Rent a Car in Buljarica

Buljarica is delivery-only since the 2.25 km beach has no fleet on site, so we drop the car at your campsite or rental house south of Petrovac for the dates you book.

The beach track and the rough climb to the monastery reward an off-roader, though a compact is plenty if you keep to the paved village road.

The Riviera's wild beach

Buljarica is the long, mostly-undeveloped beach immediately south of Petrovac, 2,250 metres of pebble running between the Resovo brdo cape at the north end and Dubovica hill at the south. By Budva-Riviera standards it is empty, with the northern third of the strand carrying a handful of seasonal bars and a campsite, and the southern two-thirds essentially unbuilt. The village of Buljarica itself sits inland behind the beach, a scatter of family villas and small apartment buildings on the slopes around the Buljarica field. No bus service runs to the beach directly, so a rental car is the standard way in: if you fly in, most people rent a car at Tivat Airport to the north, or drive down from Budva along the E65.

Collect a rental car at Buljarica and the beach, the Gradište Monastery road above it, and the coves at each headland are all straightforward without a long approach on foot in summer heat. Tivat Airport is 58 km north on the Adriatic Highway, around 50 minutes in light traffic; if your flight lands in the capital instead, you can rent a car at Podgorica Airport and reach the same stretch via the Sozina tunnel motorway in similar time. The monastery track is the clearest illustration, steep and driveable in a standard car on dry days but a serious climb on foot, and the southern two-thirds of the beach has no facilities and no through road between the headlands.

Gradište Monastery on the hilltop

The hill at the back of the Buljarica bay carries Gradište Monastery, an eleventh-century compound with three churches inside its walls (most prominently the Church of Saint Nicholas). The monastery is a protected cultural and historical landmark and is best known for one specific entry in its archives, namely in 1597 when the monks Stefan of Paštrović and Sava wrote here what is widely cited as the first spelling book in the Serbian language. The monastery is small and most days quiet, and the road up to it from the coast climbs through scrub oak and pine on a narrow single-lane track that is driveable in a standard car on dry days, gaining elevation quickly from the shore. The views from the courtyard cover the full arc of the Buljarica bay below and the open Adriatic to the south, with the Petrovac cape visible at the northern end of the cove. Inside the main church, 16th-century frescoes on the interior walls survived the monastery's Ottoman-period disruption largely intact. Visiting the monastery as part of a morning at Buljarica takes around an hour return from the coast road.

Resovo to Dubovica, the cove end to end

The Buljarica cove runs in a wide gentle arc between two named hills. Resovo brdo, at the northern end, separates the cove from the Petrovac harbour, and the headland walk between them takes about twenty minutes one way. Dubovica, at the southern end, is the higher hill that the road from Buljarica to Bar climbs over. The beach surface is fine pebble grading to coarser stones at the southern end, and the swimming is clean and shallow for the first stretch out. The sixty-thousand-square-metre stretch of beach is the largest single bay on the Budva Riviera, and the comparison most often made is with Velika Plaža further south near Ulcinj, with the same wide-open feel but a shorter total length. The water at the northern end, near the bars and the campsite, is clean and calm, and the bay's orientation keeps much of the wind-driven debris out of the cove, and the pebble bottom stays clear to several metres depth close to shore. Natural shade on the beach is limited to the pine trees behind the campsite, and most visitors rely on parasols from the beach concession or time their swim for early morning or late afternoon when the sun drops behind the Resovo headland.

Driving in and where to park

Getting to Buljarica means leaving the Adriatic Highway just south of Petrovac and dropping down to the shore, where there is no through road behind the sand, so vehicles stop at the northern end near the campsite. Because the bay is delivery-only, the easiest approach is to have your rental car brought to your campsite or accommodation and keep it there for the stay, then walk to whichever stretch of pebble you prefer. The northern third fills first on August weekends, so arriving early helps; out of season the bay stays quiet, which has always been the bigger draw for the small camping crowd that returns each year.

Camping and the rest of the accommodation

Buljarica's accommodation is unlike the rest of the Riviera. The biggest single site at the beach end is a long-running campsite, kamp Buljarica, with pitches set back into the pines behind the northern strand. Beyond the camp the inventory is family-run villas and small apartment buildings on the slopes inland, and there are no large resort hotels, no all-inclusive packages, no purpose-built marinas. Visitors who prefer that style of stay base in Montenegro's camping circuit further north and use Buljarica as a day stop on the coastal route.

The road south to Bar

South of Buljarica the coast road climbs over Dubovica and drops into a long quiet stretch before Bar, the country's main port, about 22 km from the beach. The Sozina tunnel motorway from Bar to Podgorica is the fastest inland route once you are past Buljarica, cutting under the coastal mountains and dropping drivers onto the Skadar Lake plain in roughly fifteen minutes. The drive south through Sutomore and into Bar takes around half an hour outside of season, and in July and August the coast road behind the Buljarica bay slows down to a procession of seasonal traffic.

Hiring a car for Buljarica

The village access road off the Adriatic Highway is narrow, and parking at the beach end is informal, so arriving by hire car rather than navigating bus connections to a stop 2 km inland is the practical difference between a relaxed morning and a sweaty walk. Tivat Airport is 58 km north, Petrovac is 1 km along the coast road, and Bar is 22 km to the south, with Podgorica Airport a further 40 minutes inland via the Sozina tunnel. The Gradište Monastery track is narrow and gains elevation quickly from the shore, so a car is the only way to visit the monastery and the beach in the same half-day without committing most of it to the climb on foot.

Insurance for the Buljarica approach

Buljarica keeps a wilder feel than the polished resorts north of it, with a protected wetland behind the beach and an access lane that branches off the main coastal highway. That last stretch is less manicured than a town road, so underbody and tyre damage on rougher ground is the thing to keep in mind here rather than parking scrapes.

Underbody strikes and punctures fall outside standard CDW, so if you are exploring the quieter back lanes step up from basic cover before setting off.

When does Buljarica make sense as your base?

Travellers drawn to Buljarica are usually after the opposite of a resort, with an undeveloped strand backed by a protected, birdlife-rich wetland, a hilltop monastery reached on a rough track, and almost no one around outside August. A car turns all of that from awkward to easy, and it keeps the resort comforts of Petrovac one kilometre north for an evening meal while the long beach run south toward Ulcinj stays open whenever the wild coast calls.

Car hire questions for Buljarica

Getting onto the 2.25 km of pebble at Buljarica involves a turn off the highway, an informal lot, and a wetland at your back, so the queries below lean toward the practical side, including how rough the access lane is, the climb up to the monastery, and whether a standard car copes with both. Here is what comes up most.