Montenegro is another of these places i’ve always wanted to visit, without being entirely sure of the reasons why. One of Europe’s newest countries, it narrowly voted by referendum in 2006 to become independent of Serbia and go it alone. We’d already driven through Montenegro on our way from Albania to Dubrovnik, but this time we would be driving to the capital city, Podgorica (pronounced pod-gore-itza) and using it as a base to explore the rest of the country.
We arrived in Podgorica and the first thing we noticed was the heat. It had been a comfortable 30 degrees in Dubrovnik, but in Podgorica the summer highs regularly hit 40 degrees so the apartment air conditioning went straight on. Podgorica is visually very different to other cities in the region – it appears neither modern nor historic, neither big nor small and neither posh nor run down. The city is split into a number of distinct areas – an ‘old town’ area inside the ancient city walls, the Downtown area – a series of 1960s American blocks built during the Yugoslavia era (when the city was named Titograd), and a new town – where the most recent development has taken place. Our apartment was in the Downtown area, just off the main pedestrianised street, Herzegovaka.
The first day we explored Podgorica, easy to do on foot given its small size. The city is built along a river – but unique in that the river is situated in a canyon surrounded by greenery. Walking down steps cut into the cliff edges it is easy to forget that you are in a major city and escape into what looks almost like a forest.
View of the river through Podgorica – looking more like a forest
We then walked round Downtown and the main city square – an ugly 1960s development with a fountain, deserted given the heat. The new town is the most developed part of the city, with a new shopping mall and a new development called Capital Plaza, funded by the government of the UAE. Development in Podgorica (and Montenegro as a whole) is massively international compared with that of Tirana. Capital Plaza contains the region’s only Hard Rock Cafe, as well as coffee shops and a gym. A hotel was being completed in the Plaza – with posters advertising it as a sister hotel to a chain with resorts in Dubai and the Seychelles. Outside of this development however, Podgorica remains fairly basic, with Communist-style architecture and a lot of abandoned sites. Tiring of pizza and pasta being pretty much the only options in most restaurants, we ate in the Hard Rock Cafe – a luxury given the prices were less than half what they would be in Western Europe.
The modernity of the new developments in Podgorica, contrasted with the derelict sports centre
Given the relatively small size of Montenegro, we chose Podgorica as a base to explore the rest of the country, including places we had driven past on our long drive to Dubrovnik. The next day we decided to drive down toward the coast and visit the famous town of Kotor, in what is claimed to be Southeastern Europe’s only fjord – the bay of Kotor. For the drive to Kotor we chose to avoid the main road and head down a winding path down into the bay. This offered some spectacular views, and some spectacularly sketchy driving – especially when you meet a coach halfway round a hairpin bend with no barriers stopping either vehicle from plummeting into the valley below. After descending round about 40 hairpin bends, eventually we reached Kotor, a walled Old Town similar to Dubrovnik, and a key tourist destination on any Montenegrin cruise stop.
The stunning view of the Bay of Kotor from the top of the mountain pass
Kotor is less touristy than Dubrovnik (or at least it will be until it inevitably becomes the setting for a Game of Thrones-esque series) and we enjoyed walking around the town and going for lunch. Afterwards, we got back in the car and headed for another one of Montenegro’s internationally funded development projects – Porto Montenegro. Think Saint Tropez for the 21st century, the sole aim of the port is to attract millionaires and billionaires (and their super yachts) away from the South of France and to bring their fat wallets to the Montenegrin seaside. The town is a new development but is beautifully styled and the Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren and Fendi shops are a real contrast to the basic shops in Podgorica. Porto Montenegro is so upmarket, there is a security guard with the sole purpose of telling tourists which yachts they can and can’t take photographs of.
The seafront, Porto Montenegro
After the glamour of Porto Montegro, we drove down the coast to Budva, another of the poster pictures for Montenegro’s growing tourist industry. If Kotor is Dubrovnik and Porto Montenegro is Saint Tropez, then Budva is definitely Montenegro’s Ibiza. This is the place of the 3 month long summer festival, where clubbers and beach goers from across Europe come for the party season. Budva does however have a very pretty Old Town, as well as a picturesque harbour and sea front.
View of the Old Town – Budva
On the drive back to Podgorica we encountered again the weird situation we encountered when driving into Montenegro from Bosnia. We reached a queue of traffic – clearly another Montenegrin last-minute roadworks road closure. Upon walking to the front of the queue we were told that the road would be closed for 2 hours, so we were left with little option other than to turn around and drive the way we had just come, back to Budva, down the coast to Petrovac, and through a new toll-tunnel under the mountains back to Podgorica. Oddly, most people in the queue (lots of Serbian cars) had decided to stick out the queue – clearly a 2 hour wait was still faster than trying to find another route to Belgrade. Montenegro may be a beautiful country, but its road network has a long long way to go before it is going to be able to encourage large number of tourists to venture away from the key tourist sites and visit the entire country.
The following morning we got back in the car and prepared for our longest drive (by distance) of the whole trip – 350km from Podgorica, through Albania, and up into Kosovo. Montenegro had certainly lived up to expectations – I don’t think i’ve ever visited anywhere so stunningly beautiful with so many places to see. If this has inspired you to visit Montenegro there are a couple of things i’d advise; be prepared to have a driving nightmare every time you get in the car – the roads are either slow and congested, closed, or precarious. Also, Montenegro uses the Euro (since independence in 2006) and whilst predominantly the country is as cheap as Bosnia and Albania to eat out, there is a developing Russian/wealthy European world (especially Porto Montenegro and the really touristy sites) where prices are pushing those of the South of France.
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