5 Days in Kotor

The walls of Kotor don't stop at the town. They climb the mountain behind it for about 4.5 km, ending at the ruin of the castle of San Giovanni (St John). The summit was already fortified in Illyrian times, the Byzantine emperor Justinian rebuilt a fortress here in the 6th century, and Venice gave the walls their present shape after 1420. About 1,350 stone steps zigzag up, past the small church of Our Lady of Health (Gospa od Zdravlja), built in the 16th century by survivors of a plague. Count on 30 to 60 minutes up.

Since a decision of the town assembly in October 2023, foreign visitors pay 15 EUR to walk the walls while Montenegrin residents go free. The gates are inside the old town, near the squares, and the staff check everyone: keep your ticket stub, because without it you can be charged a second time. Go at 8am, before the heat in summer and before the ships in any season. Wear shoes with grip, since some steps are broken. The top is mostly a ruin, and the view of the bay is the point. The free alternative is the Ladder of Kotor, a switchback trail on the eastern side of town by the Škurda stream that climbs to the Krstac pass at around 940 m and takes three to six hours there and back. It is strenuous and doesn't take you inside the walls.

Come down the mountain and walk to the market just outside the old town walls, where Kotor shops rather than performs. Stalls sell fresh vegetables and fruit, and it is the easiest place to try the two famous products of the Lovćen village of Njeguši: pršut, the smoked ham, and the local cheese. Ask for a taste first, a small piece is normal.

Buy a hundred grams of ham, a piece of cheese and some bread, and you have breakfast. For something sweet, try a bakery nearby. Prices at stalls near the gate can be higher than at the back, so look at two or three before you buy.

Three gates let you into the old town: the Sea Gate on the bay side, the River Gate to the north and the Gurdić Gate to the south. Use the Sea Gate, which is the grand one, and you step straight into the Square of Arms (Trg od Oružja), the big open space where the clock tower stands. There are no cars inside and almost no street names. Squares are named after the church that stands in them, and locals give directions from the nearest square or gate. So put the map away and wander: the old town is small enough that you can't lose more than ten minutes. It is the most crowded corner of Montenegro in summer.

The bay's history is a history of sailors. Kotor's ships traded across the Mediterranean under Venice, the captains of Prčanj ran the Republic's mail service, and the school at Perast trained crews from as far as Russia. The Maritime Museum, on the Boka Navy Square, is where those stories come together, spread over three floors of model ships, uniforms, weapons, paintings and photographs.

It is a small museum that is easy to skip when the weather is fine and worth it when it rains, which in November it often does.

Saint Tryphon is Kotor's patron and protector, and the cathedral was consecrated on 19 June 1166 on the site of an older church from 809, where his remains were kept after they were brought from Constantinople. The 1667 earthquake damaged it and the town lacked the money for a full rebuild. The April 1979 earthquake, which devastated the Montenegrin coast, damaged it again, and a 14-year renovation ended in 2000.

Inside, the Romanesque-Gothic stone is plain and the chapel holds the saint's remains. Close by, the small church of St Luke and the larger Orthodox church of St Nicholas stand on neighboring squares, so Catholic and Orthodox Kotor are a minute apart. Take 15 minutes for each.

By 6pm the ships have gone and the old town is yours. A konoba is a family tavern, and two are often named for traditional Montenegrin cooking inside the walls: Konoba Scala Santa on its own square, where the mussels in buzara (garlic, white wine and breadcrumbs) are the dish to order, and Konoba Trpeza, for Montenegrin food and homemade rakija. Scala Santa is reported closed on Mondays, and in November check that either is open. A grill of local meat and a glass of Vranac red is the classic order.

Prices inside the walls run higher than outside them, so eat in Dobrota tomorrow if you want to spend less.

Leave the old town at the River Gate and keep the water on your left. The waterfront promenade runs north through Dobrota, which is officially a separate settlement but is in practice Kotor's residential side, stretching seven kilometers along the shore to the stream at Ljuta. In the 1600s and 1800s it owned more ships than anywhere else in the bay, and the stone houses along the promenade, with their private jetties, are what that money looked like.

