Montenegro kept getting better and better throughout our two week stay. We started in Ulcinj, a town just over the border from Albania. The highlights of our two day stay in Ulcinj was the coastline and the hostel. We hadn’t been on the coast since Vlore so it was nice to have access to beaches again. Like our experience on the Albanian coastline, it was the off-season and filled with almost exclusively locals. During our only full day in Ulcinj, Sam and I hiked on a cliffside path on the Adriatic Sea. The five mile hike ended on a long sandy beach. Other than a small old town that sits right on the coast, the part of the waterfront that is developed is mostly clubs. In talking to our hostel owner, we got the sense that people mostly visit Ulcinj to go clubbing. While Ulcinj wasn’t our favorite place to visit, we loved the hostel we stayed at, Pirates Hostel. Specifically, we loved the hostel owner, Koko. His energy along with his love for life and for the town of Ulcinj made our visit worth it. One night when Sam and I were playing cards in the kitchen area Koko comes in all excited: “do you guys want to see newborn kittens?” He leads us through the backyard while explaining that his neighbor’s cat who hangs out in his garage climbed through the window a couple of nights ago and gave birth to a litter of kittens. Since then the cat and its eight kittens were just staying in his garage. He opens the door to his garage and turns on the light: you can’t even see the floor because of the piles of stuff everywhere. He motions for Sam and I to climb on top of all this stuff to peer around a corner and see these kittens, all nuzzled in their mother. He eagerly insisted we both hold the kittens, who were all smaller than the palm of our hands. The next day we had planned on taking the bus to get to Budva, a town about an hour north of Ulcinj. Koko was already going to Budva and was quick to offer us a ride. Turns out he was going to Freedom Hostel to drop off something, which is the hostel we were staying at in Budva. He chatted the whole way up the coast, telling us about Montenegro and pointing out important landmarks. When we got to Freedom Hostel, we said our goodbyes to Koko and checked into our dorm room.

Budva was really beautiful. It’s the second most popular town to visit in Montenegro (after Kotor), and we quickly understood why. The old town, also on the coast, was much bigger than Ulcinj’s with significantly more restaurants and shops. You can go through an archway from old town and be right on a sandy beach. From that small sandy beach, you can walk around a cliff on a stone path to another, more hidden sandy beach. On the other side of old town was the rest of the (decently large) city. Unlike Ulcinj, there was a public boardwalk right in town and right along the water. Our morning runs are so much more enjoyable when we can run right along the water. Back away from the waterfront where all the boats were, was the city streets of Budva. You can tell that the city has invested in its public infrastructure. There are beautiful parks and well-maintained historic buildings, all making it an attractive city even without the waterfront.

Our favorite day in Budva was our bike ride 9 miles up the coastline to a famous island called Sveti Stefan (fun fact Novak Djokovic got married here). Now connected to the mainland via a narrow tombolo (definition: a bar of sand joining an island to the mainland). While the island itself isn’t open for exploration by visitors, you can cross over the tombolo to stand on the edge of the island and take in the views.

The ride itself, even without the end point being this stunning island, was so worth it. We biked along the waterfront where we had been running each morning until we made it to this tunnel that connected us to another waterfront with a beach which we biked along until we went through yet another tunnel that connected us to another waterfront. Along the way there were so many beaches to stop at. We stopped at one of the beaches to grab lunch and go swimming. We rode back to old town in the late afternoon sunshine with salt on our skin. No better feeling.

On Saturday April 19, Sam and I made our way to the Budva bus station and got on an hour long bus ride up north to Kotor. Immediately upon arriving in Kotor we could understand why it was many people’s favorite place in Montenegro.

