Žanjic, the pebble cove Tito wanted to himself

If I could only keep one cove on the Luštica peninsula, it would be this one. Žanjic, also spelt Žanjice on maps, sits on the western tip of the peninsula, over the line into Herceg Novi municipality, with olive trees behind and the island fortress of Mamula in front. It’s pebble rather than sand, which for me is half the appeal, because it keeps the water gin-clear.

The beach Tito kept for himself

The National Tourism Organisation says the Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito adored this beach and turned it into his private one. These days anyone can swim here and hire a sunbed, and the tourist board puts it on both its list of romantic beaches and its list of Herceg Novi family beaches.

The leaflet for the Luštica scenic route, produced jointly by the Tivat and Herceg Novi tourist boards, fills in the backstory. Žanjic was once a hamlet of nine houses with a church of St John built in 1885, and today, together with neighbouring Mirište, it’s the hub for day trips in this part of the bay. What the leaflet picks out is what I’d pick out too, the old olive groves, the blue sea and the view across to Mamula.

Go by boat, not by car

You can drive across Luštica, but I’d arrive by sea. According to the National Tourism Organisation, excursion boats leave Herceg Novi roughly every 10 minutes between 9:00 and 13:00, and you come back from the beach between 17:00 and 20:00. The Luštica leaflet adds that they sail from Škver harbour and that the run to Žanjic, Mirište and the Blue Cave only operates in summer. None of the official sites I checked gives a fare, so ask on the quay before you board.

The boat wins twice over. You avoid a narrow, hilly road that the leaflet itself tells you to take slowly, and you can combine the beach with the Blue Cave, which is very close.

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What else is nearby

Besides Mirište next door, the leaflet mentions Dobreč bay, usually reached by boat, and the fishing village of Rose, with its little harbour sheltered from the wind on the bay side of the peninsula. If you’ve come by car and have an evening spare, Rose is where I’d stop. Its old fort, Forte Rose, once served as harbour master’s office, customs post and quarantine station, and is now a small resort with a restaurant overlooking the bay.

When to go

With boats landing every ten minutes all morning, the cove fills up fast in summer. If you want space, catch one of the first boats or stay for the last one back, when the beach empties. Outside summer there are no regular boats and you’ll need the car. And if fine sand is more your thing than pebbles, Plavi horizonti on the Tivat side of the peninsula offers a different kind of beach day.

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