Montenegro Was Pretty Cool: Hiking and Relaxing on the Beach

Just got back from Montenegro and I'm still thinking about it, so figured I'd write it down before it fades. I went mostly because a friend showed me photos of the Bay of Kotor and I couldn't believe mountains and sea looked like that stacked right on top of each other.

Kotor

I stayed near Kotor Old Town for the first few nights, which I'd recommend if you're doing this same kind of trip. Trailheads are close, and you can walk back into the walled town for dinner after a hike, which feels like a nice reward.

First full day, I did the Ladder of Kotor. It's an old stone path built by the Austrians back when they needed a fast way up from Kotor to Njeguši. It's steep from minute one, no warm-up section, just straight up with the walled city getting smaller below you. I didn't go all the way to Krstač Pass, stopped at the upper viewpoint, took a break, and headed back down.

A day later I did the hike up to Pestingrad Peak, which is more of a proper hike than a walk. Some scrambling near the top, exposed sections, nothing technical but you want decent shoes. The payoff is a view where you can see the whole Bay of Kotor at once, plus the Adriatic stretching out past it. Worth the effort.

I also did a shorter one out to Fort Vrmac, an old fortress on the ridge separating the inner and outer parts of the bay. Less strenuous, better for a half-day when you don't want to commit to something bigger.

Budva

After three days in Kotor I moved down the coast to Budva. I'm not a driver and I've heard horror stories of taxi drivers ripping people off here, so I decided to stick with public transportation. I was in luck, apparently it's completely feasible to get around in Montenegro without a car, at least if you're sticking to the coast like me.

Budva has a completely different feel. Much more beach town, less medieval-fortress-town. I did one more hike from there before switching fully into relax mode: a trail that locals call Yegor's Trail, starting near Pržno at an old monastery and running along the hills above the Budva Riviera. It's an easier walk than the Kotor stuff, and it's a good one to do solo since it's well marked and pretty low-stakes if you're tired from the days before.

The moment

Somewhere on that last hike, I stopped at a spot where the trail opened up above the treeline for a bit (no name on the map, just a bend in the path with a low stone wall someone had built at some point, probably to keep animals from wandering off the edge). I sat on the wall and just looked at the sea for a while. It was the kind of flat, calm blue you don't really get back home, and from up there I could see the coastline curving out toward Sveti Stefan in one direction and just open water in the other.

Nobody else came by the whole time I sat there. No wind that day either, so it was properly quiet, just the occasional bug and my own breathing from the climb. I wasn't thinking about anything specific. I remember eating a sandwich I'd packed and just watching a boat move across the water so slowly it barely looked like it was moving at all. Ten, fifteen minutes like that, then I got up and kept walking. That quiet ten minutes on the wall is honestly what I remember most clearly from the whole trip.

The beach

I spent two days mostly doing nothing. Swimming in the mornings before it got too hot, reading in the shade, eating more than I probably needed to. My legs needed it after the Kotor hikes, and it's a good rhythm if you're planning something similar: front-load the hiking while you've got energy, then let the beach undo some of the damage before you fly home. The sea was colder than I prefer, but refreshing.