Walk as far as you feel like, and take the bus back. This is the Kotor that locals live in, and if you want to sleep outside the walls, this is where to do it.

Five kilometers from Kotor, Prčanj is a village of about 1,100 people with a church too big for it. In 1625 the Venetian Senate gave the sailors of Perzagno, as Prčanj was called, the job of carrying the state's mail, because they could sail to Venice faster than the government's own ships. The decree freed them from compulsory manual labor and made Prčanj a naval town, and the stone villas of its shipowners still line the waterfront, with gardens and olive orchards in between.

The most surprising building is the church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, designed by the Venetian architect Bernardino Maccaruzzi. It took 120 years to build, from 1789 to 1909, and it has a monumental baroque facade and paintings and sculptures by artists such as Tiepolo and Meštrović. Peek inside if it is open, then sit on the quay with a coffee.

Perast is basically one street along the water, and it is beautiful. Its glory days were under Venice: the town earned the right to guard the banner of St Mark after it held off a Turkish siege in 1654, and over the centuries it built about twenty baroque palaces and seventeen Catholic and two Orthodox churches. Its maritime school even trained sailors sent by Peter the Great of Russia. When Napoleon ended the Republic in 1797, Perast stayed loyal to Venice for several months before lowering the flag, and then began its long decline.

Walk the waterfront and the square in front of the Church of St Nicholas. The Bujović Palace, now the town museum, charged 8 EUR in the last published price list, and its winter hours aren't published, so ask at the door. Perast has no sandy beach, only stony ones at both ends and small docks to swim from. In November it is quiet.

Two islands sit off Perast. One, Sveti Đorđe (St George), is natural, with a Benedictine monastery, and is closed to visitors. The other, Gospa od Škrpjela or Our Lady of the Rocks, was built by hand. According to the legend, local seamen found an icon of the Madonna and Child on a rock on 22 July 1452 and swore to drop a stone on that spot after every safe voyage. Over the centuries, stones and scuttled ships built an island. Every year at sunset on 22 July, the fašinada, locals row out and still throw rocks.

The church was renovated in 1722, and the museum inside holds 68 paintings by Tripo Kokolja, the 17th-century baroque painter from Perast, and a famous votive embroidery that took Jacinta Kunić-Mijović 25 years while she waited for her sailor to come home. She went blind finishing it and worked her own hair into the thread. Water taxis leave from the Perast quay for around 5 EUR return, and the whole visit takes about an hour.

Back from the island, eat late, when the day-trip tables empty. The restaurants along Perast's quay trade on their views and charge for them. Order whatever the kitchen says is fresh, a grilled fish by weight or a buzara. To spend less, bring bread, cheese and pršut from the Kotor market and eat on the quay. In winter, check which places are open first.

Come back on the bus and get off in Dobrota, where people eat when they don't want old-town prices. Konoba Kod Mira is the cheaper alternative to the konobas inside the walls, and seafood restaurants such as Babilon and Forza Mare line the shore.

Order a fish of the day, split a plate of cheese and pršut, and finish with a glass of loza, the grape brandy. Then walk back along the promenade to Kotor, or take the bus.

Out of Kotor the road to the mountain looks like a drawing of a road: a narrow ribbon of asphalt in 25 numbered hairpins, with the bay shrinking behind you. It is an old mountain road that climbs from sea level to around 900 m, and the corners are numbered, so you can count them.

Drive it slowly: coaches meet each other at the bends, and the pull-offs are worth a stop for photos. If you don't drive, book a tour or a taxi from Kotor.

Njeguši is a village of around 35 people that has given Montenegro its royal family and its national ham. The Petrović family moved here from Herzegovina around the end of the 14th century, and Petar II Petrović-Njegoš, the ruler-bishop and poet, was born in the village in 1813. His house is open as a small museum in season but closed from 16 November to 10 April.

The ham is Njeguški pršut, dry-cured, lightly smoked over beechwood and aged for about a year. Almost every house in the village makes it, and a ham route with signposted producers has existed since 2009. Sit down at a family tavern, order a board of pršut, the local cheese and bread, and a glass of red wine or rakija. Konoba kod Radonjića is a family-run place that serves them, though in winter you should call ahead. And try the Njeguški steak, a pork or veal cutlet stuffed with ham and cheese, here at its source.

