Montenegro

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Anybody ever hitchhiked in Montenegro? Write down your experiences :-)
Flag of Montenegro Montenegro
Information
Language: Montenegrin, Serbian, Bosnian, Albanian, Croatian
Capital: Podgorica
Population: 684,736
Currency: Euro (€)
Hitchability: Verygood.png (very good) (?)
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<map lat='42.7' lng='19.33' zoom='7' view='0' float='right' />

Montenegro, officially the Republic of Montenegro, is a new country located in the southeast of Europe.

According to wikipedia, roads in Montenegro are far below European standards.

Cities

Currency

Good to know: The official currency in Montenegro is the Euro, the official currency of the Eurozone. Nevertheless Montenegro is not a formal member of the so called Eurozone.

Stay Safe

Montenegro is generally a safe country. Unlike many of its Balkan neighbours, it pretty much managed to avoid the conflicts of the 1990s, so there are few landmines or other unpleasant surprises strewn about.

Hitching

People are extremely friendly here but the roads are really terrible which means it will take a long long time to cross from south to north. You may want to avoid Kosavo also to avoid complications, so if you're headed east, its best to cross through Serbia and then Macedonia.

Unsurprisingly, there are many mountains (mont-e-negro meaning - black mountains) which can diffuse into 20km taking 5 hours in a truck. But they are spectacular and well worth going through slowly. Try not to get a truck however, because it's a little more dangerous going through the carved tunnels.

Hitchhiker experiences

Jason and Kelsey hitched here in May 2008 without problem and waiting very little time between rides. It helps to be out of big towns when thumbing as people realise that public transport in the middle of nowhere is almost non-existent.

User:Banzai faced mayor problems when trying to hitchhike in Montenegro in January 2007. He tried to hitch from Podgorica to Budva (passing to Cetinhe) together with a friend. There weren't too many cars to begin with, the very few that stopped asked money (more then it would take to go with the bus) and - most striking - had three cases of cars driving on all of a sudden after they stopped and opened the doors. When we were getting our backpacks, they drove on - even with open doors!. We spend an entire day trying to get a ride, no luck. In the end we decided to take the bus to the border town, called Herceg-Novi. We pitched the tent near the outskirts of town, and tried to hitchhike to Croatia next day. Again no luck, and since it was close to the border, we got numerous passport controls by different patrols (about 6 controls in 4 hours). After 5 hours, the police wanted to get rid of us so desperately, that they drove us up to the border, and kicked us out of Montenegro.

Stan hitched there in December 2008. Came in from Dubrovnik, Croatia. There are very little cars at the border and I had to hike for 3 hours through Herzeg Novi to find a decent spot to hitchhike. It seemed to be a very uncommon thing to do, but the rides I got were such extremely friendly people! One ride bought me a good lunch, another ride invited me to his family's house, treated me on dinner and I could sleep at his place! Experience learns that it is best to ASK people directly! Also, if you are headed to the capital Podgorica, take the ferry near Kotor, it's faster and you can ask people in their cars. Since I was in a hurry I took the autobus from Podgorica to Pristina, Kosovo (with connection to Skopje), it was 16,50 euro for a 7 hour ride through an epic mountain area.