Montenegro & Bosnia: two-week itinerary - summer 2023

Day 1

Drive from home and arrival in Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina

Drive from Poland to Mostar - our longest drive in this trip, around 15h including refreshment stops on the way. We made it!

After arrival in Mostar – an evening walk in the old town and dinner in one of the restaurants with a view of the river.

Mostar - view from the Old Bridge

Day 2

Mostar

A slow morning stroll in the old town, also through some smaller and less crowded streets and hidden corners. We watched people jump into the river, enjoyed some ice cream and souvenirs shopping (Lenka now brings a small figurine from every new place for her collection, while Laura is in a phase of literally wanting to buy every single thing she can see;)). 

Lenka and I visited the Koski Mehmed Pasha Mosque and climbed up the stairs to the top of the minaret, for some of the best views of the Mostar old bridge. The mosque has an entry fee, which is a bit unusual for a working mosque, but the views are worth the visit. 

We all then had some relax time by the pool on the rooftop of our hotel, while enjoying the views of the town and the surrounding mountains.

Mostar's Old Bridge - view from the minaret of Koski Mehmed Pasha Mosque

Day 3

Blagaj and arrival to Kotor, Montenegro

We left Mostar in the morning to drive to Kotor. Despite a relatively small distance, the drive took longer than expected due to the time spent in a queue at the Bosnian - Montenegrin border – two hours of waiting in a horrendous heat.

On our way to Kotor, we visited a village near Mostar called Blagaj. It is known as a home of a dervish monastery built in 16 century. You can visit the interior (ticket needed, head/arms/legs cover provided if needed), but what’s most astonishing about this place is the scenic location – the monastery seems to be hanging from the cliff above the water.

Blagaj - Dervish Monastery

After arrival to Kotor in the afternoon, checking in the apartment and essential shopping, we went for a quick swim in the sea. In Kotor we stayed in an Airbnb apartment away from the city centre, in a nice residential location called Dobrota. The apartment was located literally 50 steps from the sea, which helped us to organise a very relaxed itinerary, with half-day trips, and some beach time practically every day. Our apartment had lovely views of the Boka Bay from the balcony, and they appeared different each time you looked, depending on the time of the day and the weather! We stayed in this place for nine nights. 

Kotor, Dobrota - our beach spot

Day 4

Kotor

First full day in Kotor meant (of course) exploring the old town. Kotor's old town area gets really really busy in the summer time, especially the traffic around it, so every time we visited the old town during our stay, we left the car a bit further, near the beach, and walked for about 10 minutes.

The old town is really charming and has a similar look to some of the Croatian or Italian towns, with the grey stone buildings and pebbly streets. What we liked about Kotor old town specifically is that there are still a lot of local shops and artists selling their hand-made works and unique souvenirs, rather than identical 'made in China' stuff like you can buy in any other touristy places.

Kotor - Old town

Kotor is a town of cats, we even started to suspect that it has something to do with the Polish word for cat - ‘kot’ ;). Watching all the cats and kittens was undoubtedly the favourite thing about Kotor for our girls, animal lovers. One day we even found a square with little houses for cats, which was a hit with the girls too.

Typical view of Kot-or :)

Day 5

Perast and Our Lady of the Rocks

Perast is a lovely little town, many believe it’s the prettiest in the Boka Bay. It is also the best place to take a boat trip to a small island Our Lady of the Rocks. This man-made islet was created over the years by sinking old ships and piling rocks. It really is VERY tiny and only contains a church with a museum and a little shop. On the way to Our Lady of the Rocks you will pass by another islet – Saint George, with a monastery on it. Both islets look picturesque, but you can only visit Our Lady of the Rocks.

Our Lady of the Rocks island

Perast as seen from a boat

Tip: When going to Perast by car, try to park along the road, as lots of people do. Don’t go for a paid parking which says ‘parking for boat trips’ – they wanted to charge us 20 EUR for one ticket to Our Lady of the Rocks, while it costs 5 EUR if bought in town.

Day 6

Budva and Sveti Stefan

We headed to Budva quite early in the morning and enjoyed a quiet stroll in the old town. The old town is pretty much all that we enjoyed in Budva, which otherwise has a very touristy vibe, is very crowded and full of big hotels. Definitely not our cup of tea, and we were so glad that we chose Kotor over Budva for our stay.

Budva old town, photo by Lenka

There are, however, some lovely beaches around Budva. We accidentally found one when we were looking for the best view of Sveti Stefan. Sveti Stefan is a small island near Budva, connected to the land. It used to be a fishermen village, but now (unfortunately) is a privately owned resort, so you can only visit it as a guest of their hotel or restaurant. It still looks scenic from the shore.

