Dokodemo Door

We left the coast around Sutomore and took the Sozina tunnel (toll), crossing beautiful Lake Skadar and heading to Podgorica. We did not stop in the capital, continuing north. Here the road started to go uphill, following the Morača river gorge. The landscape was getting greener and wilder.

Morača Monastery

Located between the road and the river gorge, Morača Monastery is very charming and worth stopping. The monastery is simple, with white walls and a church (Church of the Assumption) with beautiful frescoes. Outside there are sheltered tables ideal for a picnic, with the monastery and the mountains in the background.

Biogradska Gora National Park

Although we did not have time to explore too much of the National Park, we drove to the visitor centre and the lake to spend some time there. It was very peaceful but the water was really cold. Only 2 persons were swimming and both were wearingwith wetsuits.

Biogradsko Lake

Photo by Kazuki Hoshikawa

Žabljak: it is not a very attractive spot itself, but serves as a perfect base for rafting, winter sports or hiking in Durmitor National Park. As a ski resort village it has plenty of accommodation with different ranges and styles. In early August it was very easy to find a cheap, good and clean room. We went to a tourist agency and they found us accommodation for 20€ a double room and 15€ for a single room. The rooms were big, neatly clean, one shared toilet per floor. No breakfast. Still really good quality for money.

Tara River Gorge and Đurđevića Bridge

The Tara river gorge is the longest canyon in Montenegro and Europe and second longest in the world (just after Grand Canyon with 78 kilometers in length and 1,300 meters at its deepest). Driving along it on our way to Žabljak was magnificent, with great views, but the best spot by far was the famous Đurđevića Bridge. The landscape was awesome from the middle of the bridge and there were people doing bungee jumping from the central arch. I gave it a pass.

Rafting

One of the highlights of the outdoors activities you can do around Durmitor is rafting in the Tara river. They offered 2 possibilities: 2 days including a sleepover or half a day returning after lunch. We chose the second option.

My opinion of the rafting is a bit torn: on one hand the views and the landscapes were simply fantastic, worth going just because of this, including passing the Đurđevića Bridge from below. On the other hand the rafting itself was too light, no good rapids, not much adrenaline. Not sure if the extended time option has more thrilling rapids, but the part we did was impossible to compare with the rafting in Costa Rica or the Pyrenees.

Organisation and lunch were very good. We booked it with a company called Summit (www.summit.co.me). Price was 45€ per person, lunch included.

Ostrog Monastery

By the time we arrived at Ostrog Monastery I was covered in sweat and my knuckles were white. The monastery is perched in a rock cliff and the road leading there can be quite scary at times, mostly if you have a bus coming down and you have to go very close to the free fall cliff with no protections whatsoever. The monastery is more atmospheric than beautiful, worth seeing, with great views and small cave-churches with frescoes. One of them has St Basil´s relics, and petitioners pray and cry in front of them with a devotion that fills the air with intensity and made me feel uncomfortable to be witnessing it.

Budva: an unpleasant surprise, at least for us. Extremely crowded, big neons everywhere, discos, fancy (and tacky) cars, traffic jams, noise…the opposite of the lovely Montenegro we had seen so far. On the other hand we showed up there on a saturday night, what made things worse, and also we had no intention of enjoying Budva nightlife. So it depends on your taste and plans. We had to cross Budva twice more during the trip and the traffic jams were still there, even in the morning. We did not visit the old city, although everybody says is really nice.

Sveti Stefan: perfect picture postcard place, with the old city in a small peninsula surrounded by 2 beautiful arch-shaped beaches with transparent waters. It was fairly crowded but still pleasant, nothing too bad to be August. The rest of the village is perched on a hill with nice views of the old city and the coast. A place not to miss and one of the highlights of Montenegro.

Accommodation

We arrived in Sveti Stefan late in the evening (around 9pm) on a Saturday night. Clearly not the best moment, even more being August. We managed to find an open tourist agency and they found us an almost new and very clean flat close to the beach for 85€. It was spacious enough for 4 people and the beds and furniture were new. It had a huge TV screen. No breakfast.

Next day the owner of the agency was really nice, giving us advice about what to see and the best route to Žabljak

Travel Agency LEVANTIN

Vukice Mitrovic 3, 85315 Sveti Stefan          Tel: +38233468206     Mob: 069028436             levantin@t-com.me

Eating

Restoran Drago

Slobode 32, 85315 Sveti Stefan                            http://www.viladrago.com/index1.php?broj=4

Asked some local people for a nice restaurant in town and we ended up here (it is also recommended in LP and the Rough Guide). Lovely terrace and great food for a good price (13€ with a few drinks each and lots of food). Recommended

Buljarica: after failing to find a room in Petrovac (we arrived late in the evening) we drove south along the coast and took the first road heading to the beach, leading us to Buljarica. We asked in all the places that had Sobe displayed and we found a small room, enough for 3, for 50€. No breakfast. They let us park the car inside the house. The owners were very friendly. They spoke some german but no English.

Petrovac: small seaside village that was a little bit of a disappointment. It was very crowded and lively, full of families, not sure why some guides insist it is a laid back place. The beach is nice but we prefer some quieter spots.

Sutomore: even a jewel like Montenegro can have black spots. The worst place of the whole trip. Sutomore was packed beyond imagination. Chairs and umbrellas covered till the last grain of sand of the (beautiful) beach, it was even hard to find where to put your feet. Millions of cars everywhere, too developed, tons of people…we lasted there 20 minutes.

Bar: similar in size to Budva but more industrial. The beach is big and nice, with a marina. I did not have that much time to explore around.

