On this page 5 sections
The Belgrade to Bar railway is the slowest good decision I make every year. On paper it is a little over 470 kilometres. In practice it is somewhere between ten and twelve hours, depending on the season, the engine and the mood of the single-track sections, and it ends with the Adriatic appearing on the right-hand side after a day of rivers and rock.
It is not a polished train. The carriages are old, the toilets are a gamble by hour six, and the air conditioning is either off or arctic. It is also one of the most extraordinary mountain lines in Europe, and you see all of it for less than a taxi across a western capital.
The route, leg by leg
We took the day train in late May and broke the trip into four mental legs. Times are rough and drift with delays.
| Leg | Roughly | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| Belgrade to Valjevo area | 2 hours | Flat farmland, sunflower fields not yet open, a lot of stopping |
| Into the Zlatibor highlands | 2 to 3 hours | The line starts climbing, curves tighten, first long tunnels |
| Across the border into Montenegro | 2 hours with checks | Passport control on the train, then the deep gorges begin |
| Kolašin to Podgorica to Bar | 3 to 4 hours | The high viaducts, the drop to Podgorica, then Lake Skadar and the sea |
The section after Kolašin is the reason to go. The line clings to the side of the Morača valley, crosses viaducts that make you step back from the window, and drops more than a thousand metres in a couple of hours. Sit on the left heading south for most of the canyon views, then switch to the right after Podgorica for the lake.
Booking and the border
Tickets are sold at the station in Belgrade and, for some services, online through the operator. In peak summer the couchettes sell out a week or more ahead; the day train seats rarely do. Bring cash in dinars for the ticket window, and some euros for Montenegro, where the euro is used.
The border check happens on board, twice: Serbian officers on one side, Montenegrin on the other. Keep your passport in a pocket, not in the bag on the rack. It takes anywhere from twenty minutes to over an hour, and you cannot get off.
What it cost us
These are our numbers from May for two people, rounded. Prices move, so treat them as a shape, not a quote.
| Item | Approximate cost for two |
|---|---|
| Day train tickets, second class | 45 to 60 euros |
| Food and water bought before boarding | 15 euros |
| Snacks from the trolley (when it appeared) | 6 euros |
| Taxi from Bar station to our flat | 10 euros |
| Total | about 80 to 90 euros |
Practical notes
- Pack food for the whole day. A trolley sometimes comes through. Sometimes it does not. We brought burek, apricots, cheese and two litres of water each.
- Toilet paper and wipes. You will be glad.
- A layer for the tunnels. There are more than 250 of them, and the temperature drops each time.
- Offline maps. Mobile signal vanishes in the canyon for an hour at a stretch, and EU roaming rules do not apply in either country.
- Patience as a budget line. We arrived 70 minutes late, which the woman across from us called early.
Was it worth it?
Bar is not the prettiest town on the coast, and you will want to move on to somewhere smaller. But stepping off the train into salt air after eleven hours of gorges and tunnels is a different arrival than stepping off a plane. You know exactly how far you have come, because you watched every metre of it.