Montenegro safety guide for travelers: Personal review & important tips

Over the past few years, Montenegro has been gaining popularity amongst international travelers. As a fellow Balkan, I am very excited to see our part of the world get more and more recognition among tourists, as the Balkans are beautiful and deserve to be seen and explored. But how safe is it to travel to Montenegro?

In this article, I will cover the basics of safety in Montenegro, with a focus on travelers. Here is what you will read in this post:

How is it to visit Montenegro?

Montenegro is overall considered a safe country for travelers. As usual, we still recommend everyone to not be reckless and take normal precautions, as you would in any other country.

I am aware that the Balkan region, in general, has been portrayed in movies as a dangerous area, with a lot of kidnapping scenes in general. Thankfully, this is not a picture of the current reality. We have not encountered any situation during our trip that has left us feeling insecure or in danger in any sense.

However, I understand that some of the habits of the people in Montenegro and the Balkans, in general, may be quite different from what most American and international tourists are used to. With this in mind, we have put together below a few tips on how to make sure you will have a safe trip through Montenegro.

Safety tips for traveling to Montenegro worry-free

1. Don’t keep your belongings unattended. It is common when you go to the beach, to see people leaving all their things in the sand while they swim. Even though the likelihood of anything happening is very slim, if you carry valuable items such as camera gear and a passport, try to avoid leaving your belongings behind.
2. Practice defensive driving when driving through Montenegro. As we have shown in our guide about driving in Montenegro, one of the biggest worries of a self-road trip in the country is random police checks and crazy overtaking in narrow streets. If you keep alert and drive defensively, you are probably not going to have issues in the country.
3. Avoid drunk crowds. This tip goes especially to female solo travelers. You don’t have to worry about going out alone or walking through town during the night, those situations are usually pretty safe and the reports of sexual assailment are rare in Montenegro. However, it is always good to stay alert when going out at night (same as you would anywhere else).
4. In many cities (especially the smaller ones), you will see houses with the gate or door wide open during the day. This may come across as quite surprising for many American and international tourists, but the locals have a high level of trust, especially when living in smaller towns where the neighbors are familiar with each other.
5. Hitchhiking is possible, but not as common as in other European countries. We have heard of female travelers who have encountered uncomfortable situations when hitchhiking in Montenegro alone. The rides available are typically offered by men who drive alone.
6. Get yourself good travel insurance before your trip to Montenegro. The cost of any health-related treatment grows exponentially if you are a tourist. Here at Mauka, we always use VisitorsCoverage to purchase travel insurance whenever we travel abroad.

Natural disasters in Montenegro

As with anywhere else in the world, there are certain things to be mindful of before organising your trip to Montenegro – but nothing too serious. In most cases, you will be fine as Montenegro is not typically known for having very serious natural disasters.

There are three things we recommend you keep in mind:

1. Earthquakes

Montenegro and the entire Balkan Peninsula are located in a seismically active area. Earthquakes do occur around the Balkan countries every year. However, this is something you don’t have to worry about too much as the last time an earthquake had serious consequences as damaging houses and affecting populated areas in Montenegro was in 1979.

2. Fire

The combination of extreme heat and dry weather during the summer often results in forest fires. This is unfortunately a common situation not only in Montenegro but the entire region. The forest fires happen mostly during July and August and are usually contained in remote, non-populated areas.

Again, I would not let this prevent you from scheduling your trip. Montenegrin officials have the situation usually well under control and they will evacuate villages or close roads in advance if necessary.

3. Rain

Also happening during the summer months, Montenegro sometimes experiences heavy rainfalls that may result in closed roads due to flooding. These summer storms usually pass quite fast but can be very strong.

This is not really something dangerous for most travelers, but if you will be traveling through Montenegro by car, you might want to keep an eye on the forecast to make sure you won’t be caught off guard.

Overall, Montenegro is a very safe destination to travel to when analyzing it from a natural disaster point of view.

Do you need to rent a car for your trip?

