Montenegro is a bay you see from a boat. Start at the jetty.
Which Blue Cave boat stops long enough to swim. What the shuttle from Perast to Our Lady of the Rocks costs. Whether Lovcen or Lake Skadar wins your one inland day. Reviews of every tour you can book in Montenegro.
The Kotor cave boat, the island church, the lily lake and the Lovcen road.
Four bookings a first Montenegrin week is built around. What each one costs, and how much of the day it takes.
01The bay circuitBlue Cave, Submarine Base and Lady of the Rocks TourThe swim stop inside the Blue Cave, the submarine tunnels at Mamula and the island church, on one boat out of Kotor.
02The island churchFast-Track Venetian Perast & Our Lady Of The RocksPerast by fast boat, then the reef the sailors built up with sunken hulls until a church would stand on it.
03The lake daySkadar Lake National Park: Guided Boat Tour with Wooden BoatA wooden boat through the lily fields of Lake Skadar from Virpazar. Herons and pelicans if you go out early.
04The mountain dayMontenegro: Full-Day Tour to Lovcen National Park & MoreThe switchbacks up to Lovcen, the mausoleum on the summit, and the old royal capital at Cetinje below it.
Kotor first, then how far round the bay you get.
A walled town under a mountain, the belfry village the island boats leave from, a coast of sand and sea caves, a lake covered in lilies, and the high road north to the canyons. Six bases, and the best day out from each.
Every good Boka day starts at a Kotor jetty.
The bay is a drowned river canyon with a church on a hand-built reef in the middle of it. Four ways to spend a morning on that water, what boarding each one costs, and which town it leaves from.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · Swim in the Blue Cave + Lady of the Rocks Tour
Blue Cave runsA swim stop under the arch, then the tunnels at Mamula.
Our Lady of the RocksPerast, the islet church and its wall of silver votives.
Boka Bay cruisesA full day under way, Perast to the Verige strait and back.
Speedboat runsSix seats, few stops, back before the cruise ships empty.
All 93 days on the water →
The Montenegrin days out most travellers book.
Every review on the site →The tours that fill first between June and September, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
From Dubrovnik: Montenegro Day Trip
Travel from Dubrovnik to Montenegro with an English-speaking guide such as Niko, Nikolas, or Adnan. Stop in Perast, choose a boat ride to Our Lady of the Rocks, then spend three hours in Kotor. Small-group options may also include two hours in Budva.
From · $70
Read our review →
2
From Dubrovnik: Montenegro Boat Tour from Perast to Kotor
from $68
3
Swim in the Blue Cave + Lady of the Rocks Tour
from $53
4
Blue Cave, Submarine Base and Lady of the Rocks Tour
from $53
5
Blue Cave Swim Stop, Lady of the Rocks & Submarine Base
from $39
6
Skadar Lake National Park: Guided Boat Tour to Kom Monastery
from $37
7
From Dubrovnik: Montenegro Day Trip with Boat Cruise
from $62
8
From Kotor: Boat to Blue Cave & Lady of the Rocks &Submarine Base
from $32
Lake Skadar is the other half of this country.
The largest lake in the Balkans starts an hour from the coast and spends June under a carpet of white lilies. Boats leave Virpazar for the bird colonies, the sunken monasteries and the fish restaurants on the far shore.
- 1Skadar Lake National Park: Guided Boat Tour to Kom Monasteryfrom $37
- 2Skadar Lake National Park: Guided Boat Tour with Wooden Boatfrom $26
- 3Skadar Lake National Park Guided Boat Tourfrom $25
Two hours inland from Kotor the road stops at the Tara canyon.
Behind the coast the country stands up: the Tara cuts thirteen hundred metres down through it, Durmitor keeps snow into June, and the Lovcen road climbs the back of Kotor in twenty-five hairpins.
What a day out in Montenegro actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. The bay is cheap by Adriatic standards, and the best hours on it are the cheapest of all.
Group boats to the cave and the islet, lake cruises out of Virpazar, old-town walks and cave entries.
The full days: Boka under sail, Lovcen and Cetinje by minibus, the Tara canyon and Ostrog.
Private skippers, chartered speedboats and the one splurge a week on the bay earns.
Three things that happen in Montenegro and nowhere else.
Coastline and old towns run the length of the Adriatic. An island built by hand out of sunken ships, a cave lit from underneath, and a mausoleum carried to a summit by hand do not.
Our Lady of the Rocks
Two sailors from Perast found an icon on a reef in 1452, and every crew coming home afterwards dropped a rock on the spot. Wrecked hulls filled with stone went down on top of them until there was an island, and then a church on it. The votive silver plates inside were left by families whose men made it back; the ones that did not come back are the gaps.
- 1Swim in the Blue Cave + Lady of the Rocks Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 3,462 reviews
- 2Blue Cave, Submarine Base and Lady of the Rocks Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 2,869 reviews
- 3Blue Cave Swim Stop, Lady of the Rocks & Submarine Base★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,914 reviews
The Blue Cave
On the Lustica peninsula the limestone is undercut into a double arch, and sunlight coming through the water underneath throws the whole chamber electric blue. Boats go in when the swell allows and cut the engine so you can swim. Mid-morning is the hour: by late afternoon the sun is off the angle and the colour is gone.
- 1Swim in the Blue Cave + Lady of the Rocks Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 3,462 reviews
- 2Blue Cave, Submarine Base and Lady of the Rocks Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 2,869 reviews
- 3Blue Cave Swim Stop, Lady of the Rocks & Submarine Base★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,914 reviews
The Lovcen Mausoleum
Njegos, poet and prince-bishop, asked to be buried on the second-highest peak of the mountain the country is named after. Four hundred and sixty-one steps go up through the rock to a black granite chamber and a terrace where, on a clear day, you can see a third of Montenegro and most of the Adriatic.
- 1Montenegro: Full-Day Tour to Lovcen National Park & More★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 992 reviews
- 2Great Montenegro Tour-Lovcen NP,Mausoleum Lovcen,River of Crnojevic,Sveti Stefan★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 637 reviews
- 3Private National Park Lovcen with food and wine tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 33 reviews
The wind shuts the bay, and the ships fill Kotor by ten.
Two things move a Montenegrin day indoors. The bura drops off the mountains without much notice and boats stop going out; and on a two-ship morning the walled town is shoulder to shoulder until the gangways go back up. Both have the same answer: go up, go inland, or go to a table.
By place — bay, coast, lake and highlands
By kind of day — boat, cave, summit or table
Kotor, Perast, the cave, Budva, the lake, the canyon: the run most people do first.
The newest Montenegrin tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Visit Budva, Kotor and Tivat by private car ( 3 in 1 )
Read our review →
Durmitor National Park hiking tour – easy to moderate
Read our review →
Private Skadar Lake National Park Tour with Wooden Boat and Wine
Read our review →
NORTH TOUR Np Biograd Gora-Lake-Moraca Canyon & Monastery-Kolasin
Read our review →
Durmitor National Park, Northern Fairy Tail -private tour from Podgorica
Read our review →
Private transfer from Podgorica airport or Podgorica to Tivat
Read our review →
Private Durmitor National Park and Black Lake Tour
Read our review →
Private half day tour -Podgorica with its surroundinggs
Read our review →
Skadar lake boat ride through “Montenegrin Amazon”, wine tasting & Niagara falls
Read our review →
Private Montenegro Tour – Cetinje, Kotor & Budva visit
Read our review →