The road climbs to Jezerski Vrh at 1,660 m, where a tunnel with 461 steps leads up to the mausoleum of Petar II Petrović-Njegoš, whose epic The Mountain Wreath is the national epic of Montenegro. He asked to be buried on Lovćen and built a chapel there in 1845. The story of his grave is the story of the century: in 1916 the Austro-Hungarian occupiers moved his remains to Cetinje to make room for a monument to Emperor Franz Joseph, the chapel was rebuilt and he was reburied in 1925, and after the Second World War Yugoslavia's communist authorities replaced the chapel with a secular mausoleum designed by Ivan Meštrović, finished in 1974. The Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral protested the demolition of the chapel.

On a clear day the view from the top covers the bay and, they say, reaches Italy. The park charges an entrance fee (about 3 EUR, check nparkovi.me) on top of the 8 EUR ticket, which also covers Njegoš's birthplace in Njeguši. Opening hours are 9am to 4pm daily from 11 April to 15 November, and the mausoleum is closed from 16 November to 10 April.

Cetinje is where Montenegro was kept alive. Ivan Crnojević moved his court here in 1482 and founded a monastery in 1484, and his printing house, active from 1493 to 1496, was the first in southeastern Europe. The monastery was destroyed in 1692 and rebuilt between 1701 and 1704. Its relics include the remains of St Peter of Cetinje and, they say, the right hand of John the Baptist. Entry is free, but dress modestly.

Nearby, the Vlach Church was built around 1450 on a field of medieval tombstones, and its fence is made from the barrels of captured rifles. Cetinje is a calm town of about 12,000, the former royal capital. It is not pretty like Kotor, but it is real, and a traditional lunch here is the place to try kačamak, the cornmeal and cheese porridge, or lamb.

On Dvorski Square stand two palaces. The Biljarda was built from 1838 by Njegoš as a fortified residence with four corner towers, and it got its name from the billiard table in its biggest room, which was the ruler-bishop's favorite game. The Russian officer Jakov Ozeretskovsky designed it. It later housed the Senate and royal guests, and it is now the Njegoš museum. Across the square, the Museum of King Nikola is the former residence of Nikola Petrović I, king of Montenegro.

Do these two and skip the rest. A combined ticket for all museum units and the mausoleum costs 20 EUR, which only pays off if you do most of them. In summer the museums are open daily 9am to 4pm. From 16 November to 10 April they are open Monday to Friday 9am to 3pm, and the last visitors are admitted 30 minutes before closing.

Budva claims to be about 2,500 years old, which would make it one of the oldest towns on the Adriatic, and its old town does sit on what was once an island, joined to the land by a sandbar that slowly became a peninsula. Venice ruled it for nearly 400 years, from 1420 to 1797, and its Venetian ramparts have several gates and a maze of lanes and small squares.

Here comes the caveat: in April 1979 an earthquake of magnitude 6.9 hit the coast and devastated much of the old town. Reconstruction took eight years, until 1987, so what you walk through is a careful rebuild on the old plan, which is why it looks so tidy. In July the lanes fill with boutiques and bars. In November you can walk them in 15 minutes.

The Citadela is the old town's fortress, reconstructed after the earthquake, with a good view along the Budva Riviera. It is small, so 45 to 60 minutes is enough.

Inside the walls, three churches show Budva's mix: St John's, the seat of the Budva bishopric until 1828 and still in use, the Holy Trinity from 1804, and the 14th-century church of St Sava, a tiny chapel five meters by three that is no longer in use. Go up the Citadela before the afternoon, because winter hours are shorter than summer ones and aren't published, so check at the gate.

Seafood restaurants on the water across the harbor from the old town cost more, while inside the walls and along the promenade there are bakeries, pizza places and grills at lower prices. For a cheap lunch, take a slice of burek or pizza in the old town and save the money for the fish dinner.

In winter many seasonal places close, so check before you walk the promenade.