We always use DiscoverCars to rent our car. So far it has proved to be not only the cheapest option but also the most reliable one. We used DiscoverCars to rent our car for our trips through Slovenia, Montenegro, Serbia, Italy, and so many other countries, and we never had any issues. We even convinced all of our friends and family to use it. So that’s why we are also recommending it to you!

Get a quote here

How safe is Montenegro for female travelers?

For this section, I will ask Fe to give her perspective as a female traveling through Montenegro.

“As a woman, I felt very safe traveling through Montenegro. It is true that I was not traveling alone, but I always pay a lot of attention to the surroundings when visiting a new country.

“During this trip, we experienced many different kinds of situations since we were driving, we walked at night in the streets, went out to dinner alone, went for drinks, stayed on the beach, and more. I don’t think you should be too worried about any of them.

“The one thing that I think should be mentioned is the going out part. Some cities on the seaside of Montenegro are known as party and festival destinations. Those festivals are amazing events and I definitely recommend going. But as a female traveler, I would advise you to have the same type of attention as you would anywhere else when going out alone. Pay attention to your bag, to your drink, and to the vibe of the people who are with you.

“All in all, I don’t think you will encounter any bad situations during your trip. I felt very safe traveling through Montenegro as a female and I do recommend this destination to my fellow female travelers without a shed of doubt.

How safe is Montenegro for American tourists?

Since most of our readers of the blog are from the US, we think it is only fair to have a section dedicated to the safety of traveling to Montenegro for American tourists.

We were astonished by the number of American tourists we saw during our trip to Montenegro. We had no idea this small Balkan country was such a hit with the US crowd. If that is your case, we think you can feel very safe in Montenegro as an American tourist.

You may find some European habits quite different from what you are used to in the US, but the country is still very safe to visit and will provide you with an unforgettable trip.

One thing that is worth making a note of here is the possibility of falling into scams. Most of the American tourists we have seen in Montenegro come on cruise ships, which means they come in enormous groups that basically take over a city at once.

What does this mean in practice?

It is fairly common anywhere in the world that when a tourist group arrives, there may be situations in which not-so-honest people will charge you more for being a foreigner, or “forget” to give you the change, etc. In Montenegro, we didn’t experience this ourselves, but there are other countries in the region where you are expected to negotiate the price of most things.

To help you on your trip to Montenegro, we have put together a few of the most popular scams that happen in the country so you can be aware of them.

Popular scams: What to look out for

Montenegro may be a very safe country to visit, but there are a few popular scams that often target tourists and we have made this section to try to call them out:

1. Being overcharged by taxi drivers at the airport

This is a tale as old as time. Unlicensed taxi drivers at the airport are common in any international destination, but it is very easy to avoid falling into this trap. If you need a taxi to your accommodation when arriving in Montenegro, make sure you use official companies and always ask the price of the ride beforehand to avoid surprises.

Another option is to organize a transfer beforehand – for that, we recommend using the Get Transfer platform.

2. Booking activities with non-official “companies”

Again, something that happens in almost every country. Before booking anything, make sure you are using trusted and registered companies to avoid falling into any scams. A very good alternative is getting recommendations from your hotel/accommodation or using a vetted platform such as Get Your Guide.

3. Being fined by police checks (especially when driving foreign cars)

Unfortunately, this is something that happens a lot in the Balkans. It happened to us when driving through Montenegro – we shared the story here.

What can you do to avoid this? Drive safely and keep a close eye on the speed limit. However, if you still find yourself in such a situation, the best thing to do is to go with it. We don’t recommend confronting the authorities. It is better to just take the fine and pay for it. If possible, try to ask for a receipt as this is the only way to make the fine official (and not an unregistered payment, aka bribe).

Uff, this was a long article. We normally try to avoid writing about negative things about any country and we did our best to be as truthful as possible about our experience.

The main goal of writing this post is to make you conscious of the things that may happen, but you should not be discouraged in any way. In fact, our goal here is quite the opposite. We honestly believe Montenegro is a very safe country to visit, whether you are a female solo traveler, a family, a group of American tourists, or any other type of explorer.

We hope you have an amazing trip through Montenegro and make unforgettable memories, just like we did.