Montenegro 2025

It took a couple of days to reach the Podgorica airport from home. An overnight Air Canada flight brought us to Heathrow,  then it was onto Hammersmith by tube to the Star Hotel. We had the afternoon to wander around and had a disappointing Thai meal for dinner. We flew from England from the cattle-like Stansted airport on Ryanair without issue. The energetic Simo, collected us from the terminal for the short drive to Simo Apartments. 

On Day 1, our rental Skoda car was delivered to us and we started the drive to the coast. Our first stop was to stock up on groceries at a Voli. Then it was onto Rijeka Crnojevića via the M2.3 and then a narrow road that offered views of the Pavlova Strana River.  Thereafter, we carried on a narrow, single lane road with bushes and seemingly endless blind corners to reach the E80. Rather than carry on the dual expressway, we opted for the old M2 road over the coastal mountain range and fine views of the coast. We had still more time before our check-in, so we detoured up the narrow road to St Sava church and more fine coastal views, this time to the north. We reached our apartment block for 3:00pm  and met up with the owner's mother, who spoke reasonable English.  We were bagged from the 9 hour time difference from home, but had a look around the local beach. The apartment in Przno was quite snazzy and it was intended to be a base to overcome some of the effects of the time change.

A day at the coast: we drove through Budva, parked at Fort Mogren and walked down to the coast then in and out of Stari (Old) Budva and back up a different, steep trail back to the car (5km). Then we had an early lunch at Kužina restaurant and bought a few items at the the HDL supermarket before returning home. We followed the coast from the apartment to Sveti Stefan for another 3km walk. 

We knew that Montengro had an early snowfall in the mountains. That evening, I received a message and snowy photo from a cabin owner , asking if we still were coming two days hence. The cabin was up at 2000m and he indicated the snow line started at about 1500m. We were thankful for the heads-up, and cancelled the booking. It meant that the next morning's itinerary of the Bukumirsko Jezero loop hike would be hard going in deep snow, so I looked for an alternative option. 

Drive into the interior; we drove around Podgorica and then along the Morača Canyon to the beginning of the Mrtvica canyon. I had seen the favourable reviews of walking the canyon, but I was skeptical. It turns out, the walk was lame. We walked a couple of kilometres to the Ottoman bridge and turned around. The balance of the day amounted to a scenic drive with stops the Moraca Monastery, a short detour for the Sudikovo Monastery and a stop in Gusinje for ice cream. We reached the Grebaje Valley and checked into our cabin. We talked a little bit with the owners and a British couple who had been skunked by the recent snowfall.  There were some nice peaks up at the head of the valley. For dinner we ate a short distance away and I tried the Ćevapi, that I called dog turd. I couldn't eat a whole plate of them, but saved a few that went into the next night's dinner.

We were in position to do the Volušnica three peaks hike, however the early season snowfall made it uncertain.  We pressed on to see what awaited us. The hike included a long stretch through beech-like trees before emerging into the alpine environment.  That coincided with snow  that was somewhat trampled in places, so we carried onto the first viewpoint of the Albanian Alps peaks and opted to turn around from there. The ridge line looked messy and mostly in cloud, making the decision a little easier. We returned to our car ( 10km, with 800m ascent) and headed to  Kolasin for the night. We had altered our inaccessible booking in favour of quite a smart unit and very welcoming hosts. The Aroma supermarket provided the necessary ingredients for a dinner at home.

It felt like a drive day to Žabljak. My first choice of route via the P4 remained closed due to a landslide earlier in the year, We stopped in at a couple of smaller monasteries and a scenic viewpoint along the P10,  to reach the Đurđevića Tara Bridge. It seemed to be a centre of touristic activities including bungy jumping and rafting. We checked into our apartment with Drago before continuing on smaller , forested roads for a 3km loop walk to look down into the Tara River Canyon, one of Europe's largest canyons. It was all rather pleasant, but not overwhelming. 

We had a drive and walk around Žabljak first thing and then headed up the P14. The British couple we talked with a couple of days earlier indicated that the road was snow bound and impassable, but worth going as far as possible. The P14 is not plowed in winter, but to our delight, much of the early season snow had melted and the road was open. I had planned for a longer hike, but we were pleased to do several short hikes to get a feel for the Durmitor mountain range. We continued on past Piva lake and a number of switchbacks, past Pluzine to our rental cottage of Apartment Pvljanka. So many names seemed to be short a vowel or two but our residence was splendid. Our hosts lived across the road on the same rural property and were welcoming; we had a couple of fun conversations with them. 

We got off to an early start and there were a few twists and turns in the road to reach the Ostrog Orthodox Monastery before 10:00am. There was hardly anyone else about and we wandered the church built into a cliff face. We carried on, stopped at the Pekara bakery just after 11:00am. The drive was scenic especially at the Kotor Bay overlooks. It was a little tricky finding a parking spot on the main road above Perast. We wandered the lovely waterfront and had a splendid lunch at the Locanda Pizzeria along the waterfront. We carried onto Dobrota sector of Kotor and crept through the parking depraved streets to reach the Mason W Apartment Hotel. Yes, the hotel had a small parking area in front, and we could walk to the nearby waterfront and another Aroma supermarket for food supplies. Sheila jumped into the water for a short soak in Kotor Bay.

A day in Kotor.  We walked from the apartment along the seashore and then up the 300m  of ascent on the "Ladder of Kotor", an old road with 72 switchbacks (we didn't count). We cut over and made our way through a window into the castle that overlooks the impressive Kotor fjord. Tourists were present, many from the cruise ships in port. We walked down the 1350 steps (we didn't count these either)  to see Stari Kotor from above and to pay the expected 15 Euro admission price. Once we were in Stari Kotor, we were in with the hordes of visitors. It is still a beautiful old city, non the less. We took a break at home after the 10km walkabout and returned for a further 5km walk to and in the old city in the early evening.

We  left Kotor in the darkness and drove to the Podgorica airport to return the car. We had a taxi booked to Albania.