Best places to visit in Montenegro
Montenegro is a little beauty. It is easily the most underrated place I have visited in my travel history of 33 countries at the time of writing this article. Be it the taxi driver, or the hostel receptionist, or a random person on the street, or the lady at local restaurant, people in Montenegro are really friendly. Some of the people I came across are obsessed with Mahatma Gandhi. I went to this place with zero expectations and even thought if 5 days is a tad bit too much to get bored easily but I was wrong. I went there during the month of April when the weather was neither too cold nor too hot, and thankfully, not too many tourists but all the shops being opened. In future, even if I run out of places to see, I would gladly go back to Montenegro, Kotor or Budva may be, to just relax and spend a few days doing nothing. I may have missed out on a few places but I tried to make most of my time visiting quite a few places during my five days there. I will now list some of the best places to visit in Montenegro.
Kotor
My friend and I chose Kotor as our base and we had no regrets. This was the view from our apartment located at the Skaljari area, about 15 minute walk from the old town.
The old town itself is a nice area to walk around with many restaurants, small passages, markets and other shops. Besides this, Kotor has its own fortress, Kotor Fortress. The hike starts off easily but gets dangerous as you go higher. However, after a few meters you should get this wonderful view; the hike until here is very much doable even for beginners; I consider myself one.
Get the map before you begin your hike to know which paths can be dangerous. The guy at the ticket counter was really sweet. He did not have money to return so he just asked to go for free. The actual cost was somewhere close to 7 Euros.
When you are in Kotor, make some time to have a meal at BBQ Tanjga. This place is amazing and you will enjoy the food here, especially if you are a meat lover. The prices will be light on your pocket as well.
I must admit I fell in love with Kotor.
Budva
An hour away from Kotor is another place called Budva. Budva, from what I heard, is the fancier, richer and more touristic version of Kotor. Sources claim the Russians heavily invested and helped develop this place. Having said that, Budva is really beautiful as well. It has its own castle. I could not capture everything in the picture below but we saw a couple clicking wedding photographs, listening to someone playing the guitar, the church bells ringing, the sun setting in, and the sound of the water from the Adriatic coast; what a lovely feeling.
A random picture of my friend and I relaxing and sipping some coffee at the beach.
When you go a little away from Budva, you will find this small island cum 5-star resort called Sveti Stephan. We did not go inside of course but from a far away point managed to get a glimpse of it.
Perast
When you are at Kotor, a tour of the Boka Bay is highly recommended. A part of the tour takes you through this wonderful region of Perast.
The boat also stops at Lady of the Rocks. While I cannot recollect the exact history, I got to know the localites visit this place every year to throw some rocks and come back as a ritual.
The boat takes you later towards the blue sea caves. This was another fascinating place to visit. Look how blue the water looks without any filter. You even see the reflection on the cave itself.
You can book some boat tours from the links below:
- Kotor: Perast Old Town and Our Lady of the Rocks Boat Tour
- Kotor Boat Tour: Our Lady of the Rocks, Mamula and Blue Cave
Lake Skadar
My friend and I opted for the Big Montenegro tour provided by Montenegro Hostels. A part of the tour takes you to Lake Skadar; the largest lake in the Balkans. We were initially taken to Virpazar from where we took the boat and went around Lake Skadar. Lake Skadar is part of both Montenegro as well as Albania. We remained most of the time on the Montenegrin side. I am not sure if we were on the Albanian side but our guide definitely asked us to look around and see Shkoder, a small city in Albania.
You can book some tours to Lake Skadar and more from the links below:
Rijeka Crnojevića
After Lake Skadar, we went to the top of a mountain to get a view of Rijeka Crnojevića; translates to River of Crnojević. You get a view like this.
Ostrog Monastery
We were supposed to visit Lovćen National Park. However, due to bad weather, our guide asked us if we would be fine with Ostrog Monastery, and therefore, we ended up going to Ostrog Monastery.
It is an Orthodox Church located vertically as if it is stuck to the mountain. This church is a popular pilgrimage place amongst the localites in the region. Believers claim their wishes came true or their problems lessened after having coming here and prayed. You can also find some beautiful art inside the church.
You can book some tours to Ostrog Monastery and more from the links below:
Cetinje
We visited this little place called Cetinje. Our guide took us a to a small shop where she wanted us to try the best Börek according to her. Costing only around 1 Euro, the Börek was really good; made having cheese filling and is a sizeable portion for just 1 euro. Unfortunately, I do not remember the place. After filling ourselves with some Börek, we walked around the city for a while and seeing different things. Here’s a nice little church below.
May be I have missed out on other places in Montenegro during this trip of mine but I will be back again to see the remaining ones and see Kotor once again.