TIVAT

Why Tivat?

The best sunsets and views in the entire Bay of Kotor, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

How to get to Tivat?

The local airport is the main one for those coming to Montenegro for the sea. In the summer, there are many additional seasonal flights. Tivat itself is a five-minute drive from the airport.

What to do in Tivat?

Modern Tivat is the main infrastructure center of the Bay of Kotor. Boka Kotorska, as the locals call it, is an impressive submerged canyon, almost the largest in Europe.

Ten years ago, when Montenegro gained independence from Serbia, the city did not exist - just a small village near the former Yugoslav submarine base. In its place, a group of investors, including French businessman, president of the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy group of companies Bernard Arnault and gold miner Peter Munk, began creating the giant Porto Montenegro in the late 2000s as an alternative to the overloaded, terribly expensive and overly pretentious ports in Italy and France.

 Now the Adriatic Monte Carlo is one of the main reasons to go to Tivat. Even if you don’t have your own boat, you can arrange for yourself a first-class yacht spotting.

Use the Marine Traffic website, where you can see in real time what ships surround you and what makes them special.

Porto Montenegro has an excellent five-star Regent Hotel in the style of a Venetian palace, a regular participant in ratings of the best places for a honeymoon. In the summer, however, it is jam-packed and a bit expensive - from € 300 per night. And in the off-season, you can spend the night for € 150-170. 

If you need a more democratic option, but close to the party, feel free to choose Hotel Pine, in season a double room will cost € 90-100. There are myriads of simpler apartments and hotels, you can easily find respectable ones for € 30-40.

There are not many beaches in Tivat itself, but if you want to relax in the company of owners of nearby boats, you should go straight to the yacht club with an impressive 64-meter pool ending in the sea, a bar and a restaurant.

A place in the sun costs a lot - you will have to pay about € 50 for a sun lounger. Elite company and an almost ideal environment for filling your Instagram for the next week is an expensive pleasure, sorry. An alternative is the Almara beach club.

There are also simple and pleasant entertainments in Tivat. For example, you can rent a pedal catamaran or kayak and sail to the largest island in the bay – Sveti Marko. 

There are 4 km of wild beaches there! Try to get there before they start building it up.

If you like hiking, take comfortable shoes, a hat and water – and go on a hike from the Austro-Hungarian fortress of the Trinity (Trojica) along the pine-covered Vrmac ridge. 

Incredible views of the Bay of Kotor are guaranteed, so free up some space on your phone and camera.

At the end of the route, stop in the village of Gornja Lastva, the main attraction of which is the traditional 200-year-old house of the Stepčević family.

Returning to submarines, in Tivat you should definitely visit the Naval Heritage Collection museum (adult ticket - € 5, for children under 14 - € 2.5), which contains more than 300 exhibits, including the 50-meter submarine P-821. You can also see it inside.

Restaurants in Tivat mainly serve Mediterranean cuisine, you have to try hard to find Montenegrin. Among the good international ones, take a closer look at the Italian Al Posto Giusto and the Lebanese Byblos.

For an evening beer or cocktail, head to The Clubhouse bar, opened by Australians, where real sailors from the yachts moored at the berths gather. 

The atmosphere is quite in the spirit of "Pirates of the Caribbean", only the contingent is younger and much nicer.