Montenegro
Bay of Kotor & Durmitor National Park
Montenegro
Montenegro
April 15th to 19th, 2025
We entered Montenegro (my 118th country) by car from Dubrovnik, which is only a one hour drive from the border. Since Montenegro is not part of the EU, there still is a serious border with passport and visa checks between Croatia and Montenegro. We were told that during the main tourist summer season, wait times at his border crossing can be many hours. In April there weren't that many tourists yet, and we waited less than 30 minutes. Our first destination was the famous Bay of Kotor.
The Bay of Kotor is a stunning natural wonder on the Adriatic coast. It is often described as Europe's southern most fjord, but it isn't actually a fjord (as fjords are defined as ocean bays carved by glaciers). Geologically the bay is a ria (which is a submerged river canyon), that winds its way for almost 30 kilometers through steep mountains. It boasts incredible shorelines dotted with picturesque medieval towns and villages. The Bay of Kotor has been inhabited since prehistoric times, it was part of the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire, and later fell under the control of the Ottomans and the Venetians. We stayed in the beautiful baroque town of Perast, which is nestled along a narrow strip of land between the bay and the steep mountains behind it.
There are two small islands just in front of Perast, one of them natural and one artificial.
The next morning we drove to the end of the bay to the city of Kotor, which gives the bay its name. There was a lot of traffic and parking was quite a challenge, but we managed to find a parking lot just in time to make it to the start of our boat trip. We had a speed boat trip booked, which took us through the whole of the bay towards the Adriatic.
Normally the boat trip would take you out onto the sea and includes a visit of Mamula island, which contains a 19th century fort, that has recently been converted into a luxury resort. However this day the wind and waves were a little too powerful for the captain to risk leaving the bay, so we could only see the island from a distance.
Our first stop on the way back was a rather unusual site, namely a former hidden submarine dock. Montenegro was part of Yugoslavia before the 1990s (and then in a union with Serbia until 2006). The Yugoslav navy owned a number of submarines, which were refueled and maintained in these small tunnels along the side of the bay. The tunnel entrances used to be covered in greenery and remained completely hidden.
We also stopped and got off the boat at one of the two islands in front of Perast. The small man-made island of 'Our Lady of the Rocks' is a unique landmark in the Bay of Kotor. According to legend the townspeople had a centuries-long tradition of dropping rocks into the sea whenever they returned safely from a voyage. Over time, this practice, combined with the sinking of old ships filled with stones, gradually created an island. At the heart of the island stands the Church of Our Lady of the Rocks, first built in the late 15th century and later expanded in baroque style by the Venetians in the 17th century. We got off the boat here to visit the richly decorated church.
Back in Kotor we spent some time walking around the medieval town center with its beautiful cathedral. Saint Tryphon cathedral was constructed in the 12th century, but extensively rebuilt after a devastating earthquake in 1667. As a result it boasts a mixture of Romanesque, Gothic, and Baroque styles, which reflect the Byzantine and Venetian history of the city.
There is a steep climb up to Kotor Fortress which overlooks the town. The climb goes up almost 300 meters and involves a lot of stairs, but it is absolutely worth it for the beautiful views across the bay and the walled city below.
The city of Kotor together with the bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. During medieval times Kotor was an independent city-state, that flourished from trade and shipbuilding. Most of the buildings and fortifications were constructed during the 15th to 17th centuries, when the city was under Venetian rule.
After two nights in Perast we headed north to Durmitor National Park, but on the way we first stopped at a really beautiful and interesting monastery.
Ostrog Monastery is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the Balkans. It is perched dramatically on a vertical rock face high above a wide valley. The monastery was founded in the 17th century by Saint Basil of Ostrog. The Upper Monastery is embedded into the cliff and contains a cave churches which houses the relics of Saint Basil. There is a Lower Monastery, which lies further down the mountain and a very steep and narrow road connects the two. Normally you have great views over the valley from up here, but it was very rainy and cloudy when we were there and we didn't get much of a view.
From the monastery it was another hour drive to our lovely hotel, the Hotel Zoa, in the town of Žabljak, which is the main gateway to Durmitor National Park. Žabljak, sits at 1,450 meters above sea level, and it was significantly cooler up here than near the coast.
We booked a guided sightseeing tour for the next day through the hotel. They highly recommended that we do not drive ourselves into the park, since many roads would still have snow on them, and it would be difficult to get through without a four by four. Our guide, Dimitri, picked us up in a Jeep in the morning. We stopped at several spots just outside of town for these great views over the Black Lake and Bobotov Kuk, the highest peak in the park with 2,523 meters, in the background.
