Montenegro: Country #60…We Took the Bus Everyone Complains About…
One more day closer to meeting up with our Kansas City friends in Croatia THIS WEEK! Over the past month we’ve been making our way toward Croatia almost entirely by bus 🚌, and today we crossed from Albania into country No. 60—Montenegro!
Before booking, we read the reviews for Old Town Travel—the only bus company operating this route—and let’s just say… expectations were low. 😅 The reviews warned us about unwritten luggage fees, major delays, overbooked buses, drivers chain smoking in the bus, passengers being left behind at pitstops, border chaos, and general travel mayhem.
We couldn’t help but wonder… would our experience live up to the reviews? 😂
Well… the bus showed up an hour late, was oversold (43 passengers competing for 32 seats 😳), luggage was indeed €2 per bag (thankfully we came prepared with coins!), and departure ended up nearly two hours behind schedule. Border crossings involved everyone piling off the bus twice and standing in the middle of a car lane like organized chaos. Just another bus travel day! 🤣
But credit where it’s due—the station agent in Shkodër was friendly, spoke excellent English, and helped make sense of the confusing boarding process. The bus itself was nice and comfortable…and no smokes onboard. Once we crossed into Montenegro, the drive over the mountains and down into Budva was absolutely stunning, and by late afternoon we rolled into beautiful Kotor.
Would a little competition on this route be a good thing? Definitely. But in the end, we made it safely to Montenegro, added country #60 to our travels, and collected another unforgettable story along the way.
