Virpazar, the Crmnica landing stage on Lake Skadar

Virpazar has no monument that will keep you busy for half a day, yet it’s where most people stop on Lake Skadar. The reason is practical. It’s the most convenient landing stage from the Bar and Budva coast, the park has a visitor centre here, and you can be on the water within five minutes of parking. For me it’s the obvious base for the southern side of the lake.

A Crmnica crossroads

Bar’s tourist board describes Virpazar as the place where every road in Crmnica meets, Crmnica being the district that wraps around this shore of the lake. It was once a busy trading and transport hub for Montenegro, and today it’s a day-trip spot and the starting point for lake cruises, visits to monuments and outdoor activities.

The village is listed as a historic ensemble in Bar’s cultural heritage. It sits on a small plain between two channels of the Orahovštica and Crmnica rivers and the lake itself, and the listing takes in three bridges, the stone embankment, the whole fortress hill and the houses at its foot, most of them stone with cellars below ground. The same source praises how the buildings follow the lie of the land, and that’s what I like most here, it doesn’t feel built for visitors.

The lake from the quay

The National Tourism Organisation calls it the most visited settlement on Lake Skadar, and boats and kayaks can be hired here. National Parks of Montenegro names it as one of the four departure points for licensed cruise operators and runs one of its two visitor centres in Virpazar, where you can pick up maps of the trails and cycle routes. One of those routes starts here and runs to Rijeka Crnojevića.

My advice is to go early. In summer the boats fill up with people driving in from the coast, and the still water first thing is when the birdlife is easiest to see.

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

Besac and the old bridge

Above the village stands Besac fortress, which Bar’s tourist board dates to the 15th century and which commands the whole Crmnica plain. You reach it on a narrow spur off the Bar road over the Sutorman pass, and from the top you see all of Virpazar with the lake behind it.

Down by the water, the old bridge is 19th-century and carries a 20th-century plaque marking 13 July. It’s a small detail you’ll pass on the way to the boats.

Wine, fish and the Grape Festival

Crmnica is vine country. Bar’s tourist board speaks of more than 500 years of winemaking, and the National Tourism Organisation calls the district the cradle of Vranac. National Parks of Montenegro adds that some families in the lakeside villages open their cellars to visitors, and a good village to look for them is Godinje. As for food, lake cooking revolves around carp, smoked bleak and eel.

Every September Virpazar holds its Grape Festival, celebrating grapes, wine and winemakers with cultural events alongside. For anyone visiting in late summer, it’s the best reason to stay over.

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

Getting there and fitting it in

Virpazar is part of Bar municipality and has a station on the Bar to Podgorica railway. By car it makes a natural stop between the coast and the capital. My plan would be an early boat, a fish lunch in Virpazar and the afternoon in Godinje or up at the fortress.