Montenegro: On the way to Montenegro

Montenegro is the last country that declared independece from Yugoslavia (Well, actually it's Kosovo, but not all nations have recognized its independence from Serbia), and also the last country of former Yugoslavia where I sat foot.

Montenegro is becoming a trendy tourist destination in Europe, but fares are still high, as no low cost airlines fly there yet (as of April 2010).

Most travellers arrive to Montenegro from nearby Dubrovnik in Croatia, which is served by low cost carriers German Wings, TuiFly, Vueling and many more.

I had enough miles from Lufthansa's loyality programme, Miles & More, so I flew straight to Podgorica with an award ticket.

The flights were booked through Lufhtansa parters Austrian Airlines on the outbound segment and I came home with Slovenian carrier Adria Airways.

My trip to Montenegro started with a few surprises.

My e-ticket said that flight would depart from Paris CDG Airport Terminal 1, which is the terminal for most Star Alliance carriers.
But every rule has an exception and when I got there I was told that Austrian Airlines operates from Terminal 2, which is quite far away!

I ran and took the CDG-val train and almost half and hour later I was there, just 5 minutes before the check-in close!

Also, the flight was overbooked, but as I had a connecting flight I could get a seat, and even better, I was lucky enough to get a window seat!

We flew over the Alps and got to Vienna on time. The song airing at Vienna Airport when I arrived was Welcome to The Jungle from Guns n’Roses!
That’s what I call a warm welcome!

The connecting flight to Podgorica was on a small plane, a Bombardier Q400 dash 8, previously known as De Havilland Dash 8.

The arrival to Montenegro was gorgeous, flying over the Balkan mountains, although there were some turbulences.

We flew quite low over rivers, mountains, lakes and canyons.
A good introduction about how rich nature is in this country.

Podgorica Airport is a small building.

It doesn’t receive many flights. I was told by 3 people who worked at the airport that there were only buses to meet the Montenegro Airlines flights… so my only option was to take a taxi!

The fixed rate from the Airport to anywhere in Podgorica is 15 euro... but I was heading to Cetinje...

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