Kotor & the Boka

Bag drop opens at Luton

Closes at 07:00. One 23 kg hold bag between you, plus an underseat bag each. Online check-in closes 60 minutes before departure.

Lounge at Luton

Bags dropped, through security, and the day starts properly. Both Luton lounges — My Lounge and No1 Lounge — are airside and open from 04:00, around £38 a head, and that includes the bar. Worth booking online — Friday mornings fill up.

Fizz at half five in the morning on the way to a honeymoon. Entirely correct.

EZY2637 · Luton → Tivat

Lands 11:55 local (Montenegro is one hour ahead of the UK, so it is 2 h 55 in the air). Seats 1B and 1C, front row.

Pre-booked transfer to the hotel

Driver meets you in arrivals — they have the flight number and will track it, so a delay is their problem rather than yours. Tivat is a small terminal but passport control backs up when two or three flights land together, so do not panic if it takes a while to get out.

20 km round the bay, 25 to 30 minutes.

Arrive at HUMA Kotor Bay Hotel & Villas

Autokamp bb, Dobrota — on the water about 3 km north of Kotor old town. Classic room with balcony or terrace, breakfast included.

You will be there before the 15:00 check-in. Leave the bags at reception and have lunch at Konoba Timun or Bonazza, both a few minutes along the front. There is also a small local charge (about €2) to settle at the desk.

First walk and a drink

Turn left out of the hotel and it is 2 minutes to Konoba Timun, or 4 minutes the other way to Bonazza and Konoba Portun, which is built out over the water. Any of the three will do for a first glass while the light goes orange on the far side of the bay.

Dinner at the hotel

Held at Huma. No travelling, no decisions.

Breakfast, then straight out

The one early start of the week.

Taxi to Perast

15–20 minutes, €15–20. Cars stop at the edge of the village; the whole place is one waterfront street. The Blue Line bus also runs along the coast.

Our Lady of the Rocks

A man-made island, built up over centuries on a foundation of scuttled boats. Taxi boats run continuously from the Perast quay from about 08:00 — €1 each per crossing, five minutes over. Church, silver votive plaques, small museum.

The Kotor ships send coach parties here from mid-morning, so before 11:30 is the window.

Perast itself

Sixteen baroque palaces on one street. Climb the St Nicholas bell tower for the view straight down onto both islands, and the town museum in the Bujović Palace is worth twenty minutes.

Drinks — Red & White Wine Bar

Quiet north end of the waterfront. Montenegrin wine by the glass, which is more interesting than it sounds — try a Vranac and a Krstač side by side.

Lunch on the water

Trattoria Rosmarino is the serious one — Jeunes Restaurateurs, Italian and seafood, right on the edge. Reserve ahead. Otherwise Conte (seafood, fish by the kilo), Đardin (seafood, terrace over the water) or Eho, all within two minutes of each other.

Back to the hotel

Pool, swim, sleep. There is a walk and a late dinner tonight.

If you want more of the day out: Ćatovića Mlini at Morinj is 15 minutes further round — an old watermill with streams and gardens running through the tables. Treat it as an alternative to lunch in Perast rather than an addition.

Walk south with a drink on the way

Out of the hotel and turn right along Donji put. Konoba Bonazza is 300 m and Konoba Portun 350 m — both seafood konobas on the water. Portun is built out over the water and faces the right way, so time it for about half six and you get the sunset with the first glass. From there it is another kilometre of flat waterfront to Moments, fifteen minutes at a stroll.

Dinner — Moments Restaurant

Dobrota waterfront, halfway to Kotor. Mediterranean with an Asian edge, rooftop terrace, serious cocktails. Kitchen runs to midnight, so there is no rush.

Taxi back is €5–8 if you would rather not walk it twice.

Breakfast, then out

Water taxi to Porto Montenegro

Roughly 30–40 minutes across and down the bay, and far better than the road. Ask the hotel to arrange it from their jetty, or book a Kotor operator the day before — this is the one thing on the trip that will not sort itself out on the morning.

Coffee at Ma Chérie

On the Porto Montenegro waterfront, in the Ksenija Residence. Coffee and brunch, and the right place to sit and watch the marina wake up before doing anything else.

Tivat before lunch

Walk the Porto Montenegro quays — Jetty One has the serious boats. The Naval Heritage Museum has a Yugoslav submarine, the P-821 Hero, sitting in the water.

AURA Beach, Porto Montenegro

Pool, cabanas, DJs, Mediterranean-Japanese kitchen — raw bar, grilled fish, and a proper lunch if you want one. Pool runs 10:00–20:00 and the restaurant to 22:00 with last food orders at 21:30, so a midday start gives you the whole afternoon and then some.

