Montenegro · The Adriatic
Where the mountains fall into the Adriatic.
Kotor, Perast and the bay. Budva and the Riviera beaches. The Tara canyon and Skadar lake just inland. The best of every corner of Montenegro, with the one tour worth booking in each.
Only in Montenegro
Three days you can’t have anywhere else.
Boat trips and walled old towns turn up all over the Mediterranean. A sea cave that glows electric blue, the deepest river canyon in Europe and the largest lake in the Balkans do not. Build a few days around these three.
Out on the water
Swim Inside the Blue Cave
Near the mouth of the bay, midday sun bounces off a pale seabed and floods a low sea cave with electric-blue light. Boats cut the engine, you climb down a ladder and swim in. Almost every trip pairs it with Our Lady of the Rocks, an island the locals built by hand, sinking old ships and dropping stones for four hundred years.
- 1 Kotor: Blue Cave Swim Stop, Lady of the Rocks & Submarine Base
- 2 From Kotor: Boat to Blue Cave & Lady of the Rocks &Submarine Base
- 3 Blue cave, Mamula island, Submarine tunnels and Our lady of the Rocks (3h)
The wild north
Raft the Tara Canyon
The Tara cuts the deepest river canyon in Europe, thirteen hundred metres of cliff falling to bright green water, second in the world only to the Grand Canyon. Rafts run the rapids below the Djurdjevica Tara bridge, then the road climbs into Durmitor: black-pine forest, glacier lakes and bare peaks over two thousand metres.
- 1 North Montenegro, Durmitor, Tara & Ostrog Tour
- 2 Durmitor – Black Lake & Tara River Canyon – North Montenegro tour
- 3 Private Full-Day Tour in Moraca and Tara Canyons, Durmitor & Biogradska Gora NP
Inland water
Cruise Skadar Lake
Skadar is the largest lake in the Balkans, and half of it is a national park. Low wooden boats thread through water-lily fields and reed channels past island monasteries and clifftop forts, pelicans overhead, small family wineries along the shore. A completely different Montenegro from the coast, an hour inland.
- 1 Skadar Lake National Park Guided Boat Tour with Wooden Boat
- 2 Best from our coast (Kotor bay, Budva, Sv Stefan, Skadar lake)
- 3 Skadar Lake National Park: Guided Boat Tour to Kom Monastery
Where most people start
Start with the day everyone books.
If you only have time for one trip, this is the one most visitors take. A full day of the bay, the old towns and the coast in one go.
The favourites
Montenegro's Most Popular Tours
The Blue Cave, Our Lady of the Rocks, Kotor's walls and Sveti Stefan. The trips most visitors come to Montenegro for.
By place
Each place is a different day.
Kotor for the walled old town and the climb up the fortress. Perast for the baroque waterfront and the two islet churches. Budva for the beaches and the late nights. The bay itself for a day on the water. Lovcen for the road up and the view back down over all of it.
By type
Or choose the kind of day.
A speedboat for the Blue Cave and the open bay. A grand tour for the whole country in a day. Rafting in the canyon, wine on the lake, the cable car over Kotor, and the rest.
Coast or mountains
Two Montenegros, an hour apart.
You can swim in the bay before lunch and stand under two-thousand-metre peaks by the afternoon. Point the week one way, or do both.
Out on the bay
The Bay of Kotor by boat.
The fjord-deep bay is the reason most people come. Speedboats out to the Blue Cave and the open sea, slow cruises past Perast and the two islet churches. The three we’d put first.
Down the coast
The Riviera, past the bay.
South of Kotor the coast opens out into beaches. Budva’s walled old town, the pink islet of Sveti Stefan, the long sand at Becici. Three to book when the bay starts to feel small.
One long day
The whole country, in a day.
Over the Lovcen pass to Cetinje, the old royal capital, down to Skadar lake and back along the coast. Montenegro is small enough to cross before dinner. One long day, done three ways.
At the table
Eat and drink your way round.
Smoked ham and cheese up in the Njegusi mountains, wine along the Skadar shore, fresh fish down on the bay. Three afternoons worth clearing the schedule for.
Just added