Montenegro - Europe's Hidden Gem

24 June 2024

A four hour bus ride from Dubrovnik (including the border customs formalities) down the spectacular Adriatic coast brought the four of us to Montenegro, with its picture-perfect scenery and spectacular views at seemingly every turn. It turned out to be one of the most beautiful countries we have yet visited and could actually be one of Europe‘s best-kept secrets.

With a population that hovers around 600,000, it has yet to experience the same level of mass tourism as Croatia. Other than when a cruise ship comes to town, the country was relatively quiet with a unique authenticity unspoiled by hordes of visitors. The result was that we quite often found ourselves in places surrounded    only by locals. Bursting at the seams with majestic mountains, breathtaking lakes and larger-than-life locals (we met a few of them), Montenegro proved to us once again that good things do indeed come in small packages.

We had three days to discover some of its long history, charm and culinary delights and it turned out to be just long enough, although we did not see all of the country’s main attractions.

Day 1

We took Budva as our base and a fifteen minute walk from our hotel brought us to the Old Town. Budva is one of the oldest settlements on the Adriatic Coast — a 2,500-year-old medieval walled city with a labyrinth of narrow streets and squares that take you back in time. The Old Town feels a world away from the beach bars and dance clubs that sit just outside the fortified walls. We visited its stately library with its model galleons and busts of Roman emperors, taking in impressive panoramas over the town and the vertiginous mountains of Montenegro beyond. The beach is small, but the walls behind it serve up a pretty spectacular backdrop. The coastal area around Budva is known as the Budva Riviera, the focal point of Montenegro tourism, and is a popular cruise ship port in summer.

Day 2

A thirty minute taxi ride from Budva brought us to a stunning viewing point of Kotor and Kotor Bay, on the mountainous road to Lovcen. Built in the ninth century, Kotor Old Town (a UNESCO World Heritage site) offered us the chance to visit the 12th-century Cathedral of Saint Tryphon and explore the nearby San Giovanni Fortress for magnificent views of the city and bay. Its cobbled streets, Venetian-built buildings and medieval squares make  Kotor feel like a kind of pocket-sized Dubrovnik.

We then took the Cable Car to the upper station at Kuk (1316m) that provided us with even more spectacular photo viewpoints as well as some hiking trails.

Day 3

We hired a car (with a larger-than-life driver) for the day. Our first stop was Cetinje, dating from the 15th century and the old royal capital of Montenegro (until 1946 when it was moved to Podgorica). We visited the country’s spiritual centre, Cetinje Monastery, and the Historical  Museum which also included the Royal Palace of the last king of Montenegro, Nikola. Completed in 1867, it combines museum exhibitions and recreated rooms.

Our next stop was Lake Skadar in Lake Skadar National Park, where we took a two-hour private boat tour. Montenegro’s largest lake and the largest lake in the Balkans, the large, wetland areas provide nesting grounds for birds, hosting more than 280 different species; we observed herons, cormorants and gulls amongst others. Vast areas of the lake are also covered by water lilies.

Our final stop was at a Winery in the hills above Skadar Lake. It is owned and managed by a famous former Montenegro handball player, Mladen Rakcevic, who gave us a great welcome. His wines were excellent, in fact they also featured on the wine list of the hotel in Podgorica where we stayed for our last night in Montenegro. 

The town itself was quite hideous and totally at odds with all the amazing locations we had visited during our short stay in this beautiful country.