was established by Austria-Hungary in 1889 and remained in military use through the Yugoslav period, employing much of the town. When it closed, the site was sold and redeveloped — which is why a small Montenegrin town has a superyacht harbour attached to it, and why the older residents of Tivat have a complicated relationship with the place.
Prices, plainly
The restaurants and shops within the marina are priced for the people whose boats are tied up outside, and they are among the most expensive in the country. Ten minutes' walk into Tivat town and the same meal costs a fraction. This is not a secret and it is not a complaint — it is simply worth knowing before you sit down.
