Go Back  Fodor's Travel Talk Forums > Destinations > Europe
Reload this Page >

Montenegro - Beautiful? Clean Beaches? Whats your experience been?

Montenegro - Beautiful? Clean Beaches? Whats your experience been?

Old Jun 8th, 2009, 01:08 PM
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 301
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Montenegro - Beautiful? Clean Beaches? Whats your experience been?

Hello,

We are spending 4 nights at the hostel in Budva the first week in September, but we've heard so many mixed reveiws of coastal Montenegro that we wonder if we should add more time to Southern Dalmatia instead...maybe one of the islands. In particular we plan to spend our time doing the following:

1. Budva, walk to Stevi Stefan and go to the beach.
2. Kotor, hike up to the Fortress
3. Stari Bar and perhaps Perast if time.
4. Free day: try to find a tour to Ostrog, or perhaps Ulcinj or Herceg Novi

We specifically want to spend some time at the beach between sights and hikes.

What have your experiences with Montenegro's beaches and physical beauty been?
Any safey concerns? We read that Montenegro's landmine status was "unknown". We plan to hike up to the Fortress at Kotor and hike around Stari Bar.

thanks,
Naxos.
NaxosTravels is offline  
Old Jun 8th, 2009, 01:25 PM
  #2  
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 4,849
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
This is old information from four ears ago, but I will post a couple of excerpts from my trip report that deal with Montenegrin tidiness. I did like what we saw on our one day expedition from Dubrovnik, but the contrast at that time between the two countries was striking in that regard.

"We left the town of Kotor and began one of the most spectacular 45 minute drives of my life. All the way up you could see the walls of Kotor getting smaller and smaller, way down there below. There are 26 hairpin turns going up the mountain toward the tiny town of Njegusi. When I say going up the mountain, I mean going UP the mountain. And when I say hairpin turns, I mean I really couldn't see how the bus could make the corners. I shuddered to think about meeting a truck on that road going the other way, and yet they told us that they hold road races here every year. They must be MAD!

As we climbed, the guide said something about this being a National Park; but, "---look out the windows". It was obvious that the edge of the road had been used as a garbage dumps for long stretches. The contrast to the cleanliness of Croatia was striking.

About Budva:

"We wandered through the narrow streets for a while. When we came to one of the main squares fronting the sea, I looked over the sea wall to look at the boulder-covered beach. Boulders were the least of what was there. There was a layer of trash a foot deep covering the beach. Bottles, paper, beer cans, metal ---- just crap! And this was at one of the prime tourist spots in the country! The business man in me says that if I were Mayor of the town I'd slap a tax on every business that benefited from tourism and hire a man to clean that stuff up. Also, with 40% unemployment, it would be easy enough to hire a couple of big, mean, men with sticks to pound on the swine who caused the litter."

I think you will enjoy Montenegro, and perhaps they have wised up in the last few years as to the importance of the tourist trade.

nukesafe is offline  
Old Jun 8th, 2009, 01:56 PM
  #3  
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 173
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
We just did the drive up the mountain from Kotar in March, and it was a beautiful and breathtaking journey. However, in regards to garbage, it isn't any better this year, with the exception that there is probably more dumping. The overlooks were beautiful, but the ripe smell became too overpowering for more than very brief stops outside the car.

It is sad that a country so beautiful hasn't been able to cope with the problem of waste. In fact, it was only after arriving home and reading Donna Leon's latest novel that I'm wondering whether Montenegro is a victim of a much more subversive type of dumping. In any case, we nixed our plans to visit Budva and have removed Montenegro from our list of places that we would like to explore again. For us, the sight of all that garbage was just too unsettling.

I'm sorry to sound so stark, but there is no reason to sugarcoat a problem that has obviously not been resolved for some time.

--Annie
anniemackie is offline  
Old Jun 8th, 2009, 02:08 PM
  #4  
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 6,052
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
We were there in 06 and Montenegro was a highlight of our trip. I didn't see any signs of garbage; just beautiful coastline and pretty towns. I will say that we liked Kotor much more than Budva. However, we were there in November, way off-season, and Budva was all but dead (not even a restaurant open) so that could have swayed my opinion.

With all of that being said, I'm not sure if you need 4 nights. I would love to spend a few nights in Kotor when I return to the area, but if you are hesitant you could easily visit Kotor and Budva as a daytrip from Dubrovnik.

Tracy
tcreath is offline  
Old Jun 9th, 2009, 06:34 AM
  #5  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 301
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Thanks for your replies. Interesting comments, consistent with what i've heard. We've decided to leave it as is and leave early if we are unimpressed.....though we may switch from the Budva hostel to private accomodation in Kotor. We've decided that we really want to see a few things and will brace ourselves for garbage in advance so as to not be disappointed.

Its great to hear from people who have been - Thanks again!

Naxos
NaxosTravels is offline  
Old Jun 9th, 2009, 07:16 AM
  #6  
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 173
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Hi Naxos,

To clarify, Kotor itself was lovely and we didn't see any problems at all in the Old Town or surrounding community. Our only problems came when we got off the tourist routes and explored the backroads. We did pull off near the bay and found some of the normal debris (some personal) but nothing out of the ordinary for a well-travelled road.

I would imagine the hike up to the fortress, much too hard for us these days, would make for a great memory. As for safety, we saw people wandering around that area while we were there, but I would definitely check with the local TI first.

Enjoy your trip!
--Annie
anniemackie is offline  
Old Jun 9th, 2009, 08:15 AM
  #7  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 2,726
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Naxos,

We spent three nights in Montenegro last month, staying in the Queen of Montenegro Hotel, just south of Budva.

The hotel has a pretty beach area, and the beach at Stevi Stefan is lovely.

Kotor was charming, the "hike" up the mountain from there appears to be more of a climb- I think it is 800 or 900 steps?

We also took the hair-raising switch-back road up the mountain. Amazing views if you're brave enough to look!

Most of the trash we saw appeared to be at trailer-park type areas on the way up the mountain. However, along the main roads there were so many half-finished or abandoned buildings, old cars, etc. As others have reported, very different from neat and clean Croatia!


We were interested to see the amount of resort building along the Montegro coast. According to our guide, much middle eastern money is being spent to make Montenegro into the "next Riviera."

This is in contrast to the Dalmatian coast, where law forbids building on the beach itself. Hotels on the water side are ones that have been there for years, or are built to replace older ones which were damaged during the 1990s war.

Montenegro is, I think a work in progress, and it will be interesting to see how it and the whole area develop in the coming years.

Byrd
Byrd is offline  
Old Jun 9th, 2009, 08:42 AM
  #8  
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 6,052
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Now that I think about it, we did see some trash higher up in Montenegro as we made out way down from Bosnia towards Herceg Novi. We saw what looked like small RV parks that our private driver told us were gypsy camps and the trash seemed to be mostly around those camps. In the tourist sections (Kotor, which is lovely, and Budva) we didn't see much trash outside the norm.

Tracy
tcreath is offline  
Related Topics
Thread
Original Poster
Forum
Replies
Last Post
layanluvstotravel
Europe
28
Aug 13th, 2019 03:22 PM
fourfortravel
Europe
8
Apr 14th, 2017 04:25 PM
CordeliaCH
Europe
31
Aug 28th, 2008 12:57 PM
emtravel
Europe
13
Apr 14th, 2008 11:59 PM

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are On


Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information -