What to do in Montenegro once you've seen Kotor

Montenegro is sold as a beach destination, and in high summer it is one, but what sets it apart for me is what you can do two hours from the sea. A country with peaks over 2,500 m, a canyon 1,333 m deep and a lake of around 370 km² in summer offers a lot more than a sunbed. Here’s what I’d do, what it costs according to the official sites, and where.

Rafting the Tara, the headline act

If I had to pick one activity, this would be it. The National Tourism Organisation puts the rafting season from April to October, with spring snowmelt bringing the most water, and quotes around €70 per person for one day and from €90 for two. The usual stretch is 18 km, from Brštanovica to Šćepan Polje, the border crossing with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

There’s no date on that tariff, so use it as a rough guide and ask each company what’s included. The thing I’d check is that the transfer to the put-in is covered, because the canyon is a long way from anywhere. Stretches, season and operators are in Tara rafting.

Walking, from the coast to Prokletije

The National Tourism Organisation counts 3,000 km of trails in the country, around 1,480 km of them marked and about 800 km inside the national parks. Durmitor alone has 25 trails adding up to roughly 150 km, from the educational loop round the Black Lake to the climb up Bobotov Kuk via Sedlo and Zeleni vir. In Prokletije, the National Parks suggest a 10.2 km circuit from Grbaja that takes about five and a half hours, graded medium.

What I wouldn’t do is wander off the marked paths. gov.uk warns that hikers get lost doing exactly that, and advises telling someone your route and keeping your phone charged. Routes by area and difficulty are in hiking in Montenegro.

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Lakes, kayaks and boats

Lake Skadar is my favourite cheap day out. The National Parks charge €5 to enter and hire kayaks at €3 an hour for a single and €5 for a double, or €20 for the day. There are also cruises from the jetties at Vranjina, Virpazar, Rijeka Crnojevića and Plavnica, and on Durmitor’s Black Lake the park’s rowing boat costs €10 an hour. More serious river kayaking is on the Tara, a 20 km grade III to V stretch listed among the National Parks’ activities. It’s all together in kayaking in Montenegro.

Canyons and zip lines

The best-known canyon is Nevidio, near Šavnik, 3,500 m of the Komarnica gorge with jumps of up to 10 m and about four hours of descent. The National Tourism Organisation says it was first traversed in 1965. Two more have official write-ups. Škurda is 1.2 km long and ends beside Kotor’s walls after six or seven hours, while Vruća rijeka runs for about 6 km and finishes at the walls of Stari Bar. None of them is something to attempt without a guide. I explain them in canyoning in Montenegro.

If you want the adrenaline without getting wet, the zip line at the Đurđevića Tara Bridge crosses the canyon at a height of around 150 m, according to the National Tourism Organisation.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Žabljak for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.

Wind, water and snow

On the coast there’s wind as well as swimming. Ulcinj’s Velika plaža has 13 km of sand and the mistral blows about 90 days a year, says the National Tourism Organisation, which quotes kitesurfing courses at €150 to €400. On Lake Skadar you can dive with a club down to the wreck of the steamer Skenderbeg, sunk in Karuč bay in 1942.

In winter the skiing is split between Kolašin 1600 and Kolašin 1450, linked by a lift for around 45 km of runs, and Savin Kuk, 6 km from Žabljak. The National Tourism Organisation mentions an average of 120 days of snow cover a year. Season dates and lift passes for 2026-27 weren’t published in October 2026, so I’m not giving prices. The same goes for the alpine coaster and the golf courses people search for, where I couldn’t find official figures to check.

How I’d put it together

For an active week, I’d spend two days in Durmitor with a rafting trip on the Tara, a morning kayaking on Lake Skadar and the rest on the coast, with an afternoon on a boat around the Bay of Kotor. Day trips from Kotor, Budva and Podgorica are lined up in day trips in Montenegro.