The old road to Njeguši: 25 hairpins and a lesson in patience

I’ve driven the old road to Njeguši more times than I can count, and it still gets my palms slightly damp on the tighter bends. That’s not a complaint. It’s the point.

An Austro-Hungarian road that never got the memo about modern traffic

The road was cut into the mountainside by Austro-Hungarian engineers around 1880, when the empire held this stretch of coast and needed a reliable way to move people and goods between the naval base at Kotor and the old Montenegrin capital at Cetinje, sitting on the plateau above. Before that, the only route up was a mule track, parts of which still survive as a walking path. The road they built is a genuine piece of engineering for its era: about 25 hairpin bends carved into roughly 11 kilometres of climb, gaining close to 900 metres from the old town walls to the village of Njeguši.

What nobody in 1880 planned for was a Fiat 500 meeting a 20-seat minibus on a bend with a drop on one side and rock face on the other. That’s the road as it exists today: a single carriageway, one and a half lanes at best, unmarked in most stretches, with barely a metre of gravel to pull onto if things get tight.

What driving it actually feels like

Leaving Kotor, the road peels off from the coast road just north of town and starts climbing almost immediately. The first few bends are gentle enough to lull you into thinking this will be easy. It won’t stay that way. By hairpin six or seven you’re doing the thing every driver on this road eventually does: slowing to a crawl before each blind curve, tapping the horn, and hoping whatever’s coming the other way does the same.

Meeting a tour minibus is the real test. They know the road, their drivers do this daily, and they’re generally good about finding the one spot wide enough to pass. But it still means one of you reversing a few metres, mirrors folded in, while the other inches by with centimetres to spare. It happens on nearly every trip up if you’re going during the middle of the day. It essentially never happens before 9am, because the tours haven’t started yet.

Locals drive this road fast, confidently, and with their horn as a permanent extension of the accelerator. Don’t try to match their pace. A rental car with an unfamiliar driver taking 30 to 40 minutes for the climb is completely normal and nothing to be embarrassed about. If you’d rather not drive it at all, a guided [Kotor: Montenegro Highlights Day Trip with Guide](Kotor: Montenegro Highlights Day Trip with Guide) typically covers this route with someone else doing the concentrating.

The viewpoint everyone photographs

Somewhere around hairpin 13 to 15, depending on which switchback you count as which, there’s a pull-off wide enough for two or three cars. This is the shot you’ve seen on every Instagram feed and postcard rack in Kotor: the full sweep of the Bay of Kotor below, the old town’s walls tracing up the hillside toward San Giovanni fortress, boats scattered across the water like they were placed there for the photo.

It’s worth the stop, but be realistic about the road. There’s no barrier, no fence, and no room to dawdle if another car needs to pass. Pull all the way off, take your photos, and get back in the car promptly. I’ve seen people block the whole width of the road here trying to get a drone shot, which is both illegal without permission and a genuinely dangerous thing to do on a blind bend that tour minibuses use all day.

Why morning changes everything

I used to drive this road at whatever time suited the rest of my day, and I paid for it in traffic and bad light. Now I go before 9am, ideally closer to 8am, and it’s a different road entirely.

Two things change. First, the light: driving up in the morning puts the sun behind you rather than glaring straight into the windscreen through most of the hairpins, which matters more than it sounds like it should on a road that demands full attention. Second, the traffic: organised tours from the cruise terminal and the old town start rolling up the hairpins from roughly 10.30am onward and keep coming through early afternoon. Get there before that window and you might meet one other car on the whole climb. Get there at 11am on a July day with three cruise ships in port and you’ll be reversing on a blind bend more than once.

What’s actually at the top

Njeguši itself is a scattering of stone houses on a high plateau, famous well beyond Montenegro’s borders for two things: prsut, the air-dried ham cured in the mountain wind, and a hard, tangy sheep’s cheese made the same traditional way for generations. Nearly every house along the main street sells both, along with homemade rakija, and it’s worth stopping at more than one to compare before buying. I’ve written more on that in a separate guide to Njeguši’s prsut and cheese.