Forza Porto, after the beach club

Bar and restaurant on the marina front, a few doors from where you had coffee. The natural next stop when you have had enough of a lounger.

Walk it off along the waterfront

The promenade runs north from the marina through Seljanovo to Donja Lastva — old stone houses, the Sveti Roko church, and a much quieter set of terraces. About 25 minutes at a wander.

Dinner in Tivat

Plenty on the marina front, Forza Porto included if you have settled in. If you would rather eat back on your own side of the bay, Marius at Prčanj is seafood on the water on the drive home.

Home

Taxi is about €25 and takes 30 minutes round the bay. Water taxi back is nicer but needs arranging with your morning skipper — agree the return time when you book.

Breakfast, no alarm

Nothing today needs you anywhere.

Walk north along the Donji put

Turn left out of the hotel. The lower road runs seven kilometres along the water through Dobrota — old stone captains' houses, private jetties, almost no traffic. Locals swim off the pontas the whole way along.

Restaurant Bar Premier is 2.1 km up with its own swimming platform; Bianco Beach Bar at 2.5 km has wooden decks and loungers and is the natural turnaround.

Lunch at the oyster farms

The top of this shore is where the bay's shellfish actually comes from, and eating it fifty metres from the ropes it grew on is the single most local thing you can do here.

Luka's Oyster Farm (3.0 km), Restoran Uzgajalište ostriga (4.6 km) and Miloš Grubačević at Orahovac are all working farms with tables on the water. Order oysters, then mussel buzara — white wine, garlic, olive oil and breadcrumbs, eaten with bread and fingers. It is the signature dish of this bay.

Stari Mlini at Ljuta is the alternative: an old watermill with a spring running through the garden, trout as well as sea fish.

Swim at Orahovac

The clearest water in the bay, and only a few minutes further north. Grota and El Cortez are both up that end, both facing the afternoon sun, both fine for an afternoon that turns into an evening.

Whatever you feel like

If the afternoon has run long, stay where you are. If not, Konoba Timun is 180 m from the hotel door and does fish by the kilo and grilled squid, and Konoba Portun is 350 m the other way.

Tomorrow starts at 09:30 on a boat.

Breakfast, then swimwear and a towel

You will want to swim from both the boat and the raft. Sunglasses, a hat, and something with sleeves for the ride back.

Private charter — pickup from the hotel jetty

Confirmed on the itinerary: Our Lady of the Rocks, the Blue Cave, the submarine bays, and sightseeing along the way.

Worth asking the skipper for

Rose, on the tip of Luštica — the best answer to your drinks question. A 17th-century fishing village with a proper little harbour you can moor in, three waterside konobas (Aragosta, Adriatic, and Forte Rose inside the old fortress walls) and almost no one there. It sits right beside the Rakite submarine tunnels, so it costs you no detour at all — you are passing the door. No ATM in the village, so take cash.

Žanjice — the pebble beach two minutes from the Blue Cave, with bars along the back of it. The obvious alternative if Rose does not fit the running order.

Mamula — the fortress island between Žanjice and the cave, a prison camp in the war and now a hotel. You can moor at the public beach on the east side and swim; the interior is guests only, so there is no bar for you, but it is worth circling.

Sveti Marko and Gospa od Milosti — two small islands in the Tivat basin, one an abandoned Club Med slowly going back to pine forest, the other a monastery. Both are a two-minute detour on the way back through the Verige narrows, where the bay pinches to 300 m and the Venetians used to string a chain across.

Plavi Horizonti at Pržno — sandy and shallow, unusual here, and sheltered. The best swim stop on the Luštica side if the sea is up elsewhere.

Sveti Đorđe — the cypress-covered island of the dead next to Our Lady of the Rocks. You cannot land, but circling it is the photograph.

One caution on the timing

The Blue Cave is about 25 km from Dobrota by water, so that is the better part of an hour and a half of running time out and back before you have stopped anywhere. Add the tunnels, Our Lady of the Rocks and a bar, and 09:30 to 13:00 is tight.

Send the skipper the list beforehand and let him tell you what fits. If something has to go, Rose is the one to keep — it is on the way, and a cold drink in that harbour is hard to better.

Kraken — underwater wine cellar, Dražin Vrt

A floating bar over a submerged cellar where the wine ages under constant pressure, cold and total darkness. Sea-aged bottles, seafood, and swimming off the raft. Adults only.

If the wind gets up or it rains hard they cannot open, so keep a wet-weather alternative in your back pocket.

