Road Trip Through Montenegro

Since returning home in July I often get asked what my favorite place I traveled to in Europe was and hands down I can say it was Montenegro. I originally was only planning on going there for a night but ended up spending 8 days road tripping throughout the country.

FIRST STOP:

Budva – My first stop, which I thought at the time, would be my only stop was in the Old Town of Budva. Budva is Montenegro’s most popular destination for beach holidays because it is set in the middle of the coast of the Adriatic Sea. The Old Town itself is filled with hotels, restaurants, shops and bars. The town reminded me of a less touristy version of Old Town Dubrovnik surrounded by fortified walls, with cobbled streets and striking churches. However, there is no one in Budva charging you $30 USD to access the Old Town walls unlike Dubrovnik. Myself and the other backpackers I met would often get take out and go sit up on the walls for sunset. Budva is also known to have one of the busiest nightlife’s in Montenegro with many seaside bars and a prominent open-air club, Top Hill.

SECOND STOP:

Sveti Stefan – Just south of Budva lays the town of Sveti Stefan with one of the Balkans most famous luxury resorts. Sveti Stefan is about 3 miles from Budva and is perfect for a day trip by car or public bus. The town is set on a peninsula with terra cotta-roofed buildings. Unfortunately, you cannot enter the town on the peninsula unless you are a guest at the resort. However, across from the resort lie two picturesque beaches with restaurants close by. The beach on the left has public access whereas at the beach on the right you are required to rent day beds for 150 Euros each per day. Needless to say, we opted for the left side of the beach.

THIRD STOP:

Kotor – Next, we headed back North around the bay to the town of Kotor. The bay, also known as Boka, is lined with little villages that are situated in front of a vast mountain range. Similar to Budva, the town of Kotor itself is fortified on all sides by medieval stone walls. If you make it to Kotor, The Sveti Ivan Fortress, also known as St. John is a must see. This fortress stands 920 feet above the harbor and I would highly recommend hiking up to it, as it has the perfect view of the Old City and the Bay of Boka Kotorska. The hike itself takes about an hour with some switch backs made up of medieval stairs. My advice would be to go early in the morning or right before sunset to avoid the crowds of tourists and the heat wave.

FOURTH STOP:

Tivat – This was my favorite part of our road trip. After Kotor we headed west to Tivat to check out the marina-side shopping village, Porto Montenegro. Porto Montenegro is home to a mix of boutiques, spas, bars, and restaurants set right in the heart of the Adriatic. The restaurants in Tivat offer a wide variety of local foods as well as Lebanese, Italian, Mediterranean, and Asian dishes. Our personal favorite was Byblos which is a Mezzo lounge right across from the Regent Hotel. Most of our time in Tivat was spent at the Porto Montenegro Yacht Club. We rented poolside chairs at the newly refurbished clubhouse overlooking a 210-foot infinity swimming pool with an outdoor restaurant. The clubhouse also offers meeting spaces, tennis courts, a fitness center, and a rooftop nightclub.

FIFTH STOP: 

Tara River – For our last stop on our road trip we ended up in Tara River, Montenegro to go rafting. Unfortunately, once we got there we learned the river was too low to go rafting this time of year so we decided to check out some other stuff around the area. First, we decided to check out Black Lake which is filled by numerous mountain streams, the best known being Mlin Creek. Black Lake lies at the foot of Međed Peak and consists of two smaller lakes, Veliko Jezero and Malo Jezero. After the Black Lake we decided to check out Tara Canyon in Durmitor National Park. Even though we weren’t able to raft the river in the canyon we were still able to hike about 7 km around the top to get a feel for it. The 23 km rafting route we were looking to do was Radovan Luka – Tepca – Sige Bajlovica – Usce Susice – Nozdruc – Obrt – Brstanovica. Hopefully I will be back soon to check that off my list. Last but not least we headed to Tara Bridge, which was designed by Mijat Trojanović. At the time of its completion, it was the biggest vehicular concrete arch bridge in Europe. Today, many tourists come here to zip line across the river. When you get there, you will notice three different zip line companies. Two of which I would say are not up to code and are basically just hanging ropes. Make sure you go with the safer of the three.