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Walking tour of Kotor’s old town (1.5 hours)
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How to get to Kotor from Dubrovnik, Tivat and the port
Kotor’s old town is pedestrian, with the Sea Gate as main entrance. From Dubrovnik it is 79 km by the ferry route (about 1 h 50, our estimate).
Kotor · Stari Grad, Kotor, Montenegro
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On foot in the old town
Distances along walkable routes, estimated from OpenStreetMap: Sea Gate to Clock Tower about 110 m; Clock Tower to the cathedral about 200 m; cathedral to the church of St Luke about 200 m; St Luke to the Maritime Museum about 75 m. From the Sea Gate to the Parilo entrance of the walls is about 275 m, then a path of about 1.2 km to the fortress.
From the main bus station the Sea Gate is about 0.75 km (our routing estimate: 10 minutes on foot). From the office of the port operator, at Park Slobode 1, it is about 0.26 km (3 minutes). These are map estimates, not measured walking times.
By bus from Dubrovnik
On Friday 23 October 2026 the official sales system of the Dubrovnik bus station listed these departures from Dubrovnik to Kotor: 07:15 (arriving 09:45), 11:00 (13:10), 15:00 (17:00) and 17:30 (19:50). Fares were about €31 to €38 and include booking and terminal service. In the other direction, Kotor to Dubrovnik: 10:10, 14:40 and 18:00.
This is the timetable of one day. Weekends and other seasons are not confirmed, so check the date you want. The station says online tickets must be bought at least two hours before departure, and for some departures tickets are sold at the ticket office only.
By car from Dubrovnik
Our routing estimates from the Pile Gate in Dubrovnik to the Sea Gate in Kotor, without traffic, border queues or waiting at the ferry: 79 km and about 1 h 50 via the Kamenari–Lepetane ferry (the estimate allows 5 minutes for the crossing; the operator’s tables give about 15 minutes, plus the wait), or 94 km and about 2 h 25 by the road round the inner bay via Verige, Risan and Perast, with no ferry.
The border crossing is Karasovići on the Croatian side and Debeli Brijeg on the Montenegrin side. We found no official waiting times, so expect variable queues.
Border and documents
Montenegro is outside the EU and the Schengen area. According to the Government of Montenegro (visa page, read on 23 October 2026), EU citizens need no visa: an ID card is enough for up to 30 days and a passport for up to 90 days. US citizens need no visa for up to 90 days with a valid document. Your document must be valid for at least three months after your planned departure.
The EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES), fully operational since 10 April 2026, registers non-EU citizens when they enter and leave. The Croatian interior ministry says it does not apply to EU citizens, so our reading is that an EU citizen leaving Croatia for Montenegro is not registered, while a US citizen is; how the checks work at Karasovići we could not confirm.
If you drive a rental car, ask the rental company about permission to leave Croatia and about insurance: the sources we found disagree on the green card, so we cannot give a rule.
From the airports
Tivat airport (TIV) is about 8 km from Kotor: 8.3 km according to the town’s tourist organisation, while our routing estimate is 6.7 km and about 9 minutes by road. Podgorica airport is 79 km away and Dubrovnik airport 71 km, according to the same source. We found no official information on taxis, buses or shuttle fares from the airports, so we give none.
By cruise ship
The port operator assigns each ship a berth or one of three anchorage positions, where passengers land by tender. By our reading of its 2026 arrivals plan, about half of the calls were at anchor with a tender landing. Which pier the large ships use, and the walking distance from the anchorages, we could not verify.
By our count of the port’s plan, between June and October there were 23 to 27 days a month with at least one large ship (over 50,000 gross register tons) and up to four large ships in one day. The plan is subject to change.
Parking
Public car parks, from the municipal company’s price list dated August 2025 (we could not confirm it applies in 2026): Riva, €4.80 an hour from 1 April to 31 October and €2.40 from 1 November to 31 March; Benovo, near the port, €1.90 an hour from 1 April to 31 October and €1.10 from 1 November to 31 March. At Autoboka, about 0.9 km from the Sea Gate, the first figure for cars is €0.90 an hour, but the layout of the PDF makes the other figures unclear. No readable tariff for the Puč car park.
To the cable car
The operator runs an official shuttle from the main bus station in Kotor to the lower station, and other shuttles run from Budva and Tivat; there are also private van and taxi shuttles. Tickets are sold online and at the bus station. We did not verify shuttle fares or timetables.
By car: parking at the lower station costs €1.30 an hour for cars and €15 for three hours for buses, then €5 an hour; parking at the upper station is free.
Local buses, taxis and money
The main bus station is on Put Prvoboraca, in Škaljari. Timetables and fares for buses to Perast, Tivat, Budva, Cetinje and Podgorica are not confirmed: the station refers to an online ticket platform. Taxi fares are not confirmed either.
Montenegro uses the euro although it is not in the EU. We found no official information on card acceptance, so carry some cash, especially for the walls ticket office. Mobile roaming from the EU is not automatic: check with your operator.