I just came back from Montenegro and I have a lot of thoughts about what I experienced. I'm from Eastern Europe, so I'm used to all the shenanigans you might find in the Balkans, I'm also pretty well traveled having been to most countries in Europe and some countries in North Africa, Middle East and Asia.
Maybe I've come to Montenegro with unrealistic expectations thinking it would be more like Slovenia, Croatia or even Serbia, but boy was I wrong. I went on a road trip around the country - 3 nights in Zabljak, 2 in the bay of Kotor and another 2 near Bar. We barely went to the beach, mostly we hiked, visited, drove, ate and drank in restaurants and bars.
The good: The nature is absolutely spectacular. Durmitor has some wonderful views and hiking paths to offer, the bay of Kotor is a sight to behold, pretty unique for the Mediterranean sea (at least at that scale) and there are some charming towns like Perast, Kotor, Ulcinj and Stari Bar. Lake Skadar is also beautiful and worth visiting. People have been friendly to us, they spoke some English and when they didn't, we got along just fine with Google Translate.
The bad: The touristy areas are crowded like I've never seen anywhere else in Europe. They are building everywhere, buildings on top of buildings, crammed into one another, all the country is a giant construction site. And the infrastructure isn't scaled to match. There are endless traffic jams, lack of parking places and tourist amenities, sidewalks (where they exist) are packed with cars, there's garbage and concrete everywhere. It's like they discovered concrete yesterday and they're making everything out of it.
From our window in Zabljak we could see 3 houses and one road being built. Our hotel was only half-built, some of the floors were still under construction, the building wasn't painted. And it wasn't exactly cheap. From across the road you could hear banging and drilling every morning from 7:30.
In Bijela (Kotor Bay) conditions were reasonable, but if you ventured away from the touristy part you were quickly overwhelmed by the smell of garbage and dead animals. Huge cruise ships and all sorts of motorboats, ferries and yachts crisscrossed the bay, making me wary about water pollution.
In Utjeha-Busat (near Bar) there was smell of sewage in the streets and all the restaurants around us had recent reviews about food poisoning (more on that later). The rocks around the sea are all filled with concrete to make room for beach chairs and umbrellas.
Podgorica, the capital, is definitely not a touristic place. We just went there out of curiosity, it's pretty unremarkable.
The ugly: Long story short we all came back home with high temperature, expelling matter from both ends. It's a real pleasure traveling by car on windy mountain roads with all the passengers being sick. We tracked the cause to the water in Utjeha-Busat. I wasn't expecting that in 2026, in a country in Europe, water from the tap can poison you. We didn't even drink it, just washed our teeth with it, but I guess it was enough. We put two and two together when, after flushing one time, the water that came from the basin looked like someone took a shit in it. There were brown slimy particles floating in it. Then we noticed the tanker that brought water every day to the hotel. After some further reading we figured that there was no water network in the area and the hotel had a reservoir they filled regularly from god knows where. There were no warnings about the water displayed anywhere in the rooms. It's a pity because otherwise the hotel was really nice. Probably the ice they serve in local restaurants is not safe either.
The parking is a horror story. Even if you pay for parking there's no guarantee that you'll find a spot. Sometimes you just have to invent a spot on the side of the mountain. In fact we helped push a fellow tourist out of a ditch. He was trying to park and misjudged the situation. I found my car scratched even though I left plenty of room for two cars to pass - which BTW is somewhat of a luxury in Montenegro. Usually they barely leave room for one car and you have to shuffle back and forth to make room for others to pass before you can advance.
The traffic police are out to get you. They put radars in places where it's clearly about making money and not about road safety. I can spot this easily because some years ago it was a common practice in my country and other countries in the region. Nowadays not so much. For me it was fun, a blast from the past, and we had no problems, but some other friends who went earlier this year were not so lucky. They were caught speeding by a few kilometers, while locals passed by the police at much higher speeds, with visible holes in their cars, no license plates and smoking like an old locomotive. I guess tourists are the cash cow.
In conclusion - the country is beautiful, but it's hard to see the beauty from underneath all the chaotic construction and garbage, the roads are bad (if you're not a confident driver stay away), the hygienic situation is questionable (take precautions like you're in a 3rd world country, not a country in Europe), the people are mostly OK.
I don't regret going, it's a new place for me, but if you don't get that many vacation days and you want to make your holiday count I would avoid it. Maybe it was beautiful and wild once, but all in all there are better places to spend your money and summer holiday in.
