Escorted Holidays to Montenegro and the Bay of Kotor
Montenegro is a little larger than Yorkshire, and that is the point of it. In a single week you can be walking the Venetian lanes of Kotor in the morning and standing on a mountain road above Lake Skadar by mid-afternoon, without ever spending long in a coach.
Our Montenegro holidays are eight days by air, based on the coast with excursions out from one hotel. A guide handles the driving, the tickets and the ferries, which matters on roads that twist as much as these do. Wine tasting appears on every itinerary, usually more than once.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Montenegro Tours
More than on a gentle coach tour of English gardens, less than a walking holiday. Kotor and Budva are pedestrian-only old towns with uneven cobbles and steps, and the boat trip to Our Lady of the Rocks means stepping down into a small vessel. Nothing is a climb, but sensible shoes matter and the summer heat slows everyone down. Ask us about the specific departure and we will talk you through the day-by-day pace honestly.
Yes, some do. One of our itineraries includes a day trip to Trebinje in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with wine tasting, and another visits Shkodër in Albania. Both are short drives from the Montenegrin border. You will need your passport with you on those days rather than left in the hotel safe. Border formalities are usually quick, though they can add time in high season.
Return flights, transfers at destination, seven nights' accommodation and the listed excursions and entrance fees are included on all our Montenegro tours. Meal arrangements differ: two of the itineraries are based at the 4-star Iberostar in Herceg Novi on an all-inclusive basis, while another includes breakfast daily and a set number of evening meals. Single supplements apply. Check the individual tour page, or ask us, and we will confirm exactly what your departure covers.
The Bay of Kotor and Perast
The Boka Kotorska is not a fjord, whatever you may read, but a drowned river canyon — a sequence of bays that narrows and turns until the mountains stand almost vertically over the water. Venice ruled here for close to four centuries, and it shows in the campaniles, the stone balconies and the winged lions carved over doorways.
Kotor's walled old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a genuine maze; St Tryphon's Cathedral, consecrated in 1166, sits at the heart of it. Our tours include a guided walk, which is the sensible way to see it.
From Perast, a short boat crossing takes you to Our Lady of the Rocks, a church on an artificial islet built up over generations by local sailors dropping stones from their boats. The votive silver plaques inside were left by men hoping to come home safely.
Inland Montenegro and the old royal capital
Behind the coast the country changes entirely. Cetinje, tucked into a mountain bowl, was the capital when Montenegro was an independent principality, and King Nikola's Palace still holds the family's furniture, portraits and captured Ottoman weaponry. It feels less like a museum than a house someone left.
Other itineraries take in Ostrog Monastery, cut into a sheer cliff face and still a working place of pilgrimage, and Lake Skadar, the largest lake in the Balkans and a serious haunt for pelicans and herons.
Food and drink here are mountain food and drink. Njeguši, the village above Cetinje, gives its name to a dry-cured ham hung in the cold air of the pass, usually served with sheep's cheese. Vranac is the red grape to look for, and one of our tours visits the Šipčanik cellar, a former underground aircraft tunnel now lined with barrels.
