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What comes to mind when you picture Kotor, Montenegro?
It’s not typically on the short list when Americans imagine a European vacation.
This city has SO much to offer though and I highly recommend adding it to your Balkan itinerary.
Kotor’s beauty
First things to know – Kotor is a walled medieval city, situated on a bay, and surrounded by gorgeous mountains. It’s full of winding pathways, little shops and restaurants, and well-fed, friendly cats.
It’s easy to get lost as you wander the paths through town. It’s the type of place that makes it fun to imagine you’ve gone back in time, or maybe entered the pages of a fantasy novel, right before a sword fight breaks out.
Something special about Kotor is that no cars are allowed inside the walls of the city. This contributes to the feeling of having stepped back in time and makes it very peaceful to wander around the city and dine outside.
Kotor’s cats
People in Kotor love their cats! There are cat statues, cat souvenirs, and friendly cats roaming the city. There’s even a cat museum to visit!
These aren’t sad, hungry cats either. The shops and restaurants leave food and water out for them and, of course, many of the cats have owners to go home to at night.
Kotor has really adopted the cats as part of its identity which gives the city a fun dimension, especially if you’re a cat lover.
Kotor Beach
Kotor is located on the Bay of Kotor and offers a stunning beach right outside the city walls. We easily walked to the beach in flip flops in a few minutes from our apartment in the Old Town.
There are beach chairs and umbrellas available for a small fee. If you’re there in the summer, the umbrella will be essential, considering the heat and strong sun. When we visited in July, the temperatures were in the 90s (F) or mid-30s (C).
Kotor’s food
Unsurprisingly, seafood is popular in Kotor, especially shrimp and squid. Everything we had was delicious.
I had a conversation with a waiter in Kotor that surprised me and made me laugh.
Waiter: You know how I knew you were Americans?
Me: Our accents?
Waiter: No, your Sapphire card. All of the traveling Americans have one.
We’re clearly not the only ones who’ve discovered the value!
Where to stay
We stayed at the Lana and Ena Apartments, right in the heart of the city. The owner is very friendly and made sure that we had everything we needed. The apartment is perfectly located in the middle of everything, but stayed very quiet. We enjoyed the exposed stone inside the rooms. There was even laundry available, which works well with our packing strategy.
If you’re interested in booking with Ultimate Rewards points, you can choose to book any hotel through the Chase Travel Portal or transfer points to Hyatt to book the Hyatt Regency Kotor Bay for 15,000 points per night. The Hyatt is outside of the Old Town though, so make sure to keep the location in mind if that’s important to you.
One thing to note – some small independent hotels may not be included in the travel portal. Compare the prices on the portal to booking.com to be sure you’re not missing out on a better deal in Kotor.
This map shows you both hotels and rental apartments. You can customize your dates.
How to get to Kotor
The closest airport is Tivat Airport, which is only 5 km away. If you are flying from the USA, you will likely fly into a larger airport like Dubrovnik, Croatia or Podgorica, Montenegro.
We flew from Minneapolis to Amsterdam to Split, Croatia using Ultimate Rewards points transferred to Virgin Atlantic. We used Virgin Atlantic to book Delta and KLM flights.
On the way home, we used United miles to fly from Podgorica, Montenegro to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Our flights were a mix of Lufthansa and United flights.
We visited Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina before Kotor and hired a driver to take us from Mostar to Kotor. The distances are short between incredible locations in the Balkans. Since there were four of us, the cost of a driver made sense, but if you are traveling solo or with a partner, Flixbus also has routes between Kotor and other nearby cities.
Day trips from Kotor
Northern Albania
It’s easy to take a day trip to northern Albania from Kotor. There’s plenty to see there and I recommend exploring this interesting country. Check out my blog post for more info.
Budva
Budva is only a short distance from Kotor, 30-40 minutes depending on traffic. We spent an afternoon there and found it to be very quiet and a little more upscale than Kotor.
There were a variety of jewelry and high end fashion boutiques. It didn’t fit us as well as Kotor, but the Old Town is worth checking out.
Perast
Perast is a short drive from Kotor. You can take a boat ride and guided tour from Kotor on an easy day trip.
Final thoughts
Kotor, Montenegro is one of my favorite cities. I loved wandering the stone pathways and looking up at the beautiful mountains surrounding the city. Kotor is rapidly gaining in popularity and prices are going up. If you are considering a trip to Kotor, you can easily add it to a Balkan itinerary and I recommend you do!