We wanted to visit Montenegro earlier this year, but having experienced how hot and busy Croatia was in August we decided to wait till slow season.
Podgorica – The Big Smoke
We flew into Podgorica (the capital) and booked into the Kings Park Hotel, in early November. To be honest, as capital cities go there is not really much to see. Although our walking tour guide did her best and found us a few places of interest. The best part was the insights she gave us into the culture and the invitation to join her for traditional coffee and pastries. Which were excellent.
It was also a wee bit colder and wetter than expected. So much so, that we decided not to go to Skada lake as planned, as the day dawned very cold and windy. In the summer months it looks divine, but in November not so much.
The folks here are on the whole slim and tall, but they don’t come across as very friendly, which is actually the norm in a lot of European countries. We are used to Europeans not smiling at strangers, but we hadn’t noticed other Europeans being so bad when it came to not yielding when others are trying to pass in tight streets or passageways.
We enjoy trying typical food wherever we travel, sometimes we are pleasantly surprised, sometimes not. Breakfast was included with our hotel room and it was rather strange. The hotel buffet was our first experience of the local fare, it included the usual cold meats, with some very salty soft cheeses and rather strange hot dishes and pastries. Main meals seemed to be very meat and potato focused, guess that’s why these folks are so tall.
Tivat – Monaco of the Balkans
Next up was a short house sit in Tivat, in a waterfront apartment with a great view of the Marina and some of the super yachts. The apartment wasn’t luxurious by any means, but it gave us a chance to cook for ourselves, do laundry etc. which helps keen us sane, when we are doing lots of traveling.
The marina was a favorite spot to walk the dogs and it was here that we noticed how quiet the place became during the week. Tivat only came to life on the weekends.
Cozy Kotor, City of Cats
Next up was UNESCO city of Kotor, we went by taxi as it was only a 20-minute ride and was surprised at the driver’s ingenious way of avoiding the roundabout gridlock, we survived though. Apparently in high season that 20 minute trip can become 2 hours, so a Taxi could get very expensive, as that meter keeps on ticking.
We stayed right in the center of Kotor Old Town which was absolutely fabulous. Imagine a wedge-shaped, walled city protected by sea on one side, river on the other and a huge mountain behind. A ‘must do’ is to climb up to the fortress, preferably on a sunny day for the best photos. It is a very steep and well-worn path, and would be terribly slippery when wet. It would no doubt be hell in the summer heat too. For us it was a perfect temperature, although a little more sunshine on the Bay would have been great!
Sitting at the end of a steep sided valley, Kotor is wetter and shadier than the other places we had seen, but it would be perfect in summer. Although the streets would be even more heavily packed with tourists.
Living in our little apartment and being woken by the church bells and the construction next door, was both good and bad. It certainly gave us a glimpse of what it must be like to live in an Italian borgo, which like here, is a warren of homes and apartments crowded shoulder to shoulder. Our host was super sweet and gave us two bottles of wine. One because of the noise and the second because we didn’t gripe about it, after all there was nothing he could do about it. The Montenegrin’s can be very nice people, once you get to know them. Michael describes them as crusty on the outside with a soft warm middle.
Restaurant food was very hit and miss, consisting mostly of huge portions of meat and potatoes, with not much in the way of vegetables. Although we did find that in the coastal towns there is more seafood available. Our experience in Kotor with restaurant food was not that good, with the little BBQ place outside of the walls being the best, as is often the case with these little ‘hole in the wall’ kind of places.
Even our Guru walking tour guide (Igor) would not give us restaurant recommendations ‘because they are not consistent. There are enough new people coming through, so they don’t care’. Kotor is also a little like Istanbul, in the fact that there are cats everywhere. They appear to be well cared for, many of them with clipped ears showing that they had been spayed or neutered. There are cat statues scattered around and the souvenir shops do a roaring trade in selling cat trinkets. It also seems that there are as many stories of why cats are so popular here, as there are cats. The most popular one is that ‘the city never suffered from the Black Death because the cats never allowed rats to flourish’.
Igor also shared some fun facts, they are the second tallest people in the world behind the Dutch, they have a small population and a small country to match. It is also a very varied country, with large lakes, a fair bit of shore line, and the rest is predominantly mountains. Which is where the Montenegrins name for their country comes from ‘Crna Gora’ loosely means black mountain.
