GETTING TO BOKA MARATHON FROM THE UK
THE WEEKEND, and the airport nobody tells you about.
Here is the maths, and then the one thing that decides whether this trip is easy or awkward: do not plan around Tivat airport. It sits ten minutes from the start line and it is the obvious answer, and in December it is the wrong one.
Tivat is a summer airport. British Airways and easyJet fly there from the UK in season; by December those routes have stopped, and the winter timetable thins out to a handful of regional services. Podgorica, eighty minutes away, flies to London all year. Get that right and everything else on this page is straightforward.
A marathon beside one of the Adriatic's most dramatic protected landscapes for the price of a long weekend in Edinburgh. The upper end assumes the more expensive combination of flights, accommodation, food and transfers; booking early and sharing the airport transfer can bring the total closer to the lower end.
THREE AIRPORTS, only one of them reliable in December.
The organisers list all three, and in July they are all good answers. In the second week of December they are not equal, and the difference will decide your weekend.
Ryanair from Stansted, Wizz Air from Luton, running year round with several flights a week. The furthest of the three from the start line and the only one you can count on in winter.
Tivat is the obvious airport geographically, but not one to build a December trip around without confirming an operating route first. Direct UK services are mainly seasonal, and the winter timetable is much thinner than the summer schedule.
Closer than Podgorica, served part of the winter, though some routes pause around 27 December. It also means a Croatia–Montenegro land border, adding an unpredictable hour either way.
So the first move is a flight search on Podgorica for 10–15 December 2026, not Tivat. If the dates work, book it, and only then look at rooms.
From Podgorica you have three ways over to the bay: a pre-booked shuttle, a taxi (worth splitting — ask on the race's social channels, plenty of runners are doing the same road), or the bus to Kotor via the main road. The drive itself is genuinely lovely once you drop toward the water.
ON ARRIVAL.
Currency
Montenegro uses the euro — and is neither in the eurozone nor in the EU. It took the Deutsche Mark in 1999 to escape hyperinflation, and simply moved to the euro when the mark went.
For a British runner that means no conversion arithmetic and no exchange desk. Cards are widely taken; carry some cash for the small konobas.
Language
Montenegrin, and English very widely spoken along this coast — the bay has been receiving visitors for a long time. Race information is published in English.
Hvala for thank you, and dobar dan for hello, will both be met warmly.
Practicalities
Tap water is safe and good. Plugs are European two-pin, 230V. Emergency number is 112.
Tipping is rounding up, or five to ten percent. If bread arrives unasked, a €1–2 cover charge is normal and legal here.
THE ORDER TO DO IT IN.
Podgorica flight first. Room second, once you know which day you land. Entry any time — but every week you wait, the price ladder is climbing behind you.
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