Our first full day was Easter Sunday, so we planned it to be our hike day as we anticipated much would be closed. Sam had read about a hike that starts right outside of Old Town Kotor and brings you to up to right above the Kotor Fortress, which sits on a steep hill above town. After hiking about 45 minutes, we hit a point where we could enter into the fortress or keep going up. We decided to keep going up. It was a pretty long hike but the views of the Bay of Kotor were insanely gorgeous and it was a particularly warm and sunny day. I had no complaints. The video below shows the view from the top of the hike. We then proceeded to head down towards the fortress. We didn’t realize how long the hike would be, so we didn’t bring water. Dehydrated, we stopped at the only mountainside cafe which was run by this older man out of his home. We ended up being very happy that we forgot water. First of all, the views were obviously unmatched. Second of all, the fresh pomegranate juice they served was so good. Third, the owner gave us Easter eggs (dyed hard boiled eggs, pictured below). And lastly, we got into a great conversation about traveling, Trump and Brexit with an older British couple and a Polish woman in her 30’s, who had also stopped at this mountainside cafe. We left with a little pep in our step, as we always do after connecting with people during this trip, and made our way down to the fortress. The funny thing about this fortress was that you have to climb through a pretty high up window to get into the fortress. The other way in is down right in Old Town, but you have to pay 15 Euro to get in. Sam, in researching the fortress, found this way of entering the fortress as better, mostly due to the fact that it included a hike. We made our way down the stairs of this fortress, which was pretty, but nothing worth spending money to see especially after seeing the even more spectacular views of the hike. We figured we would exit near Old Town and head to lunch. Unfortunately, we found when we got to the bottom that we actually couldn’t exit through the normal way without a ticket, something that must be a new policy because the blog that Sam had read told us we could exit through the normal way. So up we went, with another couple who had made the same mistake as us, to go back up these stairs and drop down back through the window that we had entered in through, and back down the whole mountain. We ended up hiking over eleven miles which was way more than either of us anticipated, but it’s a funny story to share (and a warning for anyone planning on sneaking through the Kotor Fortress window) and a great few hours spent in nature.

The next day, Monday we ran and went to one of Kotor’s two outdoor gyms and then spent the rest of the day resting, reading, and swimming at the beach in town. Especially with the end of our trip nearing, Sam and I are being more conscious about implementing rest days so we don’t get back to NYC at the end of May completely exhausted.

Tuesday we went boating! One of the big attractions in Kotor is the Blue Cave, which is right outside of the Bay of Kotor in the Adriatic Sea. This excursion is three hours and included a stop at an island we had planned on visiting also called Our Lady of the Rock, a visit to one of the Submarine Tunnels built during the Cold War, and the Blue Cave. I sent messages through WhatsApp to about five of the companies that offer trips to the Blue Cave to get one with the best pricing. When you are budget traveling, especially in these newer tourist destinations like Montenegro, there is usually room for negotiation on the pricing of excursions. We ended up having such a great time. The boat ride itself was so stunning - there’s something so invigorating about being on a boat on a sunny day. We arrived at Our Lady of the Rock, which is a small human-made island in the Bay across from Perast. It has a church on it (which costs 3 Euros to get in) and stunning views of the surrounding landscape. Then we were brought onto another boat with new people as well as people from our original boat (traveling in places that are more recently tourist destinations also keeps you on your toes). We then made it to one of the Submarine Tunnels (video below) which was really interesting to see. From the Submarine Tunnel we headed out of the Bay and to the Blue Cave. Once we left the Bay and got into the Adriatic Sea, the water quickly got choppy. Everyone on the boat was getting soaking wet and I thought we may go overboard at a couple points. I thought maybe I had made a mistake picking the cheapest option for this tour, but I looked around and saw all the other tour boats rocking back and forth and full of spraying water. We finally pulled into the cave and saw that all the passengers on the other tour boats were soaking wet too. The Blue Cave, famous for its ethereal blue light, was definitely cool. When you look back towards the light when you’re in the cave, sun's rays bounce off the bottom of the cave and give the water a gorgeous azure glow. There’s a picture below but it doesn’t quite capture how enchanting it was in person. Right outside the Blue Cave about half the people in the boat jumped off and swam around a bit before heading back towards Kotor. Sam and I were both very glad we went. Although it is probably the most “touristy” Kotor adventure, it is truly worth the hype. The Blue Cave was great to see, but it was truly everything together, including simply the time enjoying being on a boat in a beautiful place, that made it so special.

