Montenegro: Igalo, Herceg Novi and Kotor

sophieleblanc
Jul 17, 2019
2 min read

I flew from Santorini to Athens, then from Athens to Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. The Podgorica airport was so tiny! Then I took a bus to Igalo.

Igalo and Herceg Novi

In Igalo I stayed at an AirBnb, a little one-room apartment with a bed, small kitchen and bathroom. While hostels are a pretty good way to meet other travellers and are usually the cheapest option, they usually don't offer a lot of comfort or privacy. I mostly stayed at hostels but a few places - where there weren't a lot of hostels, or none with good reviews - I stayed at AirBnbs. When I got to Igalo I bought some groceries and went for a stroll along the waterfront promenade.

The next morning I walked from Igalo to the next town of Herceg Novi and I explored the Old Town of Herceg Novi. It's pretty small and didn't take long to walk through the entire place. It was very quiet and calm - far fewer tourists than Athens and Santorini.

Herceg Novi has lovely rocky beaches with crystal clear waters. It wasn't that hot so I didn't swim but rather enjoyed sitting on the beach and taking in the sights. I even watched a bit of a water polo tournament that was going on - it's a popular sport in eastern Europe.

In the evening I hiked up into the hills for nice views of the Bay of Kotor and descended back down through Herceg Novi's suburbs. I discovered a new favourite gelato flavour combination - pistachio gelato and raspberry sorbet. I made some roasted cauliflower with cucumber salad for dinner in my little AirBnb.

All in all, my stay in Herceg Novi and Igalo was a relaxing and pleasant time.

Kotor

My next stop was Kotor. I took the bus from Herceg Novi to Kotor. My hostel, Montenegro Hostel 4U, was on the waterfront a short walk from the Old Town. The hostel staff were extremely friendly and welcoming. It was cool and rainy, but nevertheless I walked around the Old City of Kotor. It's a medieval city with a moat, walls and everything. Very beautiful. For dinner I went to a place near my hostel called Caffe del Mare and had some vegetarian pizza.

The next morning I woke up bright and early and headed up to the Fortress of St. John. Unfortunately it was another grey, drizzly day, but I wasn't going to let that stop me! The walk up to the fortress passes by the Church of Our Lady of Health and you get some great views of the Bay of Kotor.

In the afternoon I went on a boat tour organized through my hostel. We boated past several towns in the bay, went into some Soviet-era hidden submarine tunnels, and stopped at Our Lady of the Rocks - an artificial island near the town of Perast with a beautiful church built upon it. It started pouring rain on the way back but we got some Nutella crepes and warmed up before walking the short distance back to the hostel.