After a few days staying in Tivat, we moved onto Kotor which is only a 10/15 minute taxi ride away. It is one of the most beautiful places we have ever been to, and we are both eager to come back here to see it all again!
Transport
As I mentioned above, Tivat Airport is right in the middle of Tivat and Kotor (approx 10 minutes from each place) and so it’s really easy to get to. There are plenty of buses/coaches that you can get from various places around Montenegro and surrounding countries, if you were looking to do a similar thing to us and visit multiple places in one trip. Also, a few cruise liners offer Kotor as a destination if this is more your thing. You won’t have many problems getting around the town on foot either, but do remember to bring some water with you as it gets very hot!
What to do
Stand up paddle boarding (or kneeling paddle boarding in my case, as I was spending more time in the water than on my board…) – We had such a great time doing this! We found the activity on Get Your Guide, and it ended up being just me and Scott with our amazing guide, Toni. He took us all over the Bay of Kotor, showing us the beauty of Montenegro and telling us all about the history and his own travels. We were really lucky that the tide was low enough for us to lie flat on our boards and travel underneath one of the bridges and along one of the rivers coming down from the mountains. Apparently, this is quite rare, but it was absolutely amazing to see the difference between the freshest cold waters and the warmth of the sea! It cost us around £30 each for 2 hours, and it was worth every penny!
Swim in the Blue Cave – We did a 3 hour boat trip which took us out to some caves, close to Croatia, where the water is BLUE! I have some pictures but they are really bad quality.. so imagine looking out over the edge of a boat and seeing a bunch of Smurfs swimming around. That’s basically what you look like when you’re in the water! It’s quite a nice trip out, where you pass by some old submarine caves and take a look inside.
Our Lady Of The Rocks – In the same trip as visiting the blue cave, we went to see Our Lady Of The Rocks. This is an artificial island in the middle of the bay with a really interesting history, and a beautiful church! It is said to have healing powers, and apparently even to this day they will sometimes send very ill people out to spend a night on the island – and they come back healed…
Take a wander around Old Town Kotor – The old town is a really beautiful walled area with cobbled streets and little boutique shops. It was quite busy when we went in June, as it’s the most touristy area of Kotor, but nowhere near as packed as places such as Dubrovnik. There are lots of cats around as well – mostly friendly but some not quite so obliging when you go to give them a tummy tickle as Scott found out the hard way – which made this place even better in our eyes!
Visit the cat museum – Me and Scott both love cats, so obviously we weren’t going to pass up on the opportunity to visit a cat museum (which was only a few Euro anyway). The museum is a peculiar place, with lots of random cat related memorabilia and artwork. There are loads of cats in Kotor, and the museum seems to adopt any local kittens that need help, however I can only speak from our experience! When we went in, there was a really tiny kitten taking some shelter from the sun.
Admire the view – This may seem like a pretty simple thing to do, but it’s something I don’t think I would ever grow tired of! The combination of the beautiful cobbled streets of the old town, the clear blue sea and the breathtaking mountains just makes this place so picturesque and peaceful! This is a place that I feel you can fully let go and forget about any stresses of real life. (The pictures don’t even do it justice).
Where to eat
On the way back from our boat trip, we asked our guide where the best place was for seafood in Kotor. He told us that Restaurant Forza Mare does some amazing food, and that he knows the people who work there. He phoned them up from the boat, reserved us ‘the best table in the house’ and said he would drop us off on the way back to Kotor. When the boat pulled up, there were three waiters waiting to help us off the boat and see us to our table which was right on the water’s edge (see video below). We stayed there for almost 3 hours, ate the most amazing meal, and drank a few bottles of wine. We did end up spending quite a bit of money on this meal, however we didn’t exactly pick the cheapest items on the menu. There was such a variety – seafood, fresh catch and meat as well, and everything that we tasted was delicious!
When we finished our meal, the owner of the hotel and restaurant personally drove us back around to Old Town Kotor where we were staying.