The drive, and the part that matters
Ostrog is about 55 km from the terminal and roughly an hour, and for fifty of those kilometres it is unremarkable driving. The last three are not. The road from the lower monastery to the upper one is single lane, climbs steeply through around a dozen hairpins, and has no barrier on the drop side in several places. It is entirely paved and in reasonable condition, and it is still the most demanding stretch most visitors to Montenegro will drive.
Everything worth knowing about this trip concerns those three kilometres, so the rest of this is short.
Getting there
Out of the airport onto the M2 and north past Podgorica on the western bypass, then the E80 toward Niksic. The turning for Ostrog is signposted and comes after Bogetici, about forty minutes in. Fuel before you leave the Podgorica area rather than after; stations thin out once you are on the mountain roads. Anyone starting from the city rather than the terminal will find the collection points around Podgorica put them on this road just as quickly.
The lower monastery sits at the foot of the climb with a car park beside it. Plenty of visitors stop here, walk the pilgrim path up, and never drive the switchbacks at all. It takes about an hour on foot and is genuinely the easier option in August.
The switchback road
If you are driving up, the rules are simple and worth following. Two cars can pass on the straights; on the hairpins one of you reverses, and it is usually whoever is closer to a wider section. Take it slowly, use the horn on blind corners, and expect a coach coming the other way at least once.
In a manual, second gear going up and second coming down, first on the tightest bends. In an automatic, use the manual mode or the low position on the descent. The single most common complaint on this road is brakes that have overheated because someone rode the pedal the whole way back down. Let the engine hold the car instead.
If you are still choosing the car, this is the road that argues for an automatic. Hill starts on a ten per cent gradient with somebody waiting behind you are not most people's idea of a holiday, and by August there are far fewer of them left, so it is a booking decision rather than a collection one. The breakdown of what each class handles covers the rest.
At the top
The upper car park sits on a narrow shelf at around 900 metres and holds perhaps sixty cars. In July and August it is full by mid-morning, and there is nowhere to wait, which means people reversing back down to find space. Going early solves this completely.
Dress modestly, since it is an active monastery, and expect the last part to be on foot regardless of where you park.
Winter
The upper road closes in heavy snow and ice, and the closure is not always announced anywhere you would think to look. The cars are equipped for the cold months, which makes the attempt reasonable rather than reckless, but check conditions before committing to the climb. The winter driving guide covers the road-closure sources and the chain rules.
Making a day of it
Ostrog pairs naturally with anything else going north, since the turning is only a few kilometres off the main road. Duklja sits almost on the route and takes an hour. Anyone continuing to the mountains can pick up the Durmitor drive from the same road, though that is better as a full day of its own.
