The coast is only the start.
Blue Cave mornings out of Kotor, the switchback road up Lovćen, rafts through the Tara canyon and wooden boats on Skadar Lake. What each day is really like, what it costs, and where to book it.
Seven ways to spend a Montenegrin day.
A boat out to the Blue Cave, the fortress steps above Kotor before the heat arrives, lunch at a konoba on the Skadar shore. These are the days travellers reach for first.
From Dubrovnik: Montenegro Day Trip
Dubrovnik to Montenegro day trip with Kotor and Perast, optional boat to Our Lady of the Rocks, plus scenic Bay of Kotor driving.
From $70 per person
Read the review →
★ 5.0Sure thingFrom Kotor: Boat to Blue Cave & Lady of the Rocks &Submarine BaseFrom $321,104 reviews
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★ 4.5Summer stapleBlue Cave Kotor Swim, Mamula&Lady of the Rock 3 Hour Ticket TourFrom $48471 reviews
Nobody leaves without getting on a boat.
Out of Kotor or Herceg Novi the route barely changes. Our Lady of the Rocks first, then the submarine tunnels cut into Luštica, then twenty minutes swimming in the Blue Cave while the light turns the water electric. Three hours, back in time for lunch.
Bay day, mountain day, or the lake?
The country is small enough that these are genuinely different days, not different versions of the same tour. Pick the one that sounds like your kind of morning; the options behind it are all here, with prices.
On the water
Out on Boka
3 hours (approx.) · from $39 · 1,914 reviews
Kotor to Perast by boat, the island church with its silver plaques, the submarine tunnels at Luštica, then a swim in the Blue Cave. Small boats leave all morning and most are back by two. It is the default first day here, and it earns it.
See the bay boats →
Up the switchbacks
Up to Lovćen
11 hours (approx.) · from $89 · 637 reviews
Twenty-five hairpins out of Kotor, Njeguši ham and cheese halfway up, then the Njegoš mausoleum on the Lovćen summit with half the country laid out below. Cetinje and the Lipa Cave usually come attached.
See the Lovćen days →
Lilies and herons
Over to Skadar
11 hours (approx.) · from $89 · 637 reviews
A wooden boat out of Virpazar through the lily fields, a monastery island or two, herons lifting off the bow, then wine at a village house on the way back. The quietest thing Montenegro sells, and usually the cheapest.
See the Skadar trips →
The country is named after its mountain.
Behind the coast the ground goes almost vertical. Lovćen carries the mausoleum and the view of the whole bay, Durmitor carries the snow into June, and between them the Tara has cut the deepest canyon in Europe. The coast road never hints at any of it.
Smoked ham, lake fish, house wine.
Njeguši cures its pršut in mountain air and sells it by the slab. Around Skadar the villages press Vranac and fry whatever came out of the water that morning. These are the tables worth building a day around.
Rafts, ropes and a change of clothes.
The Tara runs fast enough to raft from spring into autumn, Nevidio is a slot canyon you swim as much as walk, and there is a zipline strung across the Đurđevića bridge. All of it is snowmelt. Expect to be cold.
Venice built most of what you will walk through.
Kotor’s walls climb the cliff in a zigzag you can do in an hour if you start early. Perast counts sixteen palaces along a single waterfront. Out on the water, Our Lady of the Rocks stands on an island fishermen built by hand, one stone per safe return.
Each town is its own day.
Kotor for the walls and the boats. Perast for one perfect waterfront. Budva for the beaches and the noise. Tivat for the yachts. Herceg Novi for the quiet end of the bay. Virpazar for the lake.
Already know the shape of the day?
Boat, minibus, raft, table or trail. Twelve ways into the same small country, each one opening onto a full list with prices.
The far half of the country, in a day.
Podgorica sits an hour off the coast and the north opens out behind it. Ostrog is built into a cliff face, Durmitor holds the Black Lake and its snow, and the Tara bridge is worth the drive on its own.
Three days that cover the country.
Montenegro is about 180 kilometres end to end, so three days genuinely reaches the bay, the mountains and the lake. This is the order that works.
Day 1
Onto Boka first
Boat out of Kotor to Perast and Our Lady of the Rocks, the submarine tunnels, a swim in the Blue Cave. Back with time to climb the town walls before the light goes.
Boat trips for day one →
Day 2
Climb out of the bay
The serpentine road out of Kotor, ham and cheese at Njeguši, the mausoleum on the Lovćen summit, then Cetinje and the Lipa Cave on the way down.
Lovćen tours for day two →
Day 3
End at Virpazar
Wooden boat out of Virpazar through the lilies, a monastery island or two, then lake fish and Vranac at a village house before the drive back to the coast.
Skadar trips for day three →
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