My Montenegro Travel Notes - Podgorica, Budva, Tivat and Kotor

Hello friends. I have wanted to visit Montenegro for a long time. Seeing those breathtaking photos shared by @bugavi two years ago really put this country on my mind and finally, last April, I had the chance to see Montenegro after Egypt. If you are not planning on swimming, April is the best time to visit. The weather is nice, prices are low and there were almost no tourists. If you want to combine a cultural holiday with swimming, it is best to be there in September. Until then Montenegro meant the sea, cute old villages and the fantastic beauty of the Bay of Kotor to me. But after my visit, I realized that was only a small part of the story. Montenegro was also the enchanting beauty of the north. While the sun can warm the seaside up to 30 degrees, completely different landscapes opened up just a three hour drive away. We did not just look at the bay and old villages, we dove into the northern world of Montenegro with its forests, lakes, rivers and of course, mountain masses. In short, we had the opportunity to examine this small but diverse country in depth.

Our journey started at Podgorica Airport. We flew to the capital. Apparently, the stress in the Montenegrin language falls on the first vowel, which means I was pronouncing the name of this city wrong. The airport was 10 kilometers away from the city. Unfortunately public transport was not working, so it was necessary to take a taxi, costing between 10 and 15 euros. We spent our first day in the city preparing for the journey. The population of Podgorica is 150 thousand people and that day we explored the country primarily as tourists. Meanwhile, on the first day, we saw the most important symbol of the city, the 140 meter long suspension bridge. It was built in 2005 and has been the main point of attraction ever since. I am not joking, this place really is the main tourist spot and one might rightfully ask why just a bridge. The point was that Podgorica is a unique place in Montenegro where there is no abundance of charming spots, so we walked around the city a bit and then I bought a local sim card. The connection was quite good, you get a 500 GB card for 15 euros.

So, on the first full day of our journey, we rented a car and headed towards the city of Budva. Many immigrants had moved here in recent years. It was a very small city, the historical part was cute but tiny, while the rest of the buildings were hotels or new residential complexes, plus there is a fairly large sector of detached houses. In April, construction work was ongoing everywhere both in the city and the surrounding area. Later, we continued along the coast towards the largest bay of the Adriatic.

The impression from the first day was how small a country Montenegro is. We left the capital, toured Budva, then quickly moved to Tivat and all these trips took at most an hour and a half. It was very surprising that everything was so close together and so beautiful. Montenegro is a very small country not only in terms of land but also in terms of population, with only 650 thousand people. On one hand this has obvious advantages that tourists can feel, but on the other hand, there are serious disadvantages that locals have to endure. For example, it is interesting how Montenegrins solved the problem of creating their own currency, they acted on the principle of no currency, no problem. From 99 onwards, they started using the German Mark and from 2002, they switched to the Euro along with European Union countries. However, Montenegro was not and is still not a part of the European Union and there was no official currency agreement with the EU. The same system was only valid in Kosovo. Although they managed to cleverly solve the problem in the financial system, it was impossible to solve the small domestic market problem. When a country's population is less than a million, you could not expect all world brands to open and a large product range to form. In theory, this problem could be solved with companies that have warehouses in other countries and buy goods from all over the world for customers, but this required many customers, which again led back to the small market disadvantage.

Speaking of the Boka-Kotor Bay in general, for the next two days, we climbed mountains, wandered on winding roads and stopped by old villages, all within a 20 kilometer radius. This place can be called the Montenegrin fjords or a sea canyon. It was enough at that moment to understand that this is a huge bay with very cute towns united by a common history, not just architectural styles. The first settlements appeared here before the common era. Of course, every state wanted to control such a bay, so Ancient Rome, the Bulgarian Kingdom, Serbs, Hungarians, Bosnians, everyone fought for influence in this region. The Venetians, who ruled especially from the 15th century to the end of the 18th century, were very successful here. That Italian heritage that catches everyone's eye today is exactly that.

It was as if a little Italy was before us, olive trees, magnolias and of course, the Italian architecture in some buildings. A building could look ordinary on its own, but those shutters immediately created the impression that we were in Italy. The colors were also characteristic, a combination of yellow and dark green. Maybe it was a bit too perfect and not worn out, it was rare for buildings in Italy to be in such good condition, but one still felt like they were in Italy. Also, other colorful beautiful houses carried that Italian signature, the fact that one in every three or four buildings was definitely made of stone provided balance, allowing you to admire the harmony of colors while feeling the antiquity. We stopped by the main palace of Old Tivat, built for the noble Buca family from Kotor. Although most things were rebuilt due to frequent earthquakes, a large part of the mansion has survived and today there is a cultural center where various exhibitions are held.

