The Bay of Kotor: the walls before the ships, then a boat all day

Kotor, Perast, Morinj, Herceg Novi

1. 7 am1

   The Old Town at seven, before the first tenderKotor

   The cruise berth is two hundred metres from the Sea Gate, which is the whole problem with Kotor and the whole reason for this hour. The first passengers are inside by about half eight; between seven and eight the squares belong to cats, bread deliveries and people going to work, and it is the only time the twelfth-century cathedral square reads as a town rather than a set. Nothing is open. That is the point.

   8 min walk · 600 m
2. 8 am2

   1,350 steps up to San Giovanni, in the shadeKotor

   Two hundred and sixty metres of vertical on rough steps, and the only variable that matters is shade: the wall is in the mountain's shadow until roughly ten and is a furnace after it. The ticket booths at both gates open at eight and the staff work their way up the path, so an earlier start is a free start but not an honest one. The free-ish alternative is the Ladder of Kotor, the old switchback mule track behind the town that joins the wall higher up — there is a collector on that route now too, and it is an hour longer, so take it for the walk rather than the saving. Two litres of water; there is one drinks stall halfway and it knows what it has. Verified 2026-09-06: the ticket booths are staffed and charging 08:00-20:00 from May to September, the adult fare is €15 (under-12s free) and the ticket is valid for the whole day. So 08:00 is the first honest start, the shade window before ten is real, and the 1,350 steps are the published count.

   8 min walk · 600 m
3. 10:30 am3

   Meet the skipper and run up the bayKotor

   A skippered boat for the day out of Kotor is the difference between the Boka and the Boka's bus tours, and the price is real money — agree the route before you pay, because most operators default to Our Lady of the Rocks and back inside ninety minutes and call it a day charter. Ask specifically for the Blue Cave down at Luštica, the abandoned submarine tunnels cut into the cliffs near Rose, and the Verige strait taken slowly, which is where the bay narrows to three hundred metres and the Venetians strung a chain across it.

   15 min by train or taxi · 9.3 km
4. 11:30 am4

   Our Lady of the Rocks, which people builtPerast

   The island is man-made — two centuries of Perast sailors dropping rocks onto a reef, and they still add to it every 22 July at the Fašinada, rowing out at dusk with stones. Pay the small extra for the museum upstairs: the silver votive plaques left by crews who came home, and a tapestry a woman spent twenty-five years embroidering with gold thread and her own hair while waiting for a sailor who did not. The cypress island next door is a working monastery and landing is not allowed, so do not ask the skipper to try. Verified 2026-09-06: the church and its museum keep seasonal hours — roughly to 17:00 in April, May, September and October, to 18:00 in June and to 19:00 in July and August — so this stop only works late in high summer and belongs before lunch in the shoulder season, which is where it already sits. Entry is €2-3 including the short talk in the church.

   8 min by train or taxi · 3.2 km
5. 12:30 pm5

   Lunch in the watermills at MorinjMorinj

   An old watermill complex at the head of the bay with the stream running under the tables and trout in it. It is the meal people remember from Montenegro and it takes two hours whether you have them or not, so build the day around it rather than squeezing it. Book, and arrive by boat — there is a jetty, and the road approach through Kostanjica is slow. Let them bring the bread, the oil and the mussels before you order anything else.

   13 min by train or taxi · 13 km
6. 2:30 pm6

   The Blue Cave, deliberately lateHerceg Novi

   Down at the mouth of the bay near the Luštica peninsula, an hour's run. The tour flotilla is there between eleven and one and there is genuinely not room for all of them, so being late is the correct strategy — by half two you may have it. The colour comes from light entering under the water rather than through the mouth, so swim rather than photograph; the phone will not get it and you will be disappointed. The submarine tunnels near Rose are five minutes further and take about ten.

   15 min by train or taxi · 15 km
7. 5 pm7

   Up the campanile at PerastPerast

   Perast is one street, no cars, and a wall of coach parking at the entrance until about five, when it empties and becomes the best hour of the day here. A couple of euros gets you up the bell tower of St Nicholas on wooden stairs, and you look straight down onto both islands with the bay behind them. Uncommitted — if lunch has run long, and it will, this is the stop to drop.

   3 min walk · 0 m
8. 8 pm8

   Dinner at the quiet end of PerastPerast

   At the far, quiet end of the waterfront away from the tour-boat jetty. There is barely a menu — a set run of Boka dishes, mostly from the bay, and they want telling in the morning that you are coming. If you would rather sleep in Kotor, the equivalent there is Galion under the fortress, which has the view of the Old Town and, on a bad night, of a cruise ship parked in front of it.