The last few days have seen me wandering along the Montenegrin coast. I decided to take a few days out of the stay I had scheduled in Dubrovnik to slip over the border and check it out.¹ I haven’t gotten out to do much besides poke around some Old Towns and luxuriate in some seriously frustrating intermittent WiFi.

The Croatian and Montenegrin coasts have been gradually converted to beach resorts for tourism, and beaches just really aren’t my scene. And it seems like the beach scene everywhere is the same — cheap restaurants lining the foot of the beach, often connected to a hotel. Umbrellas and beach chairs down to the water, rentable by the hour or day. Some sections blocked off for private resorts. Inflatable toys clogging the shoreline.

I’m sure that’s a scene for somebody² — these places are almost always jammed — but I don’t like crowds, or heat, or bright sunlight.³ I probably would enjoy staying at one of the luxe resorts; I do appreciate fancy cocktails with tiny umbrellas in them, and big fluffy towels, and swimming pools. But that’s another problem. Those places are great for a place to crash for a week. But they’re far more expensive than I’ve budgeted for, in general. It’s relatively easy to swing someplace fancy for a night or two, but longer starts to hurt. It’s one of the shortcomings of traveling alone. I never split the cost with anybody.

A good example of this is Sveti Stefan, just a short drive south of Budva. It’s an island village that was converted in the 1950s into an international 5-star resort, which catered to the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and Orson Welles. It was refurbished in the 2000s. I sort-of snuck onto the place — the restaurant is apparently open to the public, but I didn’t risk it by asking anyone first — and wandered around the grounds for a bit before having dinner. It was gorgeous; all the charming, haphazard paths and stairs you’d expect from something inhabited since before the 1400s, with trees and open spaces and soft glowing lights illuminating the walkways. After a lovely dinner⁴ I returned back to my hotel room and out of curiosity checked the rack rate. 1,300€/night for a two person room, on the low end. Even if I had the scratch to be able to stay there for a week, I can think of much better ways to spend that kind of money.

So I visited Budva and Kotor, and mostly hit the Old Town in each. Kotor’s is known for the fortifications that extend far up into the cliffs above the city. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, having been constructed initially by the Illyrians and subsequently expanded by Byzantines, Austrians, and most extensively Venetians, who controlled the area for about 350 years.⁵

I do truly love wandering around the Old Town of these places, although there does get to be a sameness about them, with the souvenir shops, and restaurants all with the same menu.⁶ Even so, there’s still some magic to be had, wandering around at dusk with street musicians playing, people dining in outdoor cafés, and the light gradually sliding down 700-year-old buildings.

If I were to come back,⁷ I’d probably put more of an effort into doing some of the more touristy stuff, like rent a boat to tour some of the islands, or do some swimming in some of the caves around the coast. But you can always do more. Honestly? Kotor’s known for their hundreds of stray cats, so you can sit outside, drink some wine, and watch them sneak up on each other or lurk from overhangs or wander through the cafés looking for a chair to curl up on. Given the choice, I’m going to always opt for the cats and the wine.

Next: Dubrovnik (DBZ) to Zagreb (ZAG)
Prev: Dubrovnik to Budva

Footnotes

¹ It was listed in the 1,000 Places to See Before You Die book, plus it’s a country I haven’t visited before, plus the cost of hotels here aren’t any more expensive than in Dubrovnik … so why not?

² The author of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, for example, who sure listed a lot of them

³ I get sun poisoning in no time flat and skin cancer runs on both sides of my family. I’ve basically evolutionarily adapted to live in libraries.

⁴ The food was very good, and prices were about in line with New York City — which is to say, expensive for Montenegro, but not really horrifically so.

⁵ With a few breaks for Ottoman control

⁶ Seriously, they’re all steaks and seafood and pastas and pizza, and you’re lucky if three of the dozen or so pizzas are vegetarian. It’s a seriously meat-heavy culture. I can’t recall seeing beef in nearly as many pasta dishes as I have here.

You’d think there’d be some effort to compete on variety, offering more authentic Montenegrin cuisine or fancier Italian food or even some Turkish or Spanish or French restaurants. Apparently it’s not what the tourists want. The low point for this was when I was in Sarajevo, and passed by a restaurant which was advertising authentic Bosnian food in favor of a Mexican restaurant on the map, only to discover the “Mexican” restaurant had the exact same printed menu as the place I passed by, right down to the pictures of the dishes. The only thing Mexican about it was the decor and the cocktail list.

⁷ Always visit someplace like you know you’ll be coming back