One week in Montenegro – Coastal Beauty

This October I spend a week in Montenegro. While the country is very small the north and south couldn’t be more different from each other. While in the north mountains dominate the landscape and Durmitor national park invites those who want immerse themselves in nature and go hiking the south is dotted with Mediterranean cities and villages, has warmer weather and appeals to those who want to mix nature with culture and indulge in seafood. One week in Montenegro is too short to experience both, so this time I decided to explore the coast.

Overview of one week in Montenegro

• Budva
• Skadar Lake
• Sveti Stefan
• Stari Bar
• Cetinje
• Lipa Cave
• Kotor Serpentine Road
• Perast
• Kotor
• Podgorica
• Tips for your week in Montenegro
• Map for one week in Montenegro

Budva

Budva has a stunning old town that is less crowded than Kotor (and it’s cleaner). It is also the perfect base to explore the surrounding area. In Budva I stayed at the Garni Hotel Vladimir (on Booking* / on Expedia* https://www.expedia.de/en/Budva-Hotels-Hotel-Vladimir.h102129159.Hotel-Information ) and it was the best hotel during my trip. The room is big, the bath is new and the breakfast is spectacular. They prioritise quality over quantity and there were so many local options! From cheese and ham, canned fish to different types of local pastries every day.

When you land early in the morning in Podgorica it takes about 1,5 hours to get to Budva. You can park your car in front of the hotel for free, walk into town to pick up a SIM or E-SIM (more on that here) and explore the old town.

Skadar Lake

For your first full day in the country I recommend a day trip.

About an hour by car from Budva is Virpazar, the village on the edge of Skadar Lake from where most boat tours of the lake start. The lake is the largest in Southern Europe. Two thirds of it belong to Montenegro while the last third is part of Albania. The lake is popular for birdwatching and the large amounts of water lilies that cover areas around the islands inside the lake. In October most of the water lilies were gone, but there were many black cormorants, seagulls and grey herons. There was also a pelican that came very close to the boat. I have more pictures in this post.

Stari Bar

The following day you can do another daytrip. If you didn’t stop at Sveti Stefan the day before you’ll have the chance to do so again. If you are up super early and booked a morning boat tour you can even do all three of these in one day. But I recommend taking a day each.

Also an hour by car from Budva is Stari Bar, or the old town of Bar. Once one of the most important settlements in Montenegro today the ruins of this grand city are an open air museum. You can see the traces every single culture that once held the city left (Byzantines, Illyrians, Romans, Serbs, Venetians, Ottomans) during its turbulent history.

Cetinje

The third full day, the third day trip from Budva. Only 45 minutes by car from Budva to the Northwest you’ll reach Cetinje. Another 15 minutes by car from there is also Lipa Cave (see the next section).

Cetinje is the former royal capital of Montenegro and has many museums that are worth a visit – I especially recommend the Ethnographic Museum of Montenegro and the Museum of King Nikola. Both are located on the same square. Along this square are many restaurants and cafes where you can try the traditional Montenegrin cream cake Krempita.

The Cetinje Monastery is located a sort walk from the city centre. This still lived in monastery of the Serbian Orthodox Church is open to the public.

More details on Cetinje here: Visiting Cetinje – the former royal capital of Montenegro

Lipa Cave

After half a day in Cetinje you can drive to the Lipa Cave to take one of the afternoon tours. The cave was opened to the general public in 2015 and the guided tours take 1 to 1,5 hours.

Kotor Serpentine Road

On your fourth full day it’s time to move hotels and drive 45 minutes from Budva to Kotor in the morning.

If you like driving and adrenaline spikes you can take the old serpentine road to Kotor. The faster route from Budva to Kotor is a new and straighter road, but if you want to stop by the village Njeguši where the famous Njeguši ham is from this road is your only choice. I was driving so there are no pictures or videos from me, but Discover Montenegro has these two on their YouTube channel:

Perast

Twenty minutes past Kotor lies the small village of Perast. Perast is where I stayed (at Hotel Leon Coronato – on Booking* / on Agoda*) when I visited Kotor. I chose Perast since it is much more quiet (during the night) than Kotor and because it is so pretty.

The 400-souls village itself has a small number of hotels and restaurants. Among them the best restaurant in all of Montenegro: Eho. So good that I wrote a separate post just about them: Eho Restaurant Perast – Local specialties meet culinary inspiration

Kotor

Either with an early check-in or by just leaving your luggage for now you can take a bus to Kotor, have lunch there, explore the cities old town, museums and marvel at the many cats.

