Dubrovnik Airport Car Rental

Renting a car at Dubrovnik Airport

Dubrovnik Airport (DBV) gives UK and Western European travellers the broadest pick of direct flights anywhere near the bay, and booking a car at Dubrovnik Airport means you head straight down the coast instead of waiting on a transfer. A representative meets you in the terminal to hand over the keys and the cross-border paperwork together. Because DBV sits in Croatia, just north of the frontier, the one thing to settle in advance is a cross-border permit and Green Card for the run into Montenegro, added as a paid extra when you book. After that, the drive to Kotor is around ninety minutes of open Adriatic coastline.

Why collect at Dubrovnik Airport

Dubrovnik's flight network is far larger than both Montenegrin airports put together, with year-round routes to most major European cities and dozens more low-cost services layered on through the summer. For anyone coming from Britain or Western Europe, that choice is the reason to fly here first and pick up a car at the terminal: you land, walk to the rental desk, and drive south rather than queuing for an infrequent transfer or working out cross-border buses. The trade-off is the border, but the payoff is one of the Mediterranean's great coastal drives waiting on the other side.

Collecting at DBV turns the airport itself into the start of the trip rather than a hurdle before it. The road tracks the shoreline the whole way down, descending into Herceg Novi at the mouth of the bay before tracing the northern arm toward the ramparts, and having your own car means you set the pace and stop where you like along it. With a Green Card arranged at booking, the keys are ready when you land, and the bay opens up from the moment you clear the terminal rather than from a fixed hotel transfer point. See how it stacks up as the best airport for Kotor.

Where to pick up your car

Collection at Dubrovnik is an arrivals meet-and-greet, with the keys and the cross-border documents handed over together in the terminal. Free in-town delivery is mainly a Montenegro-side option, so the usual choices here are:

• Dubrovnik Airport arrivals hall (DBV)

Whatever you arrange, the cross-border permit and Green Card are issued with the car at pickup, and one-way collections are easy if you are flying out of a different airport.

Driving from the airport to the bay

From the terminal the road runs south through Cilipi and the Konavle valley, past vineyards and stone farmhouses, reaching the coastal checkpoint at Debeli Brijeg (Karasovici on the Croatian side) after about thirty minutes. This is the one crossing that needs planning: a rental driven into Montenegro requires the cross-border permit and Green Card listing the country, issued in advance and impossible to arrange at the barrier itself.

Once through, the road descends through a run of tunnels into Herceg Novi at the bay's mouth, then follows the northern shore eastward. At Kamenari a short car ferry crosses the narrowest point of the bay in about five minutes, running every ten to fifteen minutes from early morning until late at night for roughly EUR 4.50 a car, and saving the long loop around the inner bay. Allow around ninety minutes in all to reach Kotor, plus whatever the border adds, and keep a steady pace on the two-lane coast road where summer coaches slow things down. Our full guide covers driving from Dubrovnik to Kotor.

Collection, the border and returns

Because this is a cross-border collection, the Dubrovnik pickup asks for a little more planning than a same-country airport. The single most important step is having the cross-border permit and Green Card arranged before you fly, since they are issued in advance and handed over with the car at the desk, not bought on the spot at Debeli Brijeg. Bring your passport and driving licence, keep the original rental contract and the vehicle registration in the car, and you have everything the border officer will ask for.

Settle the paperwork at pickup and the rest is straightforward: keep your passport, licence, rental contract and Green Card together in one envelope on the dashboard so the booth can check them in a single pass. On most cars you can collect without a credit card, which removes the usual airport sticking point. If you would rather skip terminal logistics on a cross-border run, delivery is available on the Montenegro side once you have crossed, and returns simply need a day's notice before your departure flight; the booking is timed to your exact arrival.

Where a rental takes you

Once you are over the water, a car turns the whole bay into a string of easy drives from a single base. Herceg Novi, the first town on the northern shore, is a relaxed stop with its hillside Old Town and the Kanli Kula fortress above the waterfront. Carry on and Perast is worth pausing for coffee on the quay, its baroque palaces and two islands set against the mountain backdrop, before the final approach where the cliffs close in and Kotor's ramparts appear clinging to the rock ahead.