Located in the high mountains in northwestern Montenegro, Durmitor National Park is the country’s largest national park. It was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980, thanks to its dramatic alpine landscapes, glacial lakes, deep canyons, and rich biodiversity. The park is a popular destination for hiking, mountain biking, and climbing in summer and has several large skiing areas in winter.
One of the most dramatic features of the park is the Tara River Canyon, which is Europe’s deepest canyon (reaching depths of over 1,300 meters) and often called the “Grand Canyon of Europe.” This is a view of the turquoise waters of the Tara river from the canyon rim.
After driving down a very steep and winding dirt road into another canyon (I was very glad we didn't decide to drive this ourselves), we stopped for a little rest and picnic at the bottom of Susica Canyon by the shores of Susica Lake. Dimitri had brought pear cake baked by his mother for us.
After driving up to the top of the canyon we had some great views of the lake from above
After Dimitri dropped us back off at the hotel in the early afternoon, we did a hike around Black Lake, which was only a few kilometers behind our hotel.
We left Zabljak the next morning for our drive to Mostar, but we had a few more things to see in Montenegro first. The Đurđevića Tara Bridge, a famous arch bridge spanning the Tara River Canyon, was built between 1937 and 1940 during the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The bridge is particularly popular among Chinese tourists, because of a famous Yugoslav movie called 'The Bridge', which was based on a true story from WWII.
Ostrog Monastery is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the Balkans. It is perched dramatically on a vertical rock face high above a wide valley. The monastery was founded in the 17th century by Saint Basil of Ostrog. The Upper Monastery is embedded into the cliff and contains a cave churches which houses the relics of Saint Basil. There is a Lower Monastery, which lies further down the mountain and a very steep and narrow road connects the two. Normally you have great views over the valley from up here, but it was very rainy and cloudy when we were there and we didn't get much of a view.
From the monastery it was another hour drive to our lovely hotel, the Hotel Zoa, in the town of Žabljak, which is the main gateway to Durmitor National Park. Žabljak, sits at 1,450 meters above sea level, and it was significantly cooler up here than near the coast.
We booked a guided sightseeing tour for the next day through the hotel. They highly recommended that we do not drive ourselves into the park, since many roads would still have snow on them, and it would be difficult to get through without a four by four. Our guide, Dimitri, picked us up in a Jeep in the morning. We stopped at several spots just outside of town for these great views over the Black Lake and Bobotov Kuk, the highest peak in the park with 2,523 meters, in the background.
Located in the high mountains in northwestern Montenegro, Durmitor National Park is the country’s largest national park. It was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980, thanks to its dramatic alpine landscapes, glacial lakes, deep canyons, and rich biodiversity. The park is a popular destination for hiking, mountain biking, and climbing in summer and has several large skiing areas in winter.
One of the most dramatic features of the park is the Tara River Canyon, which is Europe’s deepest canyon (reaching depths of over 1,300 meters) and often called the “Grand Canyon of Europe.” This is a view of the turquoise waters of the Tara river from the canyon rim.
After driving down a very steep and winding dirt road into another canyon (I was very glad we didn't decide to drive this ourselves), we stopped for a little rest and picnic at the bottom of Susica Canyon by the shores of Susica Lake. Dimitri had brought pear cake baked by his mother for us.
After driving up to the top of the canyon we had some great views of the lake from above
After Dimitri dropped us back off at the hotel in the early afternoon, we did a hike around Black Lake, which was only a few kilometers behind our hotel.
We left Zabljak the next morning for our drive to Mostar, but we had a few more things to see in Montenegro first. The Đurđevića Tara Bridge, a famous arch bridge spanning the Tara River Canyon, was built between 1937 and 1940 during the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The bridge is particularly popular among Chinese tourists, because of a famous Yugoslav movie called 'The Bridge', which was based on a true story from WWII.
We walked across the bridge for these amazing views of the turquoise waters of the Tara River deep beneath us.
After leaving the bridge I was able to add another, somewhat obscure site to my UNESCO World Heritage collection. Listed in 2016 the Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards are a multi-country site that covers 28 different locations across the Balkans. These cemeteries, stemming from the 12th to 16th centuries, feature richly carved tombstones usually laid out in rows. The two sites here near Žabljak are not easy to find, since there is no visitor center or even a car park. Only a small sign by the side of the road tells you where to stop, walk out into an open field and find the tombstones strewn over the open grassland.
There are two separate sites, where you can stop and walk through the massive carved stones, most of them lying on their sides or buried in the grass. But you can still see a lot of the ancient carvings on them.
From here we drove south towards the border crossing into Bosnia and Herzegovina. We initially had planned to cross the border in Durmitor National Park and spend a night in Sarajevo, but in April there is still a lot of snow on the higher roads in the park, so we decided to head south and cross the border near Bileća. This meant that we had to skip Sarajevo, and instead spent two nights in Mostar.
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