Costa del Montenegro

Kotor, the city within the walls

Kotor has existed as a fortified urban centre at least since Byzantine times, but the appearance we see today is largely the work of Venetian rule, which governed the city from 1420 to 1797. The walls, about 4.5 kilometres long, climb almost 280 metres up the flank of St John's Hill to the fortress of the same name: walking them on foot, up roughly a thousand uneven steps, remains the most talked-about experience for visitors to the city, with views sweeping across the entire bay. In the old town, a maze of small squares and Romanesque churches, the Cathedral of St Tryphon dominates, consecrated in 1166 and rebuilt several times after earthquakes and fires, which holds relics of the patron saint. Kotor is also known, with a certain local pride, as the city of cats: there are hundreds of them, so many that a small museum dedicated to them exists in one of the patrician houses of the old town.

Budva and the riviera that bears its name

Budva claims a history of over 2,500 years, among the longest on the entire Adriatic: Greek legend has it founded by Cadmus in exile from Thebes, while archaeology confirms Illyrian, then Greek and finally Roman settlements on the small peninsula where the old town now stands. Almost completely destroyed by the 1979 earthquake and rebuilt following the original layout, the Stari Grad encloses stone alleyways, a citadel facing the open sea, and churches that blend Romanesque and Byzantine elements. Outside the walls, contemporary Budva has become the hub of the coast's nightlife and beach scene, with a riviera stretching south in a sequence of sandy bays and tourist developments that have grown rapidly over the last two decades, from the Bečići complex to Rafailovići.

Herceg Novi, the city of stairways and gardens

Herceg Novi was founded in 1382 by the Bosnian king Tvrtko I under the name Castelnuovo, a strategic point at the entrance to the Bay of Kotor fought over through the centuries by Bosnians, Ottomans, Venetians, Spaniards and Austrians: the Ottoman fortress of Kanli Kula, the 'bloody tower', still dominates the centre with its thick walls and gun ports facing the sea. The town climbs in terraces from the shore up to the 900 metres of Mount Orjen, linked by a staircase of over a thousand steps that rises to the Orthodox monastery of Savina, among the most important in Montenegro for its treasury of icons and manuscripts. Thanks to a particularly mild microclimate, Herceg Novi also hosts a small botanical garden with subtropical species, evidence of an attention to greenery that makes it one of the shadiest towns on the coast.

Bar and the olive tree that has watched the centuries pass

Bar is Montenegro's main commercial and passenger port, with regular ferries to Bari in Italy, but its most interesting historic core lies a few kilometres inland: Stari Bar, the old town abandoned after a Montenegrin bombardment in 1878 that ended Ottoman rule, is today a fascinating cluster of ruined houses, churches and hammams still largely awaiting restoration. In modern Bar, meanwhile, grows one of the oldest trees in Europe, an olive tree estimated to be between 2,000 and 2,500 years old, still productive and protected as a natural monument. The region around Bar is the country's main olive-growing area, with terraces descending toward the sea between Sutomore and Stari Bar.

The landscape: from the sea to Mount Lovćen

The Montenegrin coast alternates very different environments within a few kilometres: the sheer limestone walls of the Bay of Kotor, where Mediterranean scrub climbs almost to the mountain tops, give way further south to a more open and sunny coastline, with sandy bays alternating with rocky headlands. Behind Kotor rises Mount Lovćen, the mountain symbol of Montenegrin identity, which from its 1,749 metres offers a view that on clear days reaches as far as Italy: on its lower peak stands the mausoleum of Njegoš, the 19th-century poet and prince-bishop, the work of sculptor Ivan Meštrović. The road that climbs from Kotor to Cetinje through twenty-five hairpin bends, built by the Austrians, remains one of the most spectacular scenic routes in the Balkans, with the bay shrinking with every curve.

Traditions and flavours of the coast

Montenegrin coastal cuisine reflects its dual maritime and mountain soul: in the restaurants of Kotor or Perast you'll find the fish brodetto of the Bay of Kotor, grilled octopus and crni rižot, a squid-ink risotto found all along the eastern Adriatic, while from the hills come the prosciutto and cheese of Njeguši, a village above Kotor famous for slow smoking over beech wood. Olive oil from the Bar area, often pressed from century-old trees, accompanies almost every dish, and local viticulture produces wines such as Vranac, a native red grape grown throughout the country. Religious festivals still mark the calendar: from the fašinada of Perast in late July to the celebrations for St Tryphon in Kotor in early February, with local polyphonic choirs singing traditional klapa songs.

When to go and how to experience the coast

The full swimming season runs from June to September, with July and August especially crowded in Budva and Kotor, where cruise ships unload thousands of visitors during the central hours of the day: those wanting to enjoy the old towns at ease should aim for early morning or late afternoon, or choose May, June and September, when the climate stays mild and prices drop. Winter, rainier but rarely harsh along the coast, is the best time to visit Kotor without the crowds and to climb Lovćen on clear days. Getting between towns is easy thanks to a frequent local bus network along the coastal highway, but a rental car remains the most practical choice for reaching the smaller villages of the Bay of Kotor and peninsulas like Luštica.

• Walking Kotor's walls up to the fortress of St John
• Taking a boat trip to the island of Gospa od Škrpjela from Perast
• Driving the hairpin bends from Kotor to Cetinje toward Mount Lovćen
• Strolling among Perast's Baroque palaces at sunset
• Photographing Sveti Stefan from Miločer beach
• Exploring the silent ruins of Stari Bar
• Trying prosciutto and cheese from Njeguši in a mountain konoba
• Walking the sands of Velika Plaža all the way to Ada Bojana