Budva's beaches, one by one and scored

Budva sells itself on beaches, but they’re far from identical, and the gap between a good choice and a bad one is the gap between a quiet morning and a row of loungers in full sun. The municipal tourist board has a page for each of 19 beaches, with length and surface area, and that’s enough to decide fairly well before you land.

Sand or pebble, the first question

On the Montenegrin coast, the word beach doesn’t guarantee sand. On the Budva Riviera, the sandy ones are Mogren, Guvance, Bečići, Kamenovo, the Sveti Stefan sandbar, Miločer, Queen’s Beach and Lučice. Pebble ones include Jaz, Ričardova glava, Pizana and much of Slovenska plaža, although Jaz has a sandy seabed. If you’re travelling with small children or simply hate stones, that split is the first thing I’d check. For the rest of the country I’ve got a wider guide to beaches in Montenegro.

The town beaches, a walk from the walls

Pizana, 50 metres long, sits under the Repeno tower next to the open-air town pool and the marina. Ričardova glava, about 100 metres, leans against the wall and fills with music in the afternoon. Slovenska plaža runs 1,600 metres from the harbour to the Park hotel, with basketball, volleyball and boules courts. And on the far side of the Citadel, along a 350-metre path that starts by the Avala hotel, is Mogren, which I rate as the best town beach on the whole coast.

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North to Jaz and Ploče

Jaz is 2.5 km out on the Kotor road, with two stretches of 800 and 400 metres covering 22,500 m², plus a campsite and shaded parking. The national tourist board marks a naturist section within it, zone 2G in the official beach atlas. Further on, about 9 km from Budva, is the rocky beach at Ploče on Cape Platamuni, with four swimming pools, bars and music late into the night. A summer bus runs there from Budva, the Budva-Jaz-Trsteno-Ploče line, with 14 departures a day.

South from Bečići to Buljarica

Bečići is the long one, about 2,000 metres of multicoloured sand that won the Paris Grand Prix in 1935, and Kamenovo, at 330 metres, is the one with daytime music in the bars. At Pržno the 260-metre beach faces west and gets sun until sunset. Miločer has King’s Beach, named after King Alexander Karađorđević, and Queen’s Beach, a favourite of Queen Maria when the Miločer hotel was the royal summer residence. Then come the two Sveti Stefan beaches, the seven coves of Crvena glavica and Drobni pijesak, which is easiest to reach by sea. Finally Petrovac, Lučice and Buljarica, the longest of them all.

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The island offshore

Sveti Nikola island, under a kilometre away, has three sandy beaches adding up to 840 metres, plus coves on its southern side that you can only reach by boat. The national tourist board quotes €3 to €4 for the crossing from Slovenska plaža or the old town. It’s my favourite way to escape the town beach without getting in a car, and I cover it under Sveti Nikola island.

What I’d do in August

At the height of summer the riviera gets around 100,000 swimmers a day, so timing matters more than the beach. I’d head to Mogren or Miločer before nine and leave for lunch as they fill up. In the afternoon, Pržno or Jaz, which have more room. And if you want genuine solitude, take a boat to the southern coves of Sveti Nikola, which have no access by land. To sleep near whichever you pick, see my areas in hotels in Budva.

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