From Kotor the routes fan out in every direction: the Lovcen serpentine climbs in tight switchbacks to a viewpoint straight down over the Old Town, while south through the tunnel the beaches of Budva sit about half an hour on. North of the airport, Croatia's own coastline makes an easy half-day loop with no border permit needed, so a single rental opens up both sides of the frontier. Plan the cross-border drives around the permit and keep the licence-only days for spontaneous detours.

On the road from Dubrovnik Airport

The run from Dubrovnik Airport into the Bay of Kotor follows the Adriatic Highway, the coastal E65 that hugs the shoreline almost the whole way. It is a genuinely scenic drive, but an honest one: a mostly two-lane road that twists with every headland, so progress is steady rather than fast. You drive on the right, as across the region, with limits broadly 50km/h through towns and villages and up to 90km/h on the open stretches. Keep an eye out for slower coaches and cyclists on the bends.

The frontier is the part to plan around. In July and August the crossing can back up at peak hours, so an early start or a mid-afternoon arrival usually means a shorter queue than late morning. Once you are over, a short ferry hop across the bay's narrows can trim the inland loop if the inner-bay road is busy. Fuel is easy to find on both the Croatian and Montenegrin sides, with prices standardised within each country, so there is no need to brim the tank before you cross.

What you need to rent

A cross-border rental asks for a little more than a domestic one, so have the full set ready at the desk. You need a full driving licence held for around a year, your passport or national ID for the frontier, and the rental contract kept in the car. The piece that matters most here is the Green Card, or cross-border permit, arranged at the time of booking: this is what makes the vehicle legal to take from Croatia into Montenegro, and it cannot be arranged at the barrier.

On age, drivers from eighteen may cross the border, though most rental categories open at twenty-one, with an upper guide of around seventy depending on the car and cover chosen. A refundable deposit is held against the vehicle at collection and released after a clean return. Usefully for travellers landing without one, most cars here can be taken without a credit card, so a debit card or cash deposit is generally accepted in its place. Confirm the cross-border permit is on your booking before you fly.

One-way rentals and drop-offs

One-way works neatly from Dubrovnik Airport: collect at arrivals in Croatia and drop the car somewhere in the bay rather than driving all the way back to the terminal. The one limit to know is direction. A car hired on the Montenegro side cannot be returned in Croatia, so plan to hand back within Montenegro and arrange a separate transfer for your flight if you are departing from Dubrovnik.

Insurance and deposit

Every rental includes free Minimum third-party liability cover as standard, which satisfies the legal requirement to drive in Montenegro. On the lower tiers a refundable deposit of around EUR 100 is held against the car and released after a clean return, and most vehicles can be taken without a credit card, which is unusual for the region and handy if you only carry a debit card or cash.

If you would rather lower your exposure on the bay's narrow roads and the cross-border run, paid upgrades step up through the Basic and Full Coverage tiers, and the top Full Coverage Plus tier removes the excess entirely and waives the deposit, so nothing is held on your card at all. Worth knowing for this airport: the Green Card is the international insurance certificate that makes your cover valid across the border, arranged as the cross-border add-on at booking.

For the long coastal run down from Dubrovnik and the border queues in summer, a comfortable compact like the VW Golf hits the sweet spot, settled enough to cruise the E65 and keep the air-con running in a slow border line, yet small enough to slot into a seafront space once you reach the bay.

Land, collect, cross the border

Flying into Dubrovnik buys you the routes; a rental at arrivals buys you the freedom to use them. Land, collect the car with the cross-border permit and Green Card in hand, and the ninety-minute coast road down to Kotor becomes part of the holiday rather than a transfer to endure. With third-party cover included, most cars available without a credit card, the ferry shortcut at Kamenari, and one-way returns if you fly out elsewhere, the cross-border drive is the only thing to plan ahead, and our guides cover that in full.

Dubrovnik Airport car rental FAQ

Wondering what permit you need to drive a rental from Croatia into Montenegro, or how long the coastal run to Kotor really takes? These are the questions renters at Dubrovnik Airport ask us most.