Day trips from Podgorica

Virpazar, in Bar municipality, is one of four places where licensed operators run boat trips on Skadar Lake (the others are Vranjina, Rijeka Crnojevića and Plavnica), and the park's second visitor centre is upstairs in the tourist office building there. The park ticket is EUR 5 per person per day, free under 15; the boat is paid to the operator, and no operator or park source publishes boat prices, durations or a season, so agree the price at the pier. The lake is the largest in the Balkans, a national park since 1983 and a Ramsar wetland with 281 bird species; the park recommends April to June for birds. Godinje, the stone village above the lake, has the Bar tourist board's viewpoint with free parking and is the end of the 4.5 km Zabes-Godinje trail. The leg to Rijeka Crnojevića is routed on the main roads. In the village: Prince Danilo's bridge of 1853 on a 12.3 km river whose drowned valley forms one arm of the lake; above it, the Pavlova strana lookout above the river. Virpazar also has a station on the Bar-Belgrade railway.

The Circuit around Korita is the National Tourism Organisation's panoramic road no. 4: a 65 km loop from Podgorica through Medun, Ubli, Kučka Korita, Zatrijebač and Fundina back to Podgorica on a paved mountain road, graded easy, best from April to October, and three to four hours of driving plus stops by the Government's route description; the NTO publishes a map and a GPS track, and the Podgorica tourist organisation calls it the first fully marked panoramic route in the country. First stop, below the Medun fortress, is the Marko Miljanov Museum, the house where the Kuči leader and writer (1833-1901) lived from 1878 and wrote most of his work; open Tuesday to Friday 08:00-16:00 and Saturday and Sunday 09:00-17:00, ticket price not published. Kučka Korita is an area of open mountain pastures where shepherds keep the katun way of life; its elevation and winter road status are not published. Grlo sokolovo, Falcon's Throat, looks down the Cijevna canyon to the Prokletije skyline; the NTO advises hiking boots for the lookout. The road comes down to the Cijevna itself, 32 of whose 58.8 km are in Montenegro, with a protected canyon in Tuzi municipality, and back into the city. The panoramic roads are not advised for large campers.

Ostrog is the monastery of St Basil, built into the cliff of Ostroška greda in Danilovgrad municipality at about 900 m above sea level, high above the Zeta valley, with 17th-century cave churches and the saint's relics in the upper monastery; the National Tourism Organisation calls it one of the most visited monasteries in the Orthodox world. The road climbs first to the lower monastery, around a Church of the Holy Trinity and a large guest house where pilgrims stay overnight; from there the section to the upper monastery is steep (10%), very narrow and busy, and the Ministry's panoramic-road guide advises leaving any vehicle at the lower monastery and walking the 3 km path through the forest. No opening hours, fees, dress code, shuttle or parking rules are published by the monastery or the tourism bodies; it is an active monastery, and its portal gives +382 68 800 899 for enquiries. Leave by the descent towards the Nikšić road, narrow with a 150 m gravel stretch, for Nikšić, the second-largest town, and the Bedem fortress of Onogošt: a name recorded in the 12th century, an Ottoman stronghold from the late 1600s, Montenegrin since 1877, partly reconstructed and used for concerts, with no published hours or fees.

Cetinje, the old royal capital at 672 m below Lovćen, is 46 minutes from Podgorica. The King Nikola Museum in the former palace on Dvorski trg shows a reconstructed royal interior with collections from the Middle Ages to 1918 (EUR 8; daily 09:00-16:00 in the summer season, Monday to Friday 09:00-15:00 in winter; a EUR 20 collective ticket covers all National Museum units and the mausoleum). Then the road up into Lovćen National Park, with the park ticket of EUR 3 per person per day (free under 15) sold at the checkpoints and online, to the car park on Jezerski vrh, 20 km from Cetinje, and the tunnel of 461 steps up to Njegoš's Mausoleum, completed in 1974 to Ivan Meštrović's design: open 09:00-16:00 from 11 April to 15 November, EUR 8 (EUR 4 for students), closed from 16 November to 10 April, when the day is Cetinje only.

Take the old canyon road, not the motorway. Morača Monastery stands on the river bank 25 km short of Kolašin, built in 1252 by Stefan Vukanović, grandson of Stefan Nemanja: the Church of the Dormition in the Raška style, the smaller Church of St Nicholas, the konak, and the 13th-century fresco of the raven feeding the Prophet Elijah; it is active and publishes no hours or fee. The Morača canyon the road follows is 30 km long and up to 1,000 m deep. Then back down to Međuriječje and the signed turn to the Mrtvica canyon trail: 6.6 km one way from the trailhead car park to the spot called Plaža, about 2 hours each way, graded easy, past the stone bridge of 1858 at Zeleni vir and the Gate of Wishes; the Kolašin tourist board lists it for spring to autumn. The Mrtvica itself runs through a canyon about 10 km long and 1,250 m deep, with trout fishing from May to October.

Biogradska gora is the smallest national park, 5,650 ha on Bjelasica declared in 1952 around a 1,600 ha primeval forest and Biogradsko jezero, the largest glacial lake of the massif: 0.23 km² at 1,094 m and 12.1 m deep. The turn is 22 km from Kolašin towards Mojkovac at a small bridge; pay at the barrier (EUR 4 per person per day, free under 15) and drive 4 km of asphalt to the lakeside car park (EUR 1 an hour). The loop round the lake is 3.5 km, about an hour (the park gives 3.3 km, 40 minutes); rowing boats are EUR 10 an hour and kayaks EUR 3 single or EUR 5 double. Kolašin, the mountain town at 954 m on the Tara, is the stop on the way back. By train: the 06:21 from Podgorica is in Kolašin at 07:48, then a taxi to the park (no fare is published); the 21:19 back reaches Podgorica at 22:49, or the 10:00 for a short morning in the town only. The tolled motorway shortens the Kolašin-Podgorica part by car; the canyon road is free.

This is nearly six hours of driving by the free-flow times; Durmitor in one day is possible but long. North via Kolašin and Mojkovac to the Tara and the Đurđevića Tara bridge, 365 m long, built 1937-1940, the road crossing of a canyon 1,333 m deep at its deepest; the park sells Durmitor tickets at a checkpoint by the bridge (EUR 5 per person per day, free under 15). Then 3 km past Žabljak to Black Lake, the largest of the park's 18 glacial lakes, 0.52 km² at 1,418 m and 49.1 m deep, with a 3.5 km path round it (about an hour) and rowing boats at EUR 10 an hour; parking EUR 1 an hour at the checkpoint. The park is best visited from July to September. With a night or three in Žabljak the same ground becomes 3 days in Žabljak, with the Ring and the Ice Cave added. The roads can close; check the road conditions page before setting off.