Between Sutomore and Bar there are many coves. It is easy to park the car by the road and reach them walking. Some of them have bars where you can have a drink or a snack. These coves  were not empty but still emptier than Sutomore or Bar.

Mlini (Croatia):

As our flight was late in the evening we spent the first night in Mlini (Croatia). We chose Mlini as it was close to the airport. The village is just a few houses in front of a beautiful cove of transparent water. We liked it so much we decided to come back a few hours earlier to enjoy it before jumping into the flight.

We stayed in a B&B called Villa Carmen (found in booking.com)

Ad: Setaliste M. Marojice 18, Mlini , 20207          Tlf +38520486041          E-mail vivado@du.t-com.hr

http://www.vivado.hr/smjestaj.php?lang=en

Price was 92€ + 2€ for parking for a very clean and spacious triple room less than 2 minutes walk from the beach. Big terrace overlooking the sea. We really liked it and staff was really friendly. A really nice breakfast in the terrace was a plus. It is just by the Restaurant Konoba Marinero off the coastal road. Recommended.

The restaurant by the B&B was one of the highlights of the trip.

Konoba Marinero

Šetalište M. Marojice 16, 20207,  Mlini (Croatia)      tel: +38520487257                 vivado@du.t-com.hr

http://www.vivado.hr/restoran.php?lang=en

Absolutely fantastic. Great fish and seafood. Highly recommended. We loved the grilled squid, black rice and octopus salad but every dish was good. Perfect relaxing atmosphere by Mlini beach, overlooking the sea. We stayed there after lunch for hours without being hassled. Very friendly staff. We liked it so much we repeated. The first day we paid £25 for 3 persons, the second time £55 for a real feast.

KOTOR BAY

After crossing the border we drove along the coast and into Kotor Bay. After we passed Igalo, Herceg Novi, Risan… we decided to make a stop in Perast.

Perast

It is an absolutely lovely small venetian town, with several spots from where you can jump in the very clean waters and with not many tourist even in August (the swimming area was a bit more crowded, but not too bad). Nice restaurants with shadowy terraces, a beautiful  campanile, remarkable venetian palazzos, and two picture perfect islands just off the coast (St George and Our Lady of the Rock). They can both be visited by a water taxi and each has a chapel. Our Lady of the Rock is the only artificial island in the Adriatic Sea.

We had lunch in Konoba Skolj, by the main road. Food was excellent and atmosphere was very nice, with a great terrace.

http://skolji.com/english.htm

Kotor

The main touristic city in Montenegro. Beautiful, elegant but also much more crowded than other places in the country, still we really liked Kotor. We spent a few hours walking around inside the walls. Along with Budva, the most touristic spot we saw, full of shops and boutiques, cruise liners stop here and drop big groups. Better to be visited in the late evening hours. I felt it was a sort of pocket Dubrovnik.

Lovčen National Park

From Kotor we took the road to Cetinje and we started going uphill in a very steep road. The views over the bay were breathtaking: one of the best things of the whole trip. We climbed all the way up to Njegoš Mausoleum, 1600 metres high. Although the mausoleum itself is ok (ticket is 3€), the location is simply superb. It is worth the ride but, beware, the last 4 or 5 km to the top are tough, with high cliffs and no barriers protecting on the side of the road. The National Park is very beautiful all of it, with nice forests and green valleys. We took a quick look at Cetinje as we passed by, but did not have time to stop.

Dates: from 06/08/2010 to 11/08/2010

Flight details: London Gatwick- Dubrovnik (DVB) non-stop flight with Easyjet. Flight time around 2h 20 min. Price was £216 per person, bought 2 months in advance (Easyjet web). Plane was an Airbus A-321.

Direct flights to Montenegro are not frequent from London. To reach Podgorica it is likely to have to go via Belgrade, so it was easier and cheaper to fly to Dubrovnik and cross the border from there (less than 30 Km).

Visa: No Visa needed for EU, Japanese or USA passports, both for Croatia or Montenegro.

Currency: Montenegro uses the Euro (despite not being a EU member).

Itinerary: Mlini (Croatia), Kotor Bay (Herceg-Novi, Perast, Kotor), Lovčen National Park, Budva, along the coast till Bar, then to the inlands crossing Lake Skadar, Podgorica, Morača Monastery, Kolasin, Biogradska Gora National Park, Tara River Gorge, Žabljak, Ostrog Monastery.

Rental car and driving in Montenegro: rented a car for the full length of the trip through an online company called Economy Car Rentals (www.economycarrentals.com). I had used the same company before for my trip to Turkey and everything had been fine, so I decided to repeat. All went fine again.

The price was much better than in the better known rental companies and it offered full insurance and free crossing to other countries. The car was provided by SixT, which has offices at the airport. It was a Fiat Punto Diesel in good state and clean. Both collection and drop off at the airport were quick and efficient. Price for 5 full days was £217 (£33 paid in advance as deposit and £1.5 booking fee).

In general the roads were good and driving in Montenegro was not difficult. The major coastal road was in very good condition but it tends to be very busy. At rush hour the traffic in some bottlenecks like Budva can be very jammed. The only highway/dual carriage we bumped into was between Sutomore and Podgorica, through the Sozina tunnel. It has a toll.

Once you move away from the coast into the inlands the roads are a bit worse although still good enough and there are much less cars, including some really empty parts up in the mountains. Some of the roads with amazing scenery (like the one going up Kotor Bay towards Lovčen National Park and Njegoš mausoleum) were scary as they were narrow and with no barriers on the cliff side.

When we crossed the border in Dibeli Brijeg (closest point to Dubrovnik airport) with the car there was a long queue (it was Saturday morning and the sun was shinning). The checks themselves were very quick and they did not search the car. On the way back late in the evening there were no cars and it was even quicker.