Climbing Kotor's walls to St John's fortress

Plenty of Adriatic towns have walls. Kotor’s are different because they refuse to stay at sea level. They go up the mountain. From the main square you can follow the line of stone zigzagging up an almost sheer slope to a fortress that looks out of reach, and the obvious question follows. Yes, you can climb it, and here’s what it costs your legs, because there’s no official figure for what it costs in euros.

Four and a half kilometres of stone

The National Tourism Organisation describes a loop of about 4.5 km that starts at the sea, climbs to the fortress guarding the town and drops back to the water. Kotor’s tourist board says more than four kilometres, with walls up to 20 m high in places and of varying thickness, tracing the shore on the west, the Gurdić spring on the south and the cliffs of St John’s Hill above.

The defences were added layer by layer from Illyrian times to the Venetian period, which is why the stonework changes from one stretch to the next. UNESCO has recognised them twice, in 1979 as part of the Region of Kotor and in 2017 among the Venetian works of defence of the 16th and 17th centuries, a listing shared with Italy and Croatia.

The climb, step by step

You start inside Kotor Old Town and climb on steps and stone ramps hugging the wall. The best measure comes from the staircase race held every April, which starts at the Church of Blessed Ozana and finishes at the highest point of St John’s fortress after 1.2 km, 1,350 steps and 260 m of climbing. The National Tourism Organisation rounds that to about 1,400 steps and an hour.

An hour is the time for someone who never stops, and on this climb stopping is the point, because every bend opens the view a little further. Allow ninety minutes up and thirty down. The surface is uneven and the stone is polished smooth by centuries of feet, so leave the flip-flops at the hotel.

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

Ticket price and opening times

I’ll be straight with you. Neither Kotor’s tourist board nor the National Tourism Organisation lists a ticket price or opening times for the climb. There’s a figure going round in the press and on blogs, but it doesn’t come from an official source and I’m not going to present it as fact. Carry some cash and read the sign at the entrance on the day.

Heat, water and the right hour

The slope faces the town and has no trees. In July 2024 Herceg Novi, the nearest official weather station with published data, averaged 28.1 °C for the month, and that’s day and night together. I’d set off at first light with two bottles of water each and be back in the old town before ten. The other good slot is the last of the evening light, when the sun is no longer in your face.

According to FCDO travel advice for Montenegro, the hillsides catch fire often between April and October, and fires should only be lit where it is expressly allowed. On a dry slope like this one, take that seriously.

If you would rather have a local show you round, book a guided tour in Kotor city walls and choose by the reviews.

The reward at the top

From the fortress the old town is a tight triangle of roofs between the rock and the water, the harbour in front and the bay stretching off towards Dobrota and Prčanj. That’s the reward, and I compare other high points in Kotor viewpoints. If you want to go much higher, the Kotor Vertical Extreme race runs from the walls to Pestingrad at 1,007 m in 2.8 km of trail, though that’s a different league altogether.

Fitting it into your day

My ideal order in Kotor goes like this. Walls at sunrise, breakfast in the old town, museums and churches mid-morning if it isn’t a heavy cruise day, and the afternoon on a boat round the bay. If you’d rather have the view without the steps, the serpentine road up towards Njeguši gives you a different angle from the car.

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