Car Hire in Tivat: Bay Pickups and the Ferry

Live availability for your dates. Tivat pickups sit close to the marina and the airport road.

Car Hire in Tivat

Tivat is the easiest town on the Bay of Kotor to drive in and out of, which is not a claim the rest of the bay can make. The streets are modern rather than medieval, the seafront has actual parking, and the airport sits within the town rather than an hour from it. If the bay is the plan and driving is the worry, this is the end of it to start from.

It is also the only place on this coast where the car and the boat meet. The ferry at Lepetane crosses toward Kotor in a few minutes and cuts the long way round the bay out of the journey entirely, which changes what is worth driving to from here.

What Tivat Is Like to Drive In

The town sits on the outer bay facing the Lustica peninsula, built around what was a naval shipyard and is now Porto Montenegro, a deep-water marina with the promenade and restaurants that came with it. Behind that the town is ordinary in the useful sense: wide streets, a grid, and none of the pinch points that make Kotor and Budva difficult in August.

Geography still shapes the driving. The bay has no crossing except the ferry, so the choice on almost every journey is the short hop across the water or the long arc round the shoreline. Getting that choice right is worth more than any amount of speed: the drive round to Kotor takes about forty minutes, and the ferry route can halve it depending on the queue.

Where to Collect Your Hire Car in Tivat

Ten collection points, and they are spread properly rather than clustered at one end. Tivat Airport covers anyone flying in. Hotel Palma, Hotel Regent and Hotel Carrubba put the car where you are staying, the Bus Terminal covers arrivals by coach, and Petrol EKO and the Info-punkt at Donja Lastva sit on the road out of town. City delivery brings it to an address instead.

• Tivat Airport (TIV)
• Hotel Palma
• Restourant Salon Prive
• Bus Terminal
• Petrol EKO
• Info-punkt Donja Lastva
• Hotel Regent
• Hotel Carrubba
• Port of Lepetane
• City delivery

The tenth is the Port of Lepetane, the ferry ramp itself, which is worth knowing about: it means a car can be collected or dropped on the crossing rather than in the town centre. And none of this ties you to starting here. Plenty of people collect at Podgorica Airport and drive the ninety minutes over, or start in Tivat and drop the car elsewhere in the country at the end.

Parking and Returning Your Rental Car

This is the part where Tivat quietly wins. There is proper parking along the seafront and around Porto Montenegro, the marina has its own, and the town has enough of it that arriving at eleven in the morning in August is not the ordeal it is forty minutes up the road. A larger car is less of a liability here than anywhere else on the bay.

The car does not have to come back here either. One-way within Montenegro means it can be left at Podgorica Airport on the way home, or on the far side of the country, with the combinations and any transfer fee confirmed when you book.

Driving Out of Tivat: The Routes and the Ferry

North the coast road runs round the bay through Donja Lastva and Prcanj toward Perast and Kotor, about forty minutes of narrow, pretty, slow shoreline with parked cars and pedestrians the whole way. It is a lovely drive and a poor one if you are in a hurry.

The alternative is the ferry from Lepetane to Kamenari, a few minutes across the Verige strait where the bay narrows. It runs frequently, you pay at the ramp, and it removes the entire top of the bay from the journey if you are heading for Herceg Novi or the Croatian border. In peak season the queue can undo the saving, so it is worth a look before committing.

South of the town, the road climbs over the Vrmac ridge toward Budva and the E65, and the tunnel under it is the fast way to the open coast. Podgorica Airport is about ninety minutes the same way, over the ridge and through the Sozina tunnel.

Which Rental Car Suits the Bay from Here

Tivat is the one place on this coast where you are not being pushed toward the smallest thing available. The parking is manageable and the town roads are wide, so a mid-size car is comfortable rather than a mistake. The constraint only appears when you leave: the coast road to Kotor and Perast is narrow and lined with parked cars, and the bays at the other end are tight.

So the honest recommendation depends on the week. If most of it is Tivat and the ferry, take the comfortable car. If most of it is the far side of the bay and the old towns, take the compact and accept less room. The breakdown of what each class handles is the quickest way to decide.

Car Hire Insurance and Crossing to Croatia

Third-party liability is on every car and the level of cover is chosen at checkout, up to a tier that holds no deposit. The damage that happens on this coast is the small, irritating kind, kerbed wheels and car-park scrapes on the narrow stretches, and those are exactly what the lower tiers leave you arguing about.

Croatia is close enough from here to be a real consideration, roughly an hour and a half via the ferry, or the reverse of the drive down from Dubrovnik. Crossing needs cross-border approval added to the booking and a Green Card issued for the car in advance; neither can be arranged at the barrier. The requirements for each crossing are set out separately.

What You Can Reach by Car from Tivat

Kotor is about forty minutes round the shoreline, Perast a little beyond it, and Budva is around half an hour over the ridge. Herceg Novi is an hour via the ferry or considerably more without it, and the Croatian border a little further. Podgorica Airport is roughly ninety minutes. If the trip is going wider than the bay, what driving here is actually like covers the roads, the tolls and the seasons.

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