Perast by Boat or by Car: Which Actually Gets You There Faster

Perast sits about 12 km up the coast road from Kotor, on the same bay, and every visitor to the region ends up asking the same question: drive there, or go by boat? The honest answer depends on what you actually want out of the visit — but the practical numbers are not close once you factor in parking and the pedestrian-only Old Town.

This is a straight logistics comparison, not a sales pitch. If you land on "drive," we will tell you exactly where to park. If you land on "boat," here is what that actually adds. For what to do once you arrive, see our full day trip to Perast guide.

Driving to Perast: what the blogs don't spell out

The coastal road from Kotor to Perast is scenic and, on a quiet morning, a genuinely pleasant 20-minute drive. In July and August it is a different road: narrow, one lane each way, backed up behind tour buses and rental cars doing the same 12 km everyone else is doing between roughly 10am and 4pm.

Perast itself has been pedestrianised at both entrances — you cannot drive into the Old Town regardless of season. That means every driver's trip ends the same way: park at one of the entrance ramps, then walk in. In peak season that parking is metered and enforced, typically running somewhere in the €15-25 per day range depending on the lot and how late in the season you arrive. Outside the May-October season, barriers are often left open and parking can be free, but that is exactly the window when most visitors are not there.

Going by boat: what you actually get for the extra step

A boat run from Kotor to Perast covers the same 7 nautical miles in about the same 20-30 minutes as the drive — no faster on paper, but the trip does two things a car cannot. First, there is no parking search, no walk-in from an entrance ramp, no traffic behind a tour bus; the boat drops you at the Perast waterfront directly. Second, every boat route to Perast passes within a few hundred metres of Our Lady of the Rocks and St. George's Island, the two islets that are the actual reason most people are heading this way in the first place — seeing them from the water is not an add-on, it is the direct route.

The trade-off is that a boat trip is a booked activity with a set departure, not a car you can leave whenever you like. For most visitors staying in Kotor, that is a fair exchange: skip the parking fee and the midday traffic, get the two islands included in the same trip, and land in Perast ready to walk the one main street rather than hunting for a space first.

Which one should you actually pick

1. Pick the car if you are combining Perast with other coastal stops the same day (Risan, Herceg Novi) and want full control of timing, and you are comfortable with entrance-ramp parking.
2. Pick the bus if budget is the only constraint and you don't mind an hourly schedule — cheapest option at roughly €1.50-2, about 30 minutes.
3. Pick a boat if Our Lady of the Rocks and St. George's Island are part of why you're going — a 2-hour shared tour covers Perast plus both islets from about €31.50 per person, no parking, no traffic.
4. Pick a private boat if you want the islands and Perast on your own schedule rather than a fixed tour departure, or you're combining it with a swim stop elsewhere in the bay.

If you'd rather book a straight point-to-point transfer instead of a tour with stops, see our private boat transfers page. And once you've picked how you're getting there, our day trip to Perast guide covers what to actually do once you land.