We’ve been in Kotor, Montenegro for nearly a week and have really enjoyed our time here. The old town oozes character. The shoreline is beautiful and is easy to walk from our apartment. And we’ve found a great local restaurant that seems to be half the cost of every other one in our area.
But the weather has been terrible!
Take a look at what we’ve been up to for the last week, as well as our attempts to make lemonade out of lemons.
Kotoris a charming coastal town in Montenegro, situated in the Boka Kotorska Bay, a fjord-like inlet of the Adriatic Sea.
The town has a history dating back to the 5th century BC, with a well-preserved medieval old town and a stunning natural setting. Kotor’s old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognized for its cultural and natural significance. Its architecture is a blend of Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance styles, with narrow cobblestone streets, picturesque squares, and ornate churches.
In other words, if you want to visit a quaint, medieval town on the ocean, but want to avoid the tourist densities seen in nearby Croatia, Kotor is a great place to visit!
Yes, there will still be crowds during the high season, or when docked cruise ships unload their passengers. But overall, tourism is far less oppressive in Kotor once the high season is over.
So for us, September/October was the perfect time to visit.
The Recent Weather Situation
Although the weather was perfect for the first three days we were in Kotor, the last four have been hit with heavy rain.
For the first two days of the rainy period, rain was continuous, marked by thunderstorms and near flooding conditions. For the last two days, rain was heavy, but only lasted until around 2 pm. After 2 pm, the skies cleared up and allowed us to get out of the apartment.
So sadly, we haven’t accomplished everything we might have if the weather had been more accommodating.
But that is one of the big risks when you fast travel.
You just don’t have enough time to absorb multiple bad weather days or illnesses, without sacrificing something during your visit.
Needless to say, we are looking forward to slowing down our travels again at the end of October.
How We Got To Kotor (Montenegro) From Mostar (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
We took the bus!
Using the busticket4me platform, we purchased one-way 9:30 am tickets from Mostar Bus Station East to Kotor Main Bus Station in Montenegro.
Each ticket cost us $27.94 USD, with stowed luggage costing an additional 3 BAM ($1.68 USD/€1.5) per bag.
When we left on September 30, it was a beautiful day, perfect for travel.
Here is the route we took:
The border crossings from Bosnia & Herzegovina to Montenegro took no longer than 15 minutes or so on each side, and the ride took about 6 hours total, including two lengthy pit stops.
Our bus at the Montenegro entrance checkpoint.
Our Airbnb in Kotor
We arrived in Kotor at 4 pm and immediately made the 30-minute walk along the waterfront to our Airbnb in the southern Dobrota district.
We knew immediately that we were going to like this place! The waterfront is just so picturesque.
This waterfront view never gets old.
The waterfront at night is pretty too.
Our Airbnb is pretty basic, but fine for a 1-week stay. It is a large studio apartment, with king sized bed, clothes storage, dining table for 2, a comfy chair, AC/heater, TV, and internet. The kitchen has a 2 burner range, a small refrigerator, and lots of pots, pans, and utensils for us to make simple meals.
And the bathroom has everything you might expect. But it actually has a larger shower than the last 3 Airbnbs we have stayed in.
Sadly, our Airbnb is expensive by our standards, at $48.72 per night (including the weekly discount and fees) for 7 nights. But for Kotor, the price was excellent, especially when considering its location!
As a side bonus, our host family is pretty awesome. They grow grapes, limes, and pomegranates on premises, and welcomed us to partake. And on our first full day in Kotor, Grandpa got his homemade distillery going to make the family supply of grappa for the year!
He was proud to show us his system and gave us samples.
Grappa is part digestive, part lighter fluid, and part industrial cleaner. You can see the still in the background!
At 55% alcohol, the stuff kicked like a mule!
Fun In The Sun
There’s no two ways around it, Kotor is gorgeous. The ocean/mountain views are simply striking and we’ve experienced nothing like it before.
On our first full day in Kotor, we were encouraged to take a Bay boat tour since the weather was perfect and there was rain forecasted for later in the week.
The standard 3-hour €40 boat tour that all the tour operators offer takes you to Mamula Island, the Submarine Tunnels, Blue Cave, Our Lady of the Rocks island, and Perast town – before returning to Kotor harbor.
We shopped around on the waterfront and found a boat tour operator close to our place who offered us the same €40 tour as everyone else in Kotor, for €30 each!
Score.
We had a great time and enjoyed talking with traveling couples from Australia and Great Britain.
Heading to our first destination.
Looking a little wind-swept!
One of three WWII submarine tunnels.
View from the inside.