The village also happens to be Petar II Petrović-Njegoš’s birthplace, which explains the mausoleum on nearby Mount Lovćen that draws its own share of visitors. If you’ve come this far, the road continues on to the Njegoš mausoleum and into Lovćen National Park, or drops the other way down toward Cetinje, the old royal capital. Most people who make this drive combine all three into one long day rather than turning back at Njeguši.

Practical notes before you go

A few things I wish someone had told me the first time. Fill your tank in Kotor; there’s nothing reliable on the mountain. Bring cash for roadside prsut and cheese stalls, since card machines are unreliable at best up here. If you’re nervous about narrow mountain roads generally, this one is worth respecting rather than avoiding outright, but check the parking situation in Kotor before you leave, since finding a spot back in town afterward can eat more time than the drive itself.

And if two cars of your party are debating whether to self-drive or book a tour, our comparison of where to base yourself between Kotor and Budva and general notes on renting a car in Montenegro cover the wider decision.

For a broader look at fitting this into a longer stay, our two-day Kotor itinerary slots the old road in as a half-day excursion, and if you want the numbers on what a day like this costs beyond fuel and cheese, see our breakdown of the cost of a day in Kotor. Whichever way you tackle it, don’t drive it at midday in August expecting an empty road. Go early, go slow, and let the tour buses have the afternoon.

Njeguši old road: your questions answered

How many hairpin bends are there on the old road to Njeguši?

Around 25, though nobody I’ve asked agrees on the exact number because a couple of the tighter ones blur into a single curve depending on how you count. The road climbs from sea level at Kotor to roughly 900 metres at Njeguši in about 11 kilometres, which tells you how relentless the switchbacks are.

Is the old road to Njeguši difficult to drive?

It’s narrow, one and a half lanes wide in most places, with no real shoulder and a drop on the outside edge. It isn’t technically hard if you go slowly and use your horn on blind bends, but it takes concentration for the whole 25 minutes to 40 minutes, and meeting a minibus is the main stress point.

Where is the best viewpoint on the road?

The stretch around hairpin 13 to 15 gives the classic postcard shot: the whole Bay of Kotor laid out below with the old town’s walls climbing the hillside. There’s a small pull-off wide enough for two or three cars, and it’s the one place on the road where stopping doesn’t block anyone.

What time should I drive up to avoid tour traffic?

Before 9am. Organised minibus tours from the cruise terminal and Kotor’s old town start arriving from around 10.30am and keep coming through early afternoon. Early morning also gives you the sun behind you rather than in your eyes on the way up.

Can I drive the old road in a rental car, or do I need a 4x4?

A standard rental car is fine in dry conditions; this isn’t an off-road track, it’s a sealed but narrow public road. Wet weather or the first snow of the year change that calculus, and locals will tell you plainly to wait for better conditions rather than push it.

Is there a bus to Njeguši, or do I need my own car?

There’s no scheduled public bus up the old road. Your options are a rental car, a taxi negotiated in advance, or one of the organised tours that includes Njeguši or Cetinje on the itinerary. Without a car, a tour is genuinely the easier route, not just the safer one. The [Kotor: Etuktuk Tour with Prčanj Tivat and Trojica Hill](Kotor: Etuktuk Tour with Prčanj Tivat and Trojica Hill) covers a different, gentler hillside if you want the views without the hairpins at all.

How does the old road compare to the newer route through the Sozina tunnel?

They’re not really alternatives for the same trip. The Sozina tunnel road heads toward Podgorica and bypasses this climb entirely; the old road exists specifically to reach Njeguši, Cetinje and Lovćen from Kotor’s side of the mountain, and there’s no faster paved shortcut for that particular direction.

If you’d rather see the bay from the water instead of from a hairpin, the [Highlights of Kotor Perast Budva](Highlights of Kotor Perast Budva) tour or a [Perast: Bay of Kotor Speedboat Tour with Tube Ride](Perast: Bay of Kotor Speedboat Tour with Tube Ride) covers the same scenery from sea level.