Igalo, healing mud and Tito's villa on the Bay of Kotor

Igalo is the practical side of Herceg Novi. It lies west of the centre, joined to the old town by the seafront promenade, and in the preliminary 2023 census it actually has more residents than the town itself, 5,897 against 5,078. You don’t come here for fortresses. You come for the mud on the beach, for a rehabilitation centre known right across the Balkans and for a Tito villa that few visitors have heard of.

The mud of Blatna beach

The National Tourism Organisation sells Igalo as one of the Mediterranean’s big health-tourism destinations. The draw is the sea mud of Blatna beach, the «mud beach», which the same source says you can slather on free of charge. There are sunbeds, umbrellas and parking, and the promenade is lined with cafés and fish restaurants. In its healing-beach listings, the tourist board gives Igalo 1,500 m of shoreline and a mud beach of 9,000 m². I compare the other places to swim in Herceg Novi beaches.

The Igalo Institute

Behind the mud is the Dr Simo Milošević Institute for Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation and Rheumatology, which the Herceg Novi tourist board calls one of the largest spa-treatment centres in the Balkans. It opened in 1949, started a physiotherapy college in 1976 that became a faculty of the University of Montenegro in 2004, and works as both hotel and clinic. Treatments use sea mud, mineral water and thalassotherapy, there are more than 300 medical staff, and they speak English as well as Russian, Norwegian, German or French. If you want proper treatment rather than a hotel massage, this is the place.

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

Villa Galeb, Tito’s house

What intrigues me most in Igalo is Villa Galeb. The tourist board explains that it’s one of about ten luxury villas built for Tito across Yugoslavia, put up here in 1976 in just six months because the president was being treated at the Igalo Institute. It has four floors, 137 rooms, 5,500 m² of space and grounds of more than 75,000 m². In the basement there’s a nuclear shelter with an aquarium that monitored the water supply. If the fish died, an alarm went off and every tap in the villa was cut. Tito made four official visits.

Tours run on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, at 18:00 and 19:15. Adults pay €3 and children aged 7 to 12 pay €1.50; under-7s go free. For that money, it’s one of the quirkiest visits on the coast.

Where to stay in Igalo

Igalo has big hotels right on the seafront. The Palmon Bay, on the promenade, is a four-star with a mineral-water spa, and the Iberostar Waves Herceg Novi is at Njivice, about 3 km away, with direct access to a private beach. Njivice also has a long-established naturist beach, sheltered by tall rocks that give natural shade. The tourist tax is the same across the municipality, €1 per adult per night.

So you do not lose the morning at the ticket office, browse tickets and tours in Herceg Novi on GetYourGuide.

Igalo or Herceg Novi?

If your trip is about beach, mud and spa, Igalo. If you want the old town, the fortresses and boats to Luštica, central Herceg Novi. As the promenade links the two, the choice matters less than you might think.

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