Our hidden and accidentally found beach seemed to be part of an old abandoned camping site. There were literally five people there. We weren’t prepared for a beach time, but given the heat, we decided to jump into the water in our underwear, or – like me – were thrown in our clothes. Probably one of the most fun & laugh moments of our whole trip that we will talk about for a long time. And this is the view of Sveti Stefan that we got from there:

Sveti Stefan

Day 7

Tivat and Prevlaka island

This trip felt like a clash of two different worlds.

The first of them was Tivat and its very posh marina Porto Montenegro, full of yachts and luxury boutiques. The vibe reminded us a bit of Marbella in Spain, although the place is much smaller.

Tivat, Porto Montenegro

The second world was Prevlaka island, also known as the Island of Flowers. It is peaceful and quiet, has a beautiful scenery and quite run down infrastructure. Through the online search we’ve learned that in the times of Yugoslavia it was a tourist resort for military personnel, closed for the general public. I guess many abandoned buildings that you can still see there date back to this period. The island is a home to a small monastery (and ruins of an old one). We were welcomed there by a nun who worked in the monastery shop and gave hand-made bracelets to our girls as a gift, even before we decided to buy anything else.

Monastery on Prevlaka island

Two radically different lifestyles - that's what we really saw on this trip. It was interesting to see our girls discussing who may be more happy – a rich yacht owner or the nun who gave them bracelets ;).

Days 8-9-10

Kotor and Risan

These were some rainy and stormy days. When it stopped raining, usually in the afternoon or evening, we enjoyed some strolling around Kotor old town or our coastal area, or some beach time. 

The view from our balcony after a thunderstorm

The same view on a sunny day

We also took a short trip to Risan, another town in the Kotor Bay, which felt less touristy and slightly underdeveloped as compared to the other towns that we visited. Even the restaurants had noticeably more reasonable prices.
For those interested in archaeology, there is a small museum in Risan with remains of ancient Roman mosaics, the main attraction in town. We also wanted to visit Banja monastery near Risan, but unfortunately it was closed on Sunday.

Risan

Day 11

Our last day in Kotor – beach time, relax and packing.

Sunsets in Kotor

Days 12-13-14

Skadar Lake – Virpazar

Our next destination was Skadar Lake, and a town called Virpazar. We stayed at Eco Resort & Wine Cermeniza, had the loveliest time there and would recommend it to anyone. The beautiful location and atmosphere of this place, the outdoor space and swimming pool made us (unexpectedly) just want to hang out there and not do much. It is a small family -run business and the young couple who owns it goes above and beyond in their hospitality. The family produces a few types of wine, which you can learn about during a wine tasting they organise, which we loved too. Our kids enjoyed playing outside with other kids for those few days, and we had time to just sit by the pool, read a book, or enjoy interesting chats with other guests who came here from various parts of the world.

Eco Resort & Wine Cermeniza

Virpazar town itself is not much interesting, it also lacks infrastructure, including car parkings, to receive the huge number of tourists which come here every day. It’s absolutely packed and hard to move around, at least in the high season when we were there.

It is however a place from which you can take a boat tour to Skadar Lake. You will find lots of tour providers in town, and can choose a group or a private tour as per your taste. We went on a group tour with a company Kingfisher (recommended by our host), and chose the shortest 2h trip, as we knew our kids won’t be able to do a longer one, but you can choose trips as long as 6h. If at Skadar Lake, you should definitely explore it from a boat.

Skadar Lake

Day 15

Ostrog Monastery and drive to Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina

We left Cermeniza early in the morning, to go to Ostrog Monastery, on our way to Bosnia. The monastery is located high in the mountains and stunningly built into a rock. It is a working religious site for Orthodox church and an important pilgrimage destination, so not only many tourists, but also pilgrims come here every day. You will see many pilgrims climbing up barefoot, or staying overnight to sleep on the monastery grounds. It really is a unique place and feels like a must-see when in Montenegro.

Ostrog Monastery

On our way to Sarajevo we drove through the most scenic road of our whole trip, in the canyon of the Tara river. We then had an interesting experience at the border, which goes through an old wodden bridge where only one car can cross at a time. Once on the Bosnian side, you drive on a dirt road for quite a while before you reach a proper road, we were even stopped by a flock of sheep crossing by :).

We arrived in Sarajevo in the afternoon, so only had a short time to visit the old town, have dinner and some Bosnian style coffee. Despite the short time, we did notice how Sarajevo has developed since the last time we visited it twelve years ago. But it still has this vibe and charm that we liked back then.

Sarajevo

Day 16

Drive from Sarajevo to Poland, arrival home

What a great trip it was! Slow-paced, with a good balance between active holidays/sightseeing and beach/relax time, which worked well for us. Could we see more of Montenegro in this timeframe? Yes, we could, and especially thought about the Lovcen National Park or Durmitor mountains, but the heat and the age of our youngest, who is not able to hike for a long time, made us decide not to. In different circumstances, I would exchange a few of our nine days in Kotor for a few days in one of those national parks. But it's good to have something left for the future!