How to Get From Dubrovnik to Kotor by Bus

After spending 3 days in Dubrovnik, it was time to leave and head to our next destination, Kotor in Montenegro.

For this journey, we decided to travel by bus. The journey time is only 2 hours and 45 minutes.

There are currently 13 buses a week that run from Dubrovnik to Kotor. I assume the number will increase during the summer season. We made this journey at the beginning of April.

The current bus times are as follows:

Monday, Tuesday & Thursday: 15:00-17:00 (2 hrs); 17:30-19:50 (2 hrs 20 mins)

Wednesday: 07:15-09:45 (2 hrs 30 mins); 11:00-13:10 (2 hrs 10 mins); 15:00-17:00 (2 hrs); 17:30-19:50 (2 hrs 20 mins)

Friday: 07:15-09:45 (2 hrs 30 mins); 15:00-17:00 (2 hrs); 17:30-19:50 (2 hrs 20 mins)

Saturday: 11:00-13:10 (2 hrs 10 mins); 15:00-17:00 (2 hrs); 17:30-19:50 (2 hrs 20 mins)

Sunday: 15:00-17:00 (2 hrs)

All buses are run by Croatia bus-Globtour-Touring-Jadran ekspres, except the 15:00 departure, which is run by Božur Podgorica. The Croatia bus-Globtour-Touring-Jadran ekspres buses have toilets on board but I don’t know whether the Božur bus do or not. See below for more about the onboard toilet.

Booking our ticket online

We booked our tickets the GetByBus.com website. We’ve used them many times in the past and have always found them to be reliable. The tickets cost 24.82 EUR each. As is usual in this region, we had to pay the bus driver an additional 1 EUR each for our luggage.

Once we booked the tickets we got an email confirmation with the tickets attached. The tickets contain an QR code that you show the bus driver, so there’s no need to print the tickets.

Note that the 15:00 departure is run by a different bus company and you need to print the tickets for them. We don’t have access to a printer, so we couldn’t get that bus if we booked online.

Dubrovnik Bus Station

Dubrovnik bus station is around 3 km from the old town. The cheapest and easiest way to get there is by local bus. See How to Get From Dubrovnik Bus Station to the Old Town. The reverse journey is covered as well in that post.

Our Bus

Our bus wasn’t as good as the other buses we traveled on in this region. It was a Jadran ekspres bus that should have had toilet and wifi. However, the toilet was locked and the wifi was very slow to begin with and then didn’t work at all. The heating on the bus also didn’t work, which meant it was pretty cold. Other than that, the bus was ok.

As you can see above, the seating is pretty comfortable. You don’t get allocated a seat when booking, so can seat wherever you like.

Bus wifi speed

The wifi on the bus was slow to begin with and then stopped working. Not a big problem for such a short journey though.

Bus route

You can see the bus route above. It was quite a short journey but involved a border crossing, as all our bus journeys have so far.

The Croatia/Montenegro Border Crossing

Getting through both the Croatia and Montenegro immigration took longer than expected. The traffic was very light, so I dread to think what it’s like in high season. Traveling outside the high season has its benefits.

At the Montenegro immigration there was a sign warning tourists that the need to register with the authorities and pay 1 EUR per person per day tourists tax. I’ve written another post about this, as it’s something you make sure you do, as well as keeping the documents to show immigration when you leave the country. See Make Sure You Pay Your Montenegro Tourist Tax.

Kotor Bus Station

Kotor bus station is a small station that’s close to the old town. Our bus arrived around 30 minutes later than expected. This was due to the time spent at the border crossings.

Getting to Kotor Old Town from the bus station

The old town is only around 600 meters from the bus station, so it’s an easy walk. No need to get a taxi.

Where we stayed in Kotor

We decided to book an apartment via Agoda instead of Airbnb, as the same apartment was around 15 EUR cheaper on Agoda for our 3-night booking. We stayed at Old Town Kotor Square Apartment. We can highly recommend it. Click here to book this apartment on Agoda.

If you want to book a different apartment or hotel, use the Agoda search box above.

You can read our review of the apartment at Great 1-bed Apartment in Kotor Old Town, Montenegro.