Cities, towns and municipalities of Montenegro

Montenegro doesn’t do big cities. Outside Podgorica, no town tops 33,000 people, and some of the best known, Kotor included, are little more than an old town with suburbs around it. What it does have is 25 municipalities, each with a main town, all listed in the table above with MONSTAT’s figures. Here’s which ones I’d actually visit.

Podgorica and Nikšić, the two big ones

Podgorica is the capital and the only properly large city. The municipality had 179,505 people at the 2023 census, and the town itself 173,024 in the preliminary count. For visitors it’s mainly a base, with the airport and the railway, but there are things to see, such as the clock tower in the old Stara Varoš quarter, the Cathedral of the Resurrection and the Roman ruins of Doclea 3 km out. How I’d spend a day there is in Podgorica.

Nikšić comes second, with 65,705 people in a municipality of 2,087 km², the largest in the country. It’s 1 hour 6 minutes by train from Podgorica, according to the rail operator ZPCG, and it’s the gateway to Ostrog Monastery and the prehistoric cave of Crvena stijena.

The coastal towns, the ones you’ll visit

Size doesn’t matter here. Bar has the most residents, 45,812, but Budva gets the most visitors, with 848,515 arrivals in 2024, almost a third of the national total. Then come Herceg Novi with 362,514, Ulcinj with 317,888 and Kotor with 277,063. Tivat, meanwhile, covers just 47 km², less than any other municipality.

My own pick is Kotor. Its old town had just 1,360 residents in the preliminary census, since most people live in Dobrota, Škaljari or Muo, and it’s the fortified city UNESCO added to the Venetian defences listing in 2017. It’s all in Kotor. Budva, whose old town the National Tourism Organisation dates back more than 2,500 years, is the coast’s other big draw, covered in Budva.

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Cetinje, the old royal capital

Cetinje is small, 14,494 people in the municipality, but the constitution gives it the title of old royal capital. It has the monastery, King Nikola’s palace, Njegoš’s Biljarda and the National Museum. No town in the country packs more history into fewer streets, and I’d pair it with a trip up Lovćen. All of it is in Cetinje.

The northern towns, small and mountainous

Up north the towns are small and live off the mountains. Bijelo Polje, with 38,662 people in its municipality, and Pljevlja, with 24,134, are the largest. Berane, Rožaje and Plav get their own pages because of their size. Žabljak, with just 2,941 people, gets more visitors than any northern municipality except Kolašin, because it’s the base for Durmitor. Šavnik, with 1,569, is the least populated of all 25.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Kotor and pick one that fits your day.

How the municipalities are grouped

The 25 municipalities fall into MONSTAT’s three statistical regions, six on the coast, six in the centre and thirteen in the north, with 1,462 settlements between them. If you want that picture before choosing towns, start with the regions of Montenegro.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Kotor on Booking.com and filter by area before price.