The Bay of Kotor: A Gentle Guide to Montenegro's Inland Sea

There are places that photograph well and places that quiet you down. The Bay of Kotor does both. Grey limestone mountains rise almost vertically from water so sheltered it often lies flat as a mirror, and along the shore sit stone villages with red roofs, bell towers and palm trees, strung out like beads on a thread.

People call it Europe's southernmost fjord, which is a lovely phrase and not quite true: the bay is a drowned river canyon, carved by water rather than ice. The effect, though, is the same. You sail or drive between walls of rock, the bay narrows, opens, narrows again, and every bend gives you a new picture.

Best of all for travelers who would rather not spend the day climbing, almost all of the beauty here is at sea level. The views come to you — from a café table on the quay, from the deck of a small boat, from a car window on a mountain road. You can see the Bay of Kotor at its most beautiful without ever being out of breath.

A little history

The bay has always been worth defending. Its inner basins are reached through the Verige strait, a gap so narrow that chains were once said to be stretched across it to stop enemy ships from slipping through to Perast and Kotor.

Venice held Kotor for close to four centuries, from the early 1400s until the Republic fell in the late 1790s, and the town still looks and feels Venetian: a winged lion over the sea gate, shuttered palaces, worn marble squares. Afterwards came Austro-Hungarian rule, which left the region its engineering — most spectacularly the hairpin road climbing out of Kotor toward the mountains.

Perast, the little town halfway along the bay, grew rich on seafaring under Venice and spent the money on baroque palaces and churches, which is why a village of a few hundred people has the skyline of a small city. The whole area was recognised by UNESCO in 1979, the same year a severe earthquake struck this coast; much of what you admire today is the result of patient, decades-long restoration.

Perast, on the shore of the Bay of Kotor.

What to see

Kotor old town

A triangle of stone wedged between the mountain and the water, entirely car-free and genuinely small — perhaps ten minutes from one gate to the other if you don't stop, which you will. The pleasure is in the squares: the cathedral of St Tryphon with its two mismatched towers, cats asleep on warm steps, washing strung above the lanes. It is flat, which makes it unusually kind for an old town of this age.

Perast

Our favourite place in the bay, about 12 km from Kotor, 20–25 minutes by road. There is essentially one long waterfront street with no traffic, lined with palaces and cafés, and the view straight out to two islands. Sit, order something cold, and let the bay do the work.

Our Lady of the Rocks

The islet with the domed church is man-made, built up over centuries by the seafarers of Perast, who dropped stones around a reef — a tradition still re-enacted by a procession of boats each summer. Small boats cross from the Perast quay in about five minutes, all day, with no need to book ahead. Inside there is a church hung with silver votive plaques and a small museum.

Sveti Đorđe

The other, natural island, dark with cypresses around a Benedictine abbey and cemetery. It is not open to visitors, which somehow adds to it — you photograph it from the water, as everyone has for three hundred years.

The Verige strait

The narrows between Kamenari and Lepetane, where the bay pinches to a few hundred metres and the mountains lean in. You cross it on the car ferry, or look down on it from the coast road, and it is the single most dramatic piece of landscape in Boka.

The church of Our Lady of the Rocks on its islet off Perast.

The best viewpoints, and the gentlest ways to reach them

The cable car to Mount Kuk

The easiest big view in Montenegro. The Kotor cable car climbs from the Dub valley, a short drive from town, to Mount Kuk at around 1,350 m on the edge of Lovćen National Park, in roughly eleven minutes. You step out into cool mountain air with the whole bay laid out below like a map. It runs seasonally — broadly spring to autumn — so check it is operating before you build a day around it.

The serpentine road to the Krstac pass

The old Austro-Hungarian road out of Kotor folds back on itself up the mountainside in some twenty-five numbered hairpins, with laybys where you can stop and look back down at the bay. It is narrow and exposed, and we would not send a nervous driver up it: take a taxi or a small guided tour and enjoy the window seat.

The waterfront at Dobrota

A flat, paved promenade runs north from Kotor along the shore through Dobrota for a good 45 minutes if you walk the whole thing, and you don't have to. Go as far as feels right, with the mountains opposite the whole way, then turn back. This is our pick for a late-afternoon stroll.

Perast's short flights of steps

Behind the waterfront, a few stepped lanes climb the hillside. Even twenty or thirty steps lift you above the roofs and give you the classic picture of the two islands. Handrails are not guaranteed, so take it slowly and only as far as you like.

The bay by boat

If you do only one thing, do this. Small open or covered boats make short circuits from Kotor and from Perast, typically an hour to two hours, calling at Our Lady of the Rocks and nosing past the shoreline villages. The water inside the bay is usually glassy, boarding is from a quay rather than a tender, and you sit still while the best scenery in Montenegro slides past.

