Herceg Novi, the town of steps at the mouth of the bay

Sail into the Bay of Kotor and Herceg Novi is the first town that looks back at you. It sits on the northern shore of the bay’s mouth, below Mount Orjen and a few kilometres from Croatia, and for me it’s the most pleasant place on the bay to spend a week. It hasn’t got Kotor’s walled old town or Tivat’s marina, but it has steps, fortresses, a very long seafront and boats to the best coves on Luštica. The municipality had 30,824 residents in the 2023 census and welcomed 362,514 tourists in 2024.

Six centuries of owners

According to the tourist board, the Bosnian king Tvrtko I founded the town in 1382 and named it Sveti Stefan. Today’s name comes from Herceg Stjepan Vukčić Kosača, who kept his court here and died in 1466. Then came the Ottomans, who ruled from 1482 to 1687, with a brief Spanish interlude in 1538, followed by the Venetians and the Austro-Hungarians. Each of them built or rebuilt a fortress, which is why the old town feels like layer upon layer of walls.

What to see in Herceg Novi

The natural way in is the clock tower, Sat kula, built in 1667 on the sultan’s orders. It’s 16 m tall, served as the main town gate and still has a bell that Catherine the Great gave the town in 1753. From there the old town climbs in flights of steps; the tourist board brands it the town of «100,001 steps», which I’ll treat as the slogan it is.

At the very top is Kanli kula, the Ottoman fortress of 1539 with one of the loveliest open-air stages on the coast. Down by the sea, Forte Mare keeps the old Sea Gate and has doubled as a summer cinema for more than sixty years. The third, Španjola, stands 170 m up on Bajer hill with four round bastions; the Spanish started it in 1538 and the Ottomans rebuilt it between 1539 and 1548.

Two kilometres from the centre, among Mediterranean greenery, is Savina monastery, with two churches of the Dormition of the Virgin and a treasury whose star piece is St Sava’s 13th-century crystal cross. The larger church went up between 1777 and 1799, and from the little chapel of St Sava on the hill the view stretches to Lovćen. The tourist board also lists the house of Nobel laureate Ivo Andrić and the Njegoš school.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Herceg Novi before prices climb.

The seafront and the beaches

The tourist board talks of a 6 km promenade, more than 70 beaches and 18 km of coastline in the municipality. The promenade links the centre with Igalo, the biggest settlement in the municipality, known for its healing mud beach and large rehabilitation centre. For proper coves and the clearest water, you take the boat. I cover them individually in Herceg Novi beaches.

The mouth of the bay by boat

The best of Herceg Novi is out on the water. According to the official Luštica route leaflet, boats leave Škver harbour in summer for Mirište, Žanjic and the Blue Cave, and there’s a year-round service to Rose. Guarding the mouth of the bay is the island fortress of Mamula, now a hotel. Behind the town, Orjen Nature Park has the highest summit on the Adriatic coast, Veliki kabao, at 1,894 m.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Herceg Novi before prices climb.

Festivals and when to go

There’s something on all year. February and March bring the Mimosa Festival, held since 1969; April the HAPS theatre festival; June Choose Vision at Forte Mare; 10 to 20 July the Days of Music; and 15 to 20 August the Guitar Art Summer Fest, according to the Herceg Fest cultural centre. In 2024 the local weather station recorded an annual average of 17.8°C and not a single day of snow.

Getting there, staying and paying

Coming from Dubrovnik, you cross the Croatian border at Debeli brijeg, and the Kamenari ferry, in the same municipality, crosses to Lepetane and saves the drive round the bay (€5 per car on the 2026 tariff). Each night costs €1 per adult and €0.50 per teenager in tourist tax, and tour groups also pay €1 each to visit the old town. I compare places to stay by area in hotels in Herceg Novi.