Wednesday April 23 AKA Sam’s birthday was the most special day of Montenegro. I planned the day as a surprise for him so it wasn’t until we woke up on Wednesday morning that I told him about our plan to bike thirty miles around the Bay of Kotor (map below) and stop in a popular small town called Perast for lunch. Sam being Sam still wanted to go on our morning run so we enjoyed a jog along the water and ended at Resto Bar Taraca, a place that sells juices and smoothies. After going to our Airbnb to quickly change and pack our bags, we headed to the bike rental place and picked up two bikes. And we were off! The bike ride was absolutely stunning. It was so great to finally get to see the other side of the Bay. It was funny - throughout the three days we were in Kotor prior to his birthday, Sam mentioned a few times he wanted to check out the neighborhoods across the Bay. I had to play along so that he would be surprised. This area was pretty much completely residential with a few cafes scattered along the road. Sam and I agreed that if we were to spend a longer period of time in Kotor we would want to stay on this side - it’s much calmer than Old Town but you can still access Old Town via boat or moped easily. About a third of the way into the bike ride you have to take a ferry to get across a strait between two parts of the bay. Right before the ferry, on a little cafe on the corner of the bay, we stopped for Americanos and a few games of cards. The ferry itself is for bikers, walkers, trucks, cars, etc., and runs every ten minutes. It’s free if you bike or walk on, which was nice. The next third of the bike ride after the ferry was a little more precarious. While it was still gorgeous, it was in the shoulder of a pretty busy and curvy road. It started raining so we stopped in another cafe for another Americano and some card games as we waited out the shower. About twenty minutes of biking later and we were in Perast. I had read about Perast, a small town on the Bay of Kotor, and some locals and fellow travelers recommended we visit during our time here. It worked perfectly to stop in for lunch on our bike ride. We went to Restoran Armonia, which had a stunning view and some really good food that we shared. Perast itself was packed with tour groups and visitors. There’s a lot of restaurants, hotels, and shops along a mile or so long strip of road along the water. It is a pretty town - but I think a day trip here is perfect and that staying overnight is unnecessary. After ice cream at Montenegro’s famous Moritz Eis, we were ready to head back to Kotor and for the last third of our bike ride. Unfortunately, Sam’s bike was not ready to head back to Kotor. We found that his tire was now completely flat. After begging around Perast for someone to pump up his tire, we finally made it to the Perast Fire Station. A kind firefighter pumped it up for us and we were off. About five miles into the ride, it was flat again. We stopped into, what we later learned was one of the fanciest restaurants on the Bay of Kotor, Stari Mlini, to ask for help. One of the waiters, Micky, so kindly lead us to his car where he pumped up Sam’s tire using some sort of electric mechanism. Unfortunately, his tire was flat within the next five minutes. We alternated between walking and Sam running with his bike while I rode my bike for the last five miles. It wasn’t the most pleasant way to end our bike ride, especially on Sam’s birthday, but we had fun with it and made the most of it.

Kotor is definitely a must-visit in Montenegro. The Bay of Kotor is truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Its Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site is touristy yet beautiful and fun. There is plenty to do. If you are planning a trip to Montenegro I would recommend at least four nights in Kotor so you can hike, bike, swim, and leisurely enjoy the Old Town. I would definitely recommend visiting Budva for a night or two as well. While I would say you can skip out on Ulcinj, we heard good things about the capital of Montenegro, Podgorica.

Sam and I have one day left in Kotor. Originally we had booked five nights in Kotor, and we’ll end up staying eight nights. We left our original Airbnb in Old Town at the end of our booked stay on Friday, and are now staying in a guesthouse that is about two miles from Old Town. This guesthouse, called Accommodation Jokovic, is right on the bay. We actually found it during our morning runs along Bay of Kotor. Fun fact: Novak Djokovic is rumored to have bought a house just a mile from this guesthouse and he runs the same route Sam and I have been doing every morning. We’ve spent the last two days running, swimming, walking, and enjoying the quiet. We’re definitely happy to be in the quiet after five nights right in the center of Old Town.

And tomorrow, we head to Bosnia and Herzegovina, continuing our tour of The Balkans! Thanks for reading :)