Perast and the island of Sveti Đorđe seen from a boat on the bay.

A day trip nearby

Lovćen National Park, directly above the bay, is the natural pairing with a day on the water: beech forest, bare limestone and air that feels ten degrees fresher. You can reach it by cable car or by road, and most organised trips add a stop at the village of Njeguši, famous for its smoked ham and cheese, where tasting is the point of the visit. The mausoleum of the poet-prince Njegoš, on a mountaintop in the park, is a memorable sight but is reached by a long tunnel stairway — admire it from below if stairs are not for you.

For something gentler, Budva is around 20–25 km from Kotor, roughly 30–40 minutes by road: a walled old town on a small peninsula, flat inside, with beaches and a busy seafront. And Dubrovnik in Croatia is about 90–95 km away, two hours or more depending on the border crossing, which makes for a long but very doable day with a driver.

Honest advice for comfortable travel

• The famous fortress climb is not gentle. The walls above Kotor rise by well over a thousand uneven, often sun-baked steps with low railings. It is a serious climb, and the cable car or the serpentine road give you a bigger view for none of the effort. There is no shame whatsoever in skipping it.
• Stay in Kotor or Dobrota, close to the water. Accommodation in the old town means no car and short flat walks, though it can be noisy; the Dobrota shore just north is quiet, level and a short taxi ride from everything.
• Expect polished, slippery stone. Centuries of footsteps have buffed the lanes of Kotor and Perast smooth. Shoes with real grip matter more here than anywhere, especially after rain.
• Perast has no through traffic, which is wonderful for walking but means a short walk from the car parks above the village down to the waterfront, and back up again. Ask a taxi to drop you on the quay if you can.
• Avoid the midday heat in July and August. Mountains ring the bay and hold the warmth; afternoons can be heavy and still. Plan boats and walks for mornings and the hours after five.
• Check the cruise ship schedule. On days when two or three ships berth beside the old town, Kotor's lanes fill up. Those are perfect days to be in Perast or out on the water instead.
• Use the Kamenari–Lepetane ferry. It crosses the narrows in about five minutes and saves a long drive around the inner bay — a genuine kindness on a touring day.
• Boats and cable cars are seasonal. Outside roughly May to October, services thin out and some stop altogether. Confirm locally the day before rather than relying on summer information.
• Carry some cash. Montenegro uses the euro, but small boatmen, village cafés and market stalls often prefer notes and coins.

The bay from the top of a flight of steps in Perast.

What to eat

Two kitchens meet here, and both are generous. From the water comes buzara, the bay's signature dish: mussels or prawns cooked quickly with white wine, garlic, olive oil, parsley and sometimes tomato, served in a broth that demands bread. Alongside it you'll find grilled fish sold by weight, black risotto darkened with cuttlefish ink, and oysters and mussels farmed in the inner bay itself, which arrive at the table having travelled almost no distance at all.

From the mountains just above come njeguški pršut, ham air-dried in the cold highland wind and gently smoked over beechwood, and the hard, salty cheese that is always served with it. A plate of the two with olives and bread is the most Montenegrin lunch there is.

To drink, look for the local reds made from the Vranac grape and crisp whites from Krstač, and expect to be offered a small glass of home-made rakija at the end of a good meal. Portions tend to be large and service unhurried; if you want a light evening, say so when you order rather than when the food arrives.

Getting there

Our verdict

The Bay of Kotor is one of the most rewarding destinations in Europe for travelers who want great landscape without great effort. The scenery is enormous and the distances are tiny: a boat ride of an hour, a drive of twenty minutes, a flat walk along a quay, and you have seen the best of it.

Be honest with yourself about the one famous climb and let it go — the cable car and the mountain road hand you a wider view for the price of a ticket. Base yourself on the water, keep the middle of the day for shade and a long lunch, and let the bay set the pace.

What stays with you afterwards is not any single monument. It is the stillness: mountains upside down in the water, a church on a made island, and the sound of a small boat crossing an inland sea.

A view across the Bay of Kotor from Perast.

“Here the mountains lean down to drink, and the sea lies still enough to hold them.”

Photo credits

• Bay of Kotor from Lepetani's road: Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Perast, Bahía de Kotor, Montenegro, 2014-04-19, DD 02: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Nuestra Señora de las Rocas, Perast, Bahía de Kotor, Montenegro, 2014-04-19, DD 42: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Sveti Đorđe and Perast from boat: Gertjan R., CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Bay of Kotor from Perast: Gertjan R., CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Vista de la Bahía de Kotor desde Perast, Montenegro, 2014-04-19, DD 15: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons