A small airport, which works in your favour
Podgorica Airport (ICAO: LYPG) sits at twelve kilometres south of the city on flat, open ground. One passenger terminal, one 2,500-metre runway, and on a normal weekday perhaps fifteen to twenty aircraft movements. That scale is the whole story of arriving here: the distance from the aircraft door to the driver's seat is usually about fifteen minutes, not the forty-five a larger hub would take from you.
Arrivals disembark by air-stairs onto the apron and walk a painted line to the terminal. There is no jetbridge, so in heavy rain you get wet and in August you squint. It is the main practical argument for collecting a car at Podgorica Airport rather than travelling into the city for one.
Through the terminal
Passport control has four booths, of which two are usually staffed. Montenegro is outside both the Schengen area and the EU, so expect a proper stamp and occasionally a question about how long you are staying. UK and EU passport holders need no visa for stays up to ninety days. The queue rarely runs past ten minutes, even with two flights on the ground; the one genuine pinch point is a Turkish Airlines wide-body from Istanbul landing alongside a Wizz Air arrival, which happens a few times a week.
Baggage reclaim is a single belt immediately past passport control, and bags usually start appearing within about eight minutes of the aircraft going on chocks. Customs is green channel by default. There is a red-channel desk on the left, rarely staffed, which you need only if you are carrying more than ten thousand euros in cash. Otherwise you walk straight out.
Meeting your car
The arrivals hall is a single rectangular room about thirty metres long, so nothing is hard to find. There is no counter to queue at: the car is handed over by the operator at the point agreed when you booked, either inside the hall or just outside it by the short-stay parking, and those details reach you before you travel.
Have your passport, your driving licence and the booking reference ready. Carry the physical licence rather than a photograph of it, since it is checked against the contract. Give your flight number at the booking stage and a delay moves the handover rather than costing you the car, which matters here because several scheduled flights land late in the evening.
Before you pull away, photograph the car's four corners and the odometer. It takes thirty seconds and it is the single most useful piece of paperwork advice anyone can give you.
Cash and getting connected
The single cash machine in the arrivals hall is on the far right wall, a Crnogorska Komercijalna Banka machine dispensing euros in ten and twenty notes. Draw a hundred or so, since car hire podgorica airport bookings settle the balance with the operator rather than at a machine. You will want cash for the Sozina tunnel toll if you are heading to the coast, for village shops where the card reader sometimes sulks, and for the coin a supermarket trolley expects. There are currency-exchange booths, but the machine gives a better rate every time.
For connectivity, the simplest option is to add a Montenegrin SIM or a wireless hotspot to your booking, in which case it arrives with the car and you are online before you reach the barrier. Failing that, buy an eSIM package online before you fly and it works the moment you land.
Fuel before you commit to anything
The first petrol station is a Lukoil on the airport access road, about 1.5 km from the terminal on the right as you head north. It runs roughly 06:00 to 22:00, sells unleaded and diesel, and usually has an attendant who will fill the car for you. Most rentals are handed over full; if yours is not, deal with it here rather than gambling on the coast, where fuel is consistently dearer.
The shop is more useful than it looks: bottled water, screen wash, road maps, and a genuinely decent espresso. If you are landing after 22:00 the Lukoil is shut and the calculation changes, which the late-arrival guide covers properly.
The road out
The access road feeds onto the M2, a proper dual carriageway with a 100 km/h limit and a hard shoulder, and there are no traffic lights for the first six kilometres. The exit roundabout sits about 800 metres from the terminal doors and gives you two obvious choices: left for Podgorica and the motorway network, right for Tuzi and the Albanian border.
Heading for the capital, ignore the Golubovci, Zlatica and Stari Aerodrom exits and take the Moraca bridge turnoff, which drops you into the new city. Terminal to central Podgorica is twelve kilometres and about fifteen minutes, twenty in the morning rush. Heading for the coast, stay south and follow signs for the Sozina tunnel. Traffic discipline is reasonable, though drivers cluster in the left lane and indicate late, and the speed cameras near the old airport entrance and the Moraca bridge approach are well signposted.
Worth having ready before you land
Three things on your phone: an offline map of Montenegro, a photo of your booking confirmation, and the operator's phone number in case you cannot immediately spot whoever is meeting you. Airport wifi is patchy and you do not want to be hunting through email in the hall.
Keep your licence somewhere accessible and your passport somewhere less so. You will be asked for the licence at collection and possibly at a traffic stop later in the week; the passport, once you are out of the terminal, almost never.
What is not worth your time
The terminal cafe is small, expensive and closes early. The souvenir shop sells the same fridge magnets you will find at half the price in Kotor or Budva. The currency-exchange booth is worse than the machine beside it. And there is no left-luggage facility, so if you are meeting someone else's car with checked bags, they come with you.
