Manchester to Montenegro without flying

Bosman to the Balkans

In September last year I embarked on my longest flight-free journey yet. After a successful first foray with my trip to Majorca the previous year (post coming soon), followed up by a flight-free ski trip in the February of that year (also post coming soon), Montenegro would prove to be my best yet.

The journey began with, of course, a train down to London from my recently new home of Manchester - where I'd stay with Musty. The plan for this trip was to spend three days travelling to Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, where I'd meet up with Musty and Nav to go on a road-trip around the best Montenegro has to offer.

As with all my flight-free trips so far, I kicked things off with an early morning Eurostar to Paris. I've passed through Paris enough times now that I didn't really see a need to spend much time there, so I simply completed the 10-minute walk from Gare du Nord to Gare de l'Est and hopped on the next train to Stuttgart.

An industrial city, I spent a couple of hours grabbing dinner here before heading back to the station for the next part of the journey - a night train to Zagreb, Croatia. This was a real treat, especially as I lucked out and found myself with the cabin to myself, despite booking a couchette in a 3-berth compartment!

After 8 hours of sleep, I woke to the bright green pastures of Slovenia. We'd evidently hit a delay somewhere during the night and so were a couple of hours delayed in pulling in to the Croatian capital. This wasn't an issue for me though as I had a somewhat easy day ahead. Unfortunately the rail link between Zagreb and the Serbian capital of Belgrade appears to have been shuttered during Covid, and never really opened back up. This meant I needed to take the longer and less comfortable option of the coach to reach my next destination, and due to the time tabling I'd booked the 5-hour route for sometime in the mid-afternoon.

After wandering around Zagreb for a while (I'd say there's a reason Croatian beaches are the more popular destination), I hopped on the bright green Flixbus and strapped in for a road trip through the Balkans. I say a road trip but in fact it's basically just following one long-bit of motorway. By the time I arrived in Belgrade, the coach ride and the hours of walking earlier were definitely beginning to catch up with me, and I was very grateful to arrive at the hostel.

What I hadn't realised was much of Serbia is still cash-only. So after dumping my stuff at the hostel (which was very nice and friendly - shoutout Habitat-Hostel!), I went back onto the streets to find an ATM. And even though it was 11pm at night, I've got to say Belgrade really impressed me, the place had such a buzz and felt truly alive. I'll definitely have to go back (especially as I still have a fair bit of Serbian cash!).

Anyway the next day I was up bright and early to head to Belgrade's brand-new Centar train station. There's two trains a day linking Belgrade and Podgorica on the famous Belgrade-Bar railway: one day and one night. And as tickets can't be booked online if you can't be too flexible it's best to book ASAP. After securing a very reasonably priced train ticket I was all set.

I said the railway from Belgrade-Bar is famous, and it is because of it's amazing views. However, I'd say this is only really true for the Montenegrin stretch of the line. First it's a slow meander through the Serbian (and for a brief 10 or so miles - Bosnian) countryside, with little to truly shout about. Eventually, you arrive at the border town of Bijelo Polje where you change trains, going from the new modern trains of Serbia to the old Soviet-era Montenegrin trains. Not to worry though as you probably won't be in your seat for much of the ride. Everyone was out of their seats pressed against the windows for our 2-hour journey to Podgorica, as the railway cuts through mountains revealing absolutely incredible vistas en route. Truly I've never been on a railway like it, and it was a true highlight of the trip for me.

The holiday begins

After pulling in to Podgorica, I took refuge in the wonderful Restoran Ciao until Musty & Nav pulled up in our hire car. By this point it was getting pretty late, so we checked straight in to our hotel, ready to hit the road properly tomorrow.

On Day 2, we hit the road proper - stopping off first at the lake Biogradsko Jezero in the Biogradska National Park. Surrounded by beautiful forested mountains we beat the heat by hiring a few kayaks and splashing about in the water. After having our fun, we hit the road again in search of lunch. We eventually found a small roadside restaurant alongside the Tara River, which served an absolute dream of a meal - all fresh veg and meat/fish, with a family dog to pet as well.

Fuelled up and ready to continue, we ventured out onto the open road again to arrive at our stop for the next couple of nights Hotel Ravnjak. Surrounded by mountains on either side, this countryside stay is most famous for being a former hunting lodge of ex-Yugoslavia dictator Tito.

The next day, we went on a "short" hike led by Musty that turned into a several hours-long affair - only being forced to turn around halfway up the mountain due to a tree having fallen blocking our path. After a quick lunch and recovery we were then picked up for the day's main affair - a white water rafting experience down the Tara River. An incredibly tranquil time.

There's no rest for the wicked however, and on day 4 we were back on the road. We left early to catch a sunrise over Durdevica Tara Bridge - an incredible feat of engineering - before then driving towards the coast.

Our second stop of the day took us to the incredibly picturesque lake of Crno Jezero for a quick walk around. Whilst on the road we then decided to take another detour to the Piva Canyon for some more stunning views followed by lunch. Nav then took us (entirely too fast) to see the Ostrog Monastery - impressively built into a cliff face and opened surprisingly recently in 1920. The drive then continued once more until we arrived in our final destination - the coastal fortress town of Kotor.

Kotor's main attraction is its old town, filled with little souvenir shops, as well as lots of friendly cats, and it served as an excellent base for the next few days.

After one day exploring the old town, Musty was taken out of action by some bad oysters. This left me and Nav to fend for ourselves - choosing to go and check out the nearby Porto Montenegro, where Europe's super-rich choose to visit and park their megayachts.

The next day was our final day in Kotor, and we'd grown increasingly jealous of the other tourists on boat tours, and come to the conclusion we'd wanted to do one ourselves. The only issue being that the weather had been fairly stormy the previous night, with our tour guide (who was only about 19 if that) being one of 2 in the bay still willing to take people out onto the still rough waves. This proved a problem for me, sat at the front of the boat, as I was thrown up after hitting one of the waves and landed back down right on the small of my back. In much pain I manoeuvred around to the side of the boat, but the damage had been done and in truth I was unable to walk properly for at least two weeks after. Lessons learned.

Leaving Kotor behind, we began our journey back to Podgorica, where I'd be taking the night train back to Belgrade whilst Nav and Musty would head to the airport. We were keen to maximise the day however, visiting Budva and Sveti Stefan en route - neither quite living up to Kotor in my opinion, but definitely worth a visit.

I learnt a lot on this holiday, and definitely want to visit the Balkans again. Belgrade is a city that needs much more than one night, and Bosnia & Albania both sound like they might provide the same kind of experience, with beautiful nature and coastlines (well maybe not in Bosnia's case) along with being small enough to drive around. I'll be back.