Kotor is probably the most famous town located on Boka Bay, which is also called Kotor Bay. It has an old town that looks mostly original, including the old city walls, churches and a fortress you can hike to. Inside the city are two great museums: the maritime museum and the cat museum. Along the bay itself is a sea promenade ideal for a leisurely walk after indulging in one of the several cafes and restaurants. It’s close to several natural sights and surrounded by some villages that are also worth a visit – like Perast mentioned above.

More on Kotor here: Two days in Kotor – City of Cats

Blue Cave & Our Lady of the Rocks Boat Tour

The fifth full day is for this tour. One of the most popular things to do at Boka Bay is taking a boat tour to the artificial Our Lady of the Rocks island, as well as the former submarine tunnel and the Blue Cave. Most tours depart from Kotor, some will pick you up from Perast as well, since the Our Lady of the Rocks island is directly in front of it. I enjoyed my tour a lot and even though it was Oktober it was still warm enough to go for a swim in the open sea next to the Blue Cave.

If you want to read about it in more detail to decide if this tour is for you, you can do so here: Our Lady of the Rocks & Blue Cave Boat Tour

Have dinner at the aforementioned Eho Restaurant in Perast to end the day on a high note.

Podgorica

You can spend the sixth day exploring Kotor some more in the morning, or after checkout, then make your way to Podgorica in the late afternoon. Since it is the capital a lot of places are open much later than in the smaller cities.

Your Time Podgorica

For example I went to Your Time Podgorica for a late night Waffle. On the way there you can stop by Podgorica Clock Tower and the Independence Square where events take place throughout the year. I have no idea which one was happening when I went there, but there was live music.

Stay at Hotel M

Hotel M (on Booking* / on Agoda*) is a very cute and small hotel in the south of Podgorica, close-ish to the airport and train-station. They also have free parking right in front of the hotel.

Breakfast at Brasseria Me Gusta

In the morning of my last day I had brunch at Brasseria Me Gusta, about 1km away from the hotel. For the breakfast part of brunch I had Palacinke, thin crepe-like pancakes with chocolate spread. And for the lunch part of brunch a Lepinja sandwich. Lepinja is a balkan flatbread and they had stuffed it with ham, cheese, tomatoes and salad. The filling was plentiful and I almost didn’t manage to finish it.

Caffeine Coffee Shop C6

Between checkout and having to give the car back at the airport I had a coffee and a peach-cinnamon smoothie at Caffeine Coffee Shop C6. It was decidedly too hot to move about that morning.

Tips for your week in Montenegro

Here are some tips for your trip to Montenegro. Especially the E-SIM one is important and I wish I had known about it before I went there.

E-SIM

The part of me that wants to make money with this blog would link Airalo here, but, actually, there are only three viable options currently for Montenegro, and Airalo is not one of them. You can either get an E-Sim with Telekom, One or m:tel. All of them have almost the same conditions and prices. Namely 15€ for 500 GB or 20€ – 25€ for 1 TB. All of them are valid for 15 days to 30 days. Telekom is the oldest network and still has the best connectivity and speed all over the country.

It’s best to get a QR Code for your E-SIM in a store in the country. The shop will verify you (which includes scanning your passport), but it is the better option than to buy one online and have the verification fail half way through and then end up with 47,60€ in Roaming fees for just 5 minutes of mobile data to navigate around a car crash that your downloaded version of google maps couldn’t navigate around. (GUESS HOW I KNOW?)

Compare tours before you book anything

In such a small country as Montenegro and only a hand full of cities along the coast frequented by tourists there are many tour companies offering the same tours. The ones I linked directly are always the ones I went on and write about here. Always compare the itineraries of tours and then decide which fits your interests and budget most.

Street Cats

Montenegro, especially Kotor, has a lot of street cats. They are cute and some will even let you pet them, but remember they are mostly wild living animals. Treat them as such. They will bite if they don’t want to be touched, they may have fleas, they are suffering from uncontrolled breeding, lacking care and short life spans. You can adore the kitties from afar and you can help them: Street Cats of Montenegro

Everything I earn through affiliate Links in ALL the posts in the category Montenegro will go to the charity “Kotor Kitties” that takes care of street cats in Montenegro. That means YOU can also give to the charity, without spending an extra cent! Just book a tour through my blog you’d book anyway and a portion of the price goes to help the cats!

Map for one week in Montenegro

This is my map for one week in Montenegro along the coast. Dark blue are museums, the lighter blues are important places like churches, statues and old towns, red are restaurants, dark orange are cafés and light orange are hotels.