The best things to do in Montenegro, ranked

Most people arrive in Montenegro with one postcard in mind, the Bay of Kotor. It deserves its fame, but it’s only part of the picture. Within 13,883 km² there are four UNESCO listings and five national parks. What I’d tell you to see depends mostly on how far you’re willing to stray from the coast. The ranking above has my scores and reasons; here’s the thinking behind it.

The Bay of Kotor, where everyone starts

There’s no debate about first place. The Kotor region joined the UNESCO list in 1979, and its entry describes two linked bays under mountains close to 1,500 m high, with Kotor and Perast singled out as small towns of unusual authenticity. In 2017 it added the fortified city of Kotor to the Venetian defences listing, so the bay effectively has two entries.

My advice is to climb the walls early. According to the National Tourism Organisation, there are 4.5 km of wall zigzagging up to St John’s Fortress, 300 m above the sea, with around 1,400 steps. From the top the whole bay makes sense. Then head to Perast, 12 km away, to see the two islets from the waterfront. The villages, boat trips and viewpoints around the water are all in the Bay of Kotor.

The north that most visitors skip

Second place goes to Durmitor, which is exactly what a lot of itineraries leave out. UNESCO listed it in 1980 and extended it in 2005, and its entry counts some fifty summits over 2,000 m, glacial lakes that locals call the eyes of the mountain, and the Tara Canyon, which it ranks as the deepest gorge on the continent. The National Parks charge €5 a day and maintain 25 marked trails, about 150 km in all, starting with the loop round the Black Lake at 1,418 m.

The Tara deserves its own morning. The National Tourism Organisation gives the canyon a maximum depth of 1,333 m and dates the Đurđevića Tara Bridge, five arches and 365 m long, to 1940. How to fit the two together is in Durmitor National Park.

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

Lake, monastery and the old royal capital

Between the coast and the mountains sits the centre, usually treated as somewhere to drive through, which it doesn’t deserve. Lake Skadar, protected as a national park since 1983, and the National Tourism Organisation puts it at 370 km² in summer, with around 280 bird species. I’d see it by boat from Virpazar or Rijeka Crnojevića, the two harbours I find most pleasant, rather than just looking at it from the road on the way to somewhere else.

Ostrog Monastery stands at about 900 m, set into a rock face above the Zeta valley, with cave churches and 17th-century frescoes. And Cetinje, the old royal capital, has the monastery, King Nikola’s palace and the Biljarda. That loop is covered in Cetinje.

The islands, from Perast to Ada Bojana

Montenegro has no big islands, but several small ones you can visit. Off Perast are Our Lady of the Rocks, with its Catholic church and museum, and St George, with its monastery. Off Budva is Sveti Nikola, reached by boat for €3 or €4 from Slovenska beach or the old town, according to the National Tourism Organisation. Mamula, at the mouth of the bay, is now a hotel. At the southern tip, Ada Bojana, an island where the Bojana meets the sea, has a naturist beach and fish restaurants. Lake Skadar has fortified islets too, such as Lesendro and Grmožur.

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

What I’d save for a second trip

If time is short, Budva and Sveti Stefan drop down my list. Not because they aren’t pretty, but because the National Tourism Organisation counts around 100,000 people a day on the Budva Riviera’s beaches in high summer, and Sveti Stefan is something you look at from outside, from the viewpoint and its two beaches. Stari Bar, on the other hand, is a pleasant surprise, with more than 260 ruined buildings, an aqueduct and Turkish baths 5 km inland, and a fraction of the crowds.

To turn this ranking into a day-by-day plan, start with the one-week Montenegro itinerary, which spreads all of this across coast, centre and north without too many hours behind the wheel.

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