The Iconic Sveti Stefan
Craving some sunshine, we headed down the coast to Sveti Stefan as we were entranced by photos of this tiny little island, which gives the area its name. The islets rocky base rises steeply from the ocean, supporting and protecting the dense cluster of buildings and the church, which cling tenaciously to its top. Even though the island is now connected to the shore by a causeway, sadly it is impossible to visit. Years ago it was purchased by Aman Resorts, a Swiss company who converted into a high end resort. Rooms used to go from 900 to 1200 Euros per night, but it closed during Covid and has not reopened since.
I had found a small oceanfront apartment on line, with a tiny balcony from which to enjoy the ever-changing view of the ocean and this tiny islet. And boy did it change! Our first day was warm and sunny with calm blue seas, perfect for wandering along the beach and walking over to the islet. The next was the total opposite. High winds whipped the sea into a raging monster, desperate to destroy what man had built. Each pounding wave seemed to be seeking a finger hold, desperate to get in and wreak havoc as it beat against the sheer cliff sides and foundations. Larger waves barreled across the pebble beach and swamped the causeway, causing the brave (or foolish) souls who were braving the elements to run for safety.
By evening the winds had died down enough for us to venture out and see what damage had been done. Surprisingly not that much, although a lot of the pebble beach was now on the causeway.
The biggest surprise here though, was how few people were around. The complex we were in was a warren of apartment buildings, but we never saw anyone else in them. Two nearby hotels were closed for the season and the majority of the restaurants were closed too. Good job we like to cook for ourselves. In high season the place must be buzzing, but in November it was a ghost town.
Pretty Petrovac
Sveti Stefan was a lovely spot to spend a few quiet days but we had one more stop in mind. Next up was Petrovac! This is yet another scenic coastal town, close to popular Budva, again it was very quiet, but at least there is a community here year-round, it’s not just a place for tourists.
We had another ocean view apartment, just across the road from a wonderful promenade and with views of two tiny little islets. Although both are uninhabited, one sports a tiny little church, built in gratitude by survivors of a shipwreck who took shelter there when their ship went down.
Petrovac has a lovely little sheltered harbor and a small fishing community, it also has a very interesting neighbor just a short walk along the coast.
We took the shady path up and over the promontory to the North of us and were surprised to find a series of tunnels leading through the cliff’s. Each one opened out to offer yet another stunning view. But why were they there? Surely not just to allow a few tourists to get around? All the tunnels were large enough for a small truck to get through them, but why, what was their purpose? We found out in the next bay over.
The Titanic of the Former Yugoslavia
The last tunnel disgorged us onto a rocky beach, on the edge of a large bay, with a small semi-derelict dock on the waters edge. We of course wandered over to explore and were dumbfounded to see a huge abandoned building site tucked into the cliff side behind us.
It was immediately obvious that this was going to be a huge hotel, built as it was into the back of the bay, with large curving balconies. Further inspection revealed, that it was once a smaller hotel that was being extended. All the cement work was in place, stairs, walls, balcony’s and even a large garage were all under construction. Cranes and pile’s of building materials sat where they had been left at days end. Where had the workers gone, what had happened here?
Closer examination revealed the true state of the carcass of the former hotel, now just an empty shell with broken glass everywhere and gaping holes where piping had been ripped out. Both here and in the unfinished extension, graffiti adorned many a wall and the cranes were being consumed by rust, as was the rebar sticking out from the unfinished walls and balconies.
A quick search found this Link to an article on the hotel. (You will need to translate from Bosnian on your Browser).
The hotel gets reviews still gets reviews on Google , which is quite entertaining.
“Cozy hotel in a quiet corner of Montenegro. The rooms with a sea view are really nice. Unfortunately the bed was a little hard and the air conditioning provided a comfortable temperature during the night. Another plus point – we had the hotel to ourselves.”
Petrovac was the perfect place to spend our last few days in Montenegro, but our time had come to an end, it was time to head back to Podgorica and a bus to our next destination Albania.
For me it was a great opportunity to explore this stunningly beautiful country. If I had the choice again, I would have gone a little earlier in the year, late September early October would probably be perfect. The weather would have been a little warmer (maybe even enough for swimming) and it would not have been so much of a ghost town in places. However, I would not want to be there in high season, it would have been just as hot and crowded as Croatia was earlier this year. Just another tourism Zoo.