Back to shore and home

Their tender runs you back to the Dražin Vrt shore. From there it is a 10-minute, €10-ish taxi south to Huma.

Something easy on the north shore

Nothing that needs effort. Restoran Uzgajalište ostriga (oysters straight off the farm), Beach Bar El Cortez or Grota are all a short taxi north and all face the sunset side.

Taxi to the Dub lower station

South of Kotor by the Vrmac tunnel roundabout, about 15 minutes from the hotel. Aim for the 09:00 opening.

Up to Kuk, 1,348 m

Eleven minutes, 3.9 km, continuous. It climbs out over Kotor and the whole bay opens up underneath you — the view most people drive two hours of hairpins for.

The top station

Two of your saved places are up here, which you may not have realised: Forza Kuk is the restaurant at the upper station, and Monte 1350 is minutes away. Both are essentially viewpoints that happen to serve food. There are walking trails along the ridge and an alpine coaster if the mood takes you.

A Njeguški pršut platter at Forza Kuk, at 1,348 m, looking down the length of the bay, is a good use of an hour.

Optional: on to Njeguši and the Mausoleum

This needs a car, and it is a proper half-day rather than an add-on. Njeguši is the stone village the prosciutto comes from; the Njegoš Mausoleum is 461 steps through the rock to a tomb on the summit, about €3, and 8–10 °C cooler than the coast.

If you drive up the serpentine instead of taking the cable car, note the road is one-way by time of day from late May to mid-October: Njeguši down to Kotor closed 08:00–15:00, Kotor up to Njeguši closed 14:00–19:00. Horizont Bar, with its terrace hanging over the drop, is on that road and only reachable by car.

Back down, then rest

Home by mid-afternoon, with a climb and a late dinner still ahead.

Kotor old town, emptied out

Today's three ships all sail by 17:00. From about half five the walled town belongs to whoever is still standing in it, which after five days of watching it fill and drain is a considerable pleasure.

In through the Sea Gate with its winged lion, the Square of Arms, St Tryphon's cathedral (about €3, includes the treasury) and St Luke's Square. Small enough that getting lost is the point. The cats are a genuine local institution.

Climb to San Giovanni fortress — if the legs are willing

Roughly 1,350 steps up the cliff behind the town, 45–90 minutes to the top, around €8–15 cash at the gate. The official signed entrance is the only one open; the informal gaps in the walls were sealed off.

Late afternoon is the right time and not only for the crowds: the stone is out of the sun, the light down the bay is at its best, and you climb in the low twenties rather than the low thirties. Sunset is a few minutes before 19:00, so start by five and carry a phone torch for the last of the descent.

Entirely skippable. You will already have had the high view from the cable car this morning, and there is no shame in a drink at Ombra on the square instead.

Last dinner

Restaurant Galion — seafood, on the water directly beneath the city walls, looking back at the ramparts. The most dramatic table in Kotor after dark and two minutes from the fortress gate. Order the crni rižot.

For beef instead, Marenda Steak House is on the same waterfront. Or back to Moments.

Breakfast, settle up, check out

Breakfast normally opens at 07:00. Ask on Wednesday whether they will do you something earlier, or take coffee and pastry to go.

Transfer to Tivat

Confirm the pickup time with the transfer company on Tuesday. At the airport by about 08:00 gives you three hours.

Register for the lounge first — it is also the fast lane

The Fly Montenegro Business Lounge at Tivat is airside, open 08:00–18:00, three hours maximum stay — and lounge guests go through the Business Class security lane rather than the main queue. You register at the Menzies Aviation desk landside, opposite the check-in desks, and they give you a voucher.

So it solves the drink and the queue in one move. Note the bar is beer and wine only, not spirits.

If the lounge is full — Tivat security is the real risk

This is the one genuine pinch point of the trip. Tivat is a small airport handling far more traffic than it was built for, security runs a couple of lanes, and the queue routinely takes an hour or more when several departures bunch up. There is very little airside once you are through.

Three hours is right for an 11:10 departure. Bag drop and passport control are quick; it is the security line that eats the time.

EZY8812 · Tivat → Gatwick

Lands 13:15 UK time. Note the airport: you fly out of Luton and back into Gatwick, so nothing you leave at Luton comes home with you.

Train home

Thameslink runs direct from Gatwick Airport straight through to Harpenden — no changes, roughly 1 h 10 to 1 h 30 depending on the service, and they are frequent. The station is under the South Terminal.

Book in advance and it is around £15 each; walk-up on the day is roughly double. Home mid-afternoon.