Until recently, Tivat was a typical city that was not the brightest in the bay, with a small historical center and a Yugoslav naval base that had become dilapidated over time. Everything started to change in 2006, when Canadian businessman Peter Munk and other big investors bought a large part of the pier and started to implement the grand Porto Montenegro project. Many people might think there is nothing special about it, just a yacht parking lot and a few expensive shops and restaurants and one could say it is not worth entering if we do not have a yacht. And actually, I agreed with this view, complexes where only people arriving by ship feel comfortable were really not for everyone. However, Porto Montenegro was different, in the last 10 years, a whole neighborhood with pedestrian streets, modern buildings and all its infrastructure had been built here. There were shops, sports facilities, luxury hotels and a perfectly maintained pier. More than 1 billion dollars had been invested in this project, which meant one sixth of the annual GDP of this country. An atmosphere where everyone would feel comfortable was created here, both for very wealthy people surrounded by the highest service and for ordinary tourists who just want to walk by the water or in the quiet new streets.

Next to Porto Montenegro, there was an atmosphere of real luxury, stores of Rolex, Bulgari and other famous brands, people transported by golf carts and of course, yachts. Since it was April, there were few tourists and this reinforced the feeling of enjoying life and that full, wealthy peace. Still, all those restaurants and beautiful buildings were just a complement to the main thing, that marina which has no equal on the entire Adriatic coast. There were not many places in the world that could be compared with Porto Montenegro. There were 450 berths in the marina, which was a large number in itself, but the main thing was that there were 150 places that could accept superyachts longer than 100 meters. We are talking about an area larger than a football field. To better understand this value, imagine a limousine or a caravan that needs to be parked in the very center of the city, this is very difficult, you usually leave the large vehicle outside the city and go by taxi. In Porto Montenegro, however, you dock directly with your limousine. Yacht owners can fly directly to Tivat and reach the pier in just 10 minutes.

A few words about safety and peace in Montenegro: That evening, while checking into the hotel, we received instructions on how to enter the room, one of the instructions was that we should push the door and the room key would be inside. I do not know if I have ever experienced something like this before, but such a relaxed situation where anyone could enter really surprised me. Moreover, we paid only 55 euros for a room for two people for two nights and I think for the first time at this price, I stayed in a place with this magnificent bay view where the morning sun illuminates the room. The first thing we did was head towards the Kotor serpentines, we got in the car and drove along the bay. Our speed was about 7 to 10 kilometers per hour and the road was almost empty. It turns out that the Bay of Kotor views worked better than speed bumps, we stopped every 500 meters.

Renting a car in Montenegro is definitely something I can recommend to everyone because it was the best way to go from one city to another, it was safe, quite cheap (on average 30 euros per day in April and May) and of course, fantastically beautiful. The possibilities offered by the car were endless there. You can climb the bends, stop at every observation deck along the way and feel completely free. And then we entered the famous Kotor serpentines. This was probably one of the best known roads in the Adriatic, built at the end of the 19th century to connect Kotor to the old capital Cetinje. Just 10 minutes after the climb started, views that required us to stop began. We were not at the summit yet, but we could understand the general outlines of the bay. Many people wrote that this was a very difficult route and not for beginners, but I could not agree with this, the road was quite safe and simple. The difficulty only arose when you tried to give way in narrow sections if a truck or a huge bus came across you, otherwise there was no problem. In return, we saw one of the most breathtaking panoramas of Montenegro.

After climbing the bends above Kotor, it was worth continuing the road to Cetinje, the cradle of Montenegrin culture. Unfortunately, we could not go there due to weather conditions.

We waited for the rain to end and noticed a huge cruise ship approaching as we descended the bends. The ship, with a passenger count on its deck almost equal to the population of Old Kotor, was slowly and majestically approaching the port. I suggest those going to the bay check the ship schedules from the port site to see this view with their own eyes, so the climb up the mountain becomes completely special. Everything was charming until the city of Kotor, where it was now time for us to go. I will talk about the city of Kotor and the rest of my trip in my next post.