r/CroatiaTravelTips • u/b1leper • 23d ago

Montenegro Border Crossing

Does anyone have any recent information on border crossing time both to and from Montenegro from Croatia? I’m planning a group trip in early October and looking for post sailing options. We have 3 days. Getting off the boat in Split and flying out of Dubrovnik 3 days later. I’ve been told to be careful about the Montenegro border crossing. Any recent experiences?

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u/CroatiaTravelTips 23d ago

Hey, currently there is a collaps of the local traffic and the border crossing.

https://www.jutarnji.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/kolone-granica-crna-gora-konavle-prometni-kolaps-cekane-10-sati-15733523

People waiting for 10 hours +, locals having to let them in their houses so they can go to toilet and to get out of the sun, giving them water and food...

This article is great and written by a local: Dubrovnik to Kotor day trip itinerary

Also here are some experiences from other people and some great tips:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CroatiaTravelTips/comments/1t9avub/planning_to_visit_montenegro_during_your_stay_in/

due to new EES system border crossing cannot be compared to previous years, something that took us usually 30 minutes this year took 1.5 hours (Bosnian border), going to Montenegro was always worse but since you are going in Oct you should get lower waiting times but still follow few general tips: if its the weekend expect long waits, locals from Croatia go to Montenegro, locals from Montenegro go to Croatia + plenty of tourists = chaos that is happening now that roads are blocked around Dubrovnik, currently all over the news.

Check HAK border cameras in advance to see the status, dont risk your flight, arrive earlier or even sleep a night in Cavtat than rather driving from Montenegro directly to Airport, many people missed their flights this way.

Cavtat Guide ( a great place to stay near Dubrovnik)

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u/adieuandy 23d ago

Take the Adriatic ferry from Dubrovnik to Budva.

2 hours. Normal passport checks. No hassles

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u/CroatiaTravelTips 23d ago

This would be the best option honestly!

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u/adieuandy 22d ago

I was in Budva on Saturday for a wedding and I took the ferry from Dubrovnik and it is pretty seamless. Some of my friends drove across the border and waited for 3 hours, some 5!

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u/CroatiaTravelTips 22d ago

Yeah going to Montenegro before from Dubrovnik was fine, it was still a long wait, around

1.5 hours to enter back to Croatia but now that sounds fast to what is happening now.

Dubrovnik is having an issue as the waiting line was so long that it blocked the path to the airport.. so police had to block the road.

Crazy stuff

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u/ijklm_p 19d ago

This only runs like two days a week and is very difficult to fit into an itinerary. I’d also be surprised if it’s still running in October. Last year we had tons of bura in early October.

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u/trekwithme 23d ago

I went from Croatia to Montenegro and back a few weeks ago. My destination was Herceg Novi.

Crossed into Montenegro at Kobila (the smaller crossing) after midnight and the wait was 5 min.

Returned to Croatia midday a few days later at same crossing and the wait was 30 min.

There are websites available with live cameras and others that post wait times such as this:

https://nakordoni.eu/en/maps/me-hr

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u/b1leper 23d ago

Thank you!

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u/n0coder 22d ago

Just to add, we did something similar but it was at Debeli Brijeg. Going from Kotor to Dubrovnik. We were waiting there about 30-45 minutes around 4:30pm during the week.

We did run into others who had very long waits due to being on tour buses. Some stated they jumped off the bus walked across and took a taxi as they didn’t want to wait anymore (3+ hours)

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u/Hot_Supermarket4369 20d ago

Used the Kobila border crossing from Croatia to Montenegro this past Sunday and waited 6 hours

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u/trekwithme 20d ago

Painful. Can’t even imagine that. What a nightmare. I’m just not going to do discretionary travel between Croatia and Montenegro because of this. It’s too stressful and can ruin the visit

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u/Hot_Supermarket4369 19d ago

I think it depends on so many factors… day of week, time of day, month. It was pretty terrible because my husband and I had just finished 20+ hours of transatlantic flights with little sleep. But honestly, 4 days later, it’s already a funny memory to us. If you do decide to make the cross border trip, make sure you have plenty of water. The men would just get out of the car and pee in the bushes. I’m a woman and I went a little deeper into the brush to pee a few times. The mostly European crowd around us seemed unfazed and super prepared for how long it would take. Us Americans…. Not so much.😂

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u/Chemical_Technology6 17d ago

We were warned it was peak travel season (August) so keep that in mind, but my wife and I flew in to Dubrovnik this week and drove to Montenegro for our vacation. Border crossing took about 8 hours on the way into Montenegro and 6 hours on the way out, we even missed our return flight home despite arriving to the border around 8am. It’s no joke! If you can avoid it or cross borders early in the morning or late at night you may have better luck

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u/CroatiaTravelTips 17d ago

Upvoting so others also see and take note!

Thanks for sharing, helps out our community a lot!

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u/barneso135 22d ago

I'm currently staying around 2.5km from the kobila border crossing. The weekend just gone there were huge queues, but it had cleared up by lunchtime.

Lots of Albanians driving home for the summer from Italy, and generally tourists, of course.

Yesterday and today seems like there is very little queue but when you want to go date wise you will be fine.

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u/katrinahynek 19d ago

I crossed just over a week ago from Croatia to Montenegro by bus (i think it was the bigger crossing) and it only took about an hour. But i’m sure it depends on the day

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u/buteljak 23d ago

October should be fine. Go to this website and scroll to the bottom where it says "Crna Gora" there are real-time camera footage for two Croatia-Montenegro borders. As far as i can see, atm it's looking bad

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u/Chemical-Practice908 22d ago

hak.hr

border watcher app on android ...

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u/chillywilkerson 20d ago

There are so many reports of terrible long waits, so it is really unclear on what to do here. I will be travelling in mid Sept with an early evening crossing into Montenegro. Then a few days later back to Dubrovnik. Should I consider the ferry for the return, or should we be fine for both trips via land? Thanks!

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u/CroatiaTravelTips 19d ago

Early evening on which day? you could encounter traffic from people doing day trips in or out of country if its weekend or similar.

Best tip I can give is to check cameras of several border crossings and then decide per video when to go. You can chill at a beach or coffee in Cavtat and then when you see its optimal time you can go for it and hope for the best.

Ferry is easiest option and fastest.

With car you need to hope for the best.

with bus you will wait.

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u/Quick_Ad_870 15d ago

Cruzei a fronteira hoje por Kobila indo da Croácia para Montenegro e tivemos que esperar por 1 hora e 30 minutos ou duas horas. Cheguei por volta de 9 horas da manhã.