Mamula Island, a former Yugoslav prison.
Approaching the entrance to the Blue Cave network.
Once inside, you can see where it gets its name!
Heading out a different entrance.
Approaching Our Lady of the Rocks.
View from the front entrance of the church. The island also served as a lighthouse of sorts.
View from the opposite side.
View through the church archways.
On our next day of perfect weather, we made a hike to the top of Kotor Fortress by way of a trail-blazed park route from the edge of town.
This route has a major perk in that it is free to enter the fortress this way! Otherwise, you have to pay the €8 fee to enter/leave the fortress complex using the entrance in the historic old town.
Of course, we chose the free route.
The hike was really pretty, better than the paid route in our opinion!
Looking back down the serpentine path we followed.
The trail continues here! Note the red/white blaze. Just climb through the window to get into Kotor Fortress!
The fortress is largely in a state of ruin, with structures becoming more precarious the higher you go. Of course, we went all the way to the top!
The Church of Our Lady of Remedy inside the fortress complex.
As we climbed the stairs upward, we could get a better view of the ruined structures we passed by.
View from the upper battlements.
Fortress overlook selfie!
Murderhole view.
From the Old Town looking up, you can get a better perspective of the size of the Kotor Fortress complex. The fortress stairs are killer, much worse than the trail we took!
In addition to the fortress, we explored an old, abandoned chapel and the remains of a community that once resided on the mountainside next to the fortress. And these things were only viewable up close from the hiking trail we took.
View of the abandoned chapel and settlement area.
The interior of the chapel.
We even made a stop at a small “cafe” building and had a long chat with the owner about global politics. He was a huge fan of the USA and Western European democracies, as, in his opinion, the Montenegran government is completely broken.
One of the two “cafes” on the trail.
It was fun to get a Montenegran’s perspective on global politics!
And of course, we took a day to explore the fortified old town of Kotor! It was filled with shops, restaurants, and other curiosities, all laid out in a maze of narrow winding, cobblestone streets and alleys.
The northern entry gate.
One of the corner defensive towers.
I barely fit down some of these alleys!
So many streets to get lost in.
Behind a church, we stumbled across this small spring/chapel.
The main Old Town square.
The northern entrance gate, which once had a drawbridge.
On the last evening of good weather, we decided to have a date night at a waterfront restaurant (Konoba Portun) to enjoy ourselves.
Our table was on the water! We both got pumpkin soup as an appetizer. I got linguini with parmesan and truffles, while Rhonda got a tuna steak.
Date night!
The bill, including bottled water and tip, came to €67.70 ($74.76 USD). An expensive night out for us! But we both know that it was cheap compared to any dinner on the ocean we could have had in the USA.
And that night, the rain came…
Raining Cats & Dogs
Sadly, the majority of our time in Kotor has been spent hiding from the rain.
We walked to the Kotor aquarium near our place when there was a break in the weather, but sadly it didn’t last. We got soaked on our walk home!
We took this picture on the way to the aquarium, just before the next downpour started.
But on the rainy days when the afternoons cleared up, we did the only thing we really could – walk the waterfront and enjoy the views.
Not a terrible plan B.
We had hoped to take a couple of bus trips to nearby towns and national parks, but the rain was too constant and heavy to do those sorts of things without being miserable. And on those days when the rain cleared up at 3 pm, there wasn’t enough time left in the day to tour the area.
So those nights, we went out to eat at our favorite reasonably priced local restaurant: Eat At Joe’s (Jedite kod Džoa). The most expensive dish is only €11!
Rhonda got the standard pork cutlet while I got the Karadordeva šnicla, a beaten rolled pork cutlet stuffed with cheese, ham, and then fried. Total cost with tip, bread, and drinks = €24 ($26.36 USD).
That place punched WELL above its weight class on the bang-for-buck scale. And it had the benefit of being right across the street from our apartment.
Closing Thoughts On Our Week In Kotor
We absolutely loved Kotor. It was a great way to be introduced to the Balkan coastal scene!
The waterfront, the steep coastal mountains, the old town, the people, and the historical vibe all came together in a way we have never experienced.
Yes, it kind of stunk that we were being held hostage by the weather for more than half of our stay. But this sort of thing is bound to happen eventually when you fast-travel! You just have to roll with the punches.
And honestly, we can think of far worse places to be stuck when the weather goes south.
But now we are preparing to head out in the morning to our next Balkan fast-travel destination – Shkodër, Albania! Here’s hoping the weather improves.
Until next time…
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2 thoughts on “Our Wet Week in Kotor (Montenegro)”
Another beautiful place to be!!
We agree!