From the old town, walk along the coast to the two beaches of Mogren. Mogren 1 is the crowded one in summer, and Mogren 2 is further along through the coves, where the music is less obtrusive. In November the sea is around 17 to 19°C, which is only for the hardy, so treat it as a coastal walk with views back at the old town.

On the way is the Dancing Girl statue, the spot where everybody takes the old-town panorama photo. Some say it commemorates a young girl who drowned there, others that it is just a statue.

Sveti Stefan is the postcard of Montenegro: a fortified village on a small rock joined to the shore by a narrow causeway. It was the capital of the Paštrovići clan, who accepted Venetian protection in 1423, and it was a fishing village until the 1950s, when the Yugoslav state moved out the last residents, about 20 by 1954, and turned it into a luxury hotel. Aman took over under a 30-year lease and finished the refurbishment in 2009. The island closed in 2021 during a dispute over beach access, and the resort announced its reopening for 1 July 2026.

Be clear about what you can see. The island is exclusively for Aman guests, so you can't walk its lanes. You can see it from the roadside viewpoint above the coast road and from the beach beside the causeway, with its pinkish pebbles. King's Beach at Miločer is reported to be open to the public, and Villa Miločer has a restaurant that runs year-round, but reports on public access conflict, so ask on the spot. Queen's Beach stays private.

Start high. Gornja Lastva is a small medieval village on the slopes of the Vrmac ridge just above Tivat, with stone houses and a view over the Bay of Tivat. There is not a lot to see, and that is the point: a different Montenegro just above the marinas. Walk the lanes, and bring walking shoes and a jacket.

Porto Montenegro is a marina for superyachts, with luxury shops and restaurants, on the waterfront of Tivat's old naval port. Everything in Tivat leans expensive because of it. Walk through for ten minutes to see the yachts, a strange contrast with the villages of the bay road.

The better reason to come is the Naval Heritage Museum at the north end of the marina, in a restored 19th-century sawmill. It holds more than 300 objects, including Austro-Hungarian naval gear, and its highlight is a pair of real Yugoslav submarines you can look at. Hours are Tuesday to Saturday 9am to 5pm, though some visitors report unplanned closures, so call the museum on +382 69 356 031 if you are making a special trip.

The Solila are old salt pans just south of Tivat, close to the airport. Salt was made here from the 14th or 15th century, the pans were rebuilt for industrial production in the 1960s, and then cheap North African salt put them out of business. Today the 150 hectares are a protected Special Nature Reserve and an Important Bird Area, with around 111 species recorded and about 35 that stay for the winter.

Winter is a good time, because birds feed in the shallow water. Bring binoculars and stay on the paths at the edge of the reserve.

Luštica is a 13 km peninsula of olive groves, small villages and about twenty churches, a place of farms that make their own olive oil, cheese, ham, wine and rakija. It guards the mouth of the bay, so the Austrians fortified it: the disused forts at Rose and Arza look straight out at the islet of Mamula, a round fort built in 1853 by General Lazar Mamula. In the Second World War, Italian fascist forces used it as a concentration camp, and in 2016 the government approved turning it into a luxury hotel over the objections of former prisoners. It now runs as Mamula Island by Banyan Tree, a resort of about 32 rooms, so don't plan on landing there.

Drive to the village of Rose and walk down to the water for a view toward Mamula and the mouth of the bay. The peninsula is far from the crowds, and in November you may have it nearly to yourself.

Žanjice and Mirište are two of the best beaches on the peninsula, along with Arza and Dobreč. There is very little development, almost all of it near Žanjice beach. The sea is around 17°C in November, so this is a place for a walk, not a swim.

Many seasonal cafes close in winter, so bring water and something to eat. With sunset around 4:25pm in mid-November, drop this stop if you reach Rose after 3pm. The point of coming is the drive through olive groves, with the sea in view on both sides of the peninsula.

End where you started. Back in Kotor, the old town is quiet again after the day visitors. Spend your last evening on wine: Vranac is the Montenegrin red, Krstač the white, and supermarket bottles outside the walls are cheap. The bars in the old town stay open until about 1am.

Finish with a glass of loza. In the morning the walls will still be there, and you will have already climbed them.