The 295 km long Adriatic coastline in Montenegro with cities such as Bar, Budva, Sveti Stefan and Ulcinj (already more oriental in character due to its location close to the Albanian border) is definitely very tempting for anyone looking for nice beaches and warm sea. We heard a lot about it and decided to check it out ourselves.
From the cold Durmior in the North through the capital of Montenegro – Podgorica – and Lake Skadar (Skadarsko Jezero), we arrived to the Adriatic coast. For our basecamp we chose Petrovac. BAD CHOICE! Why? First, let me start with why at all we decided to stay there. Our “brilliant” tour guide “The Rough Guide to Montenegro” listed it as family friendly beach town. Sorry, but we are really not fans of the Rough Guide series, we have few of them in our small house travel library and none of them impressed us. So, family friendly beach town? Well, NOT! The beach and promenade that was under construction aren’t really anyone friendly. The walk through the whole promenade takes you max. 20 minutes and you are surrounded by thousands of shops with tacky souvenirs. Moreover, the town itself has nothing really to offer.
However, it could be worse. So what can you see in Petrovac, if you are already there? Kastel Lastva, a 16th-century Venetian fortress at the northern end of the bay, looks beautiful and offers breathtaking Adriatic riffs and amazing sea views. But for all of this you need maximum half of a day. Petrovac is as well not the worst location for a basecamp: sleep-and-leave pattern worked for us. From here we made our half-day trips to Budva, Sveti Stefan, Cetinje, Buljarica, Rezevici Monastery, and Gradiste Monastery. Our evenings we spend either on the fortress or walking along the (bling bling) promenade.
Beaching in Pertovac
Treat it as a misspelling 😉 But let me make it more clear. All our trip though Balkans people smile to us and to our daughter, they touch her hands or feet, say “mala bebe” and this and that. We can’t feel more welcome. Then we get to Petrovac and …. What the hell has just happened? People don’t smile at all, they don’t answer ‘hello,’ even mothers with babies in the same age as Zosia pass by and don’t even exchange look. What is going on? And then …. EUREKA! We realized we are not in Balkans any more. We are on some kind of a Russian colony. Filled with people, who would rather go to Italy or Croatia but because of visas in EU, they can’t. So they walk pissed all the time, 7 am or 9pm all the time “beaching” about everything. I never thought I would say it, but this time I wished I didn’t know Russian coz listening to notorious “beaching” on the beach in Petrovac , was simply too much. That’s why for a beach day we picked other places.
Budva
Budva and Budva Riviera are the touristic center in Montenegro. The city itself has a lovely Venetian in style Old Town on a rocky peninsula. Cobbled streets, city walls, churches, Citadel, many cafes and a beautiful beach just outside city walls…. We can’t advertise it more. There is as well another beach to which you can get through a gate and a path passing a statue of a Dancer. The beach is really worth checking out. On the way to it there are many nice places to make photos of Budva’s Old Town.
Sveti Stefan
We’ve never seen more picturesque village than Sveti Stefan. The island with its small squeezed houses looks stunning from the top and don’t even try to pass by without making at least one picture (with the sun is better to do it in the morning). All Sveti Stefan is a hotel resort and you can only visit it if you pay and go with a tour or if you are a guest in the hotel. Otherwise it makes no sense even getting down, the best view is still from the top. There are as well two beaches before the entrance to the resort. One is free, the other only for hotel guests.
Beach somewhere there …
The location of this beach will stay a secret. It was the most beautiful location on the coast we found. As we got there only by chance, we are not even sure if it has a name. It was all what we were looking for during our trip: empty beach, quiet, the only thing you can hear were waves and voices of fishermen from far away. It was our dream beach and we hope we’ll manage to come back to it some time again. What it proves is that you can still find no touristic beaches in Montenegro. It is just enough to take a wrong turn and you can land in paradise…
1 thought on “Montenegro Beaches: Budva, Sveti Stefan, Petrovac”
bbabroad
(26th December 2016 - 6:01 pm)As for honest traveling stories, you delivered that. Thanks for your candor on this piece and all the pics. There are some good spots around the Petrovac area, but with “development” it is changing quickly.