KOTOR
05/10/2026 - 05/17/2026
We booked what should have been a direct bus from Tirana to Kotor Montenegro. It wasn’t exactly what we had in mind. We took a cab to the bus station which was pretty 3rd world-y. There were no boards with departure information, so we checked the destination signs in all the bus windows – no Kotor. So after wondering a bit we went into a little office that looked to be a tour company (not bus tickets or info). They parked us on the sidewalk and said “don’t move”. So we didn’t move. There were a few other people standing there not moving as well. Pretty soon we were told to go over to a van (not a bus and no destination sign in the windshield). The driver spoke little to no English and was very abrupt. None of us felt sure where the van was going. One couple only spoke Chinese. Another lady asked us where we were going and when we told her, she said she was going somewhere else. She attempted to ask the driver if he was going to both of our destinations, but he just barked at her. We all crammed in and hoped for the best!
We drove for almost 2 hours then made a bathroom stop. Then we drove for about another hour, crossed the border and after a bit stopped at a real bus station. The driver yelled for some people to stay in the van and for us and the Chinese couple to follow him. He took us into the bus station and got us tickets for a real bus to Kotor. He pointed to the bay where our bus would depart from and told us we were in charge of the Chinese couple! Our bus arrived after about 20 minutes, so we signaled to let the Chinese couple know that was our bus and we were finally feeling confident we were headed to Kotor! According to the ticket we purchased the trip should have taken about 4.5 hours, but all said and done it was closer to 6 hours. All good – we made it and it was an adventure! 😊
We arrived at about 8pm and walked to a little restaurant by the water. This town is GORGEOUS (and it takes a lot to impress us at this point!). The view of the mountains surrounding the bay and the fortress up high in the cliffs lit up at night was stunning!
We did a walking tour of the walled medieval old town our first morning. It is a maze of narrow, winding cobbled streets – and it was awesome! Kotor was founded by the ancient Romans over 2,000 years ago and has been ruled by pretty much everyone through the centuries (Byzantine Empire, medieval Serbia, Venice, France, and Austria). The biggest impact was from the 400 years of Venetian rule, so it has a very Italian feel.
We hiked up to the fortress above Kotor which is known as the Castle of San Giovanni (or Saint John Fortress) and is part of a 4.5-kilometer-long fortification system that rises nearly 920 feet above sea level. It is perched on the rugged limestone cliffs and takes 1356 stair steps to get to the top (yes… I counted!). It was a fun and somewhat challenging climb and the views at the top were totally worth it!
We thought the view from the fortress was incredible until we headed a bit outside of town and did the Lovcen cable car which rises 1350 meters. We could see the entire bay and it was incredible!! There is even an alpine coaster up there which was kind of fun – except when the stupid people in front of us kept putting on their brakes and forcing us to stop ☹
We did a boat tour that took us out to a couple little churches on tiny islands in the bay and a small town not far from Kotor.
Perhaps one of our favorite adventures was the Kraken FLOATING wine bar just outside of town! This place was so stinking cool. They had a winery in the middle of the country where the grapes are grown and the wine is made. Then they bring the bottles of wine to Kotor where it is aged for a year under the sea! The wine bar itself is a little floating platform that you access via boat and there are 10,000 bottles of wine aging 25 meters directly below you on the bottom of the sea! When you order, they pull the wine up in a basket – as you can imagine, the bottle is kind of grubby with little crustations starting to form on it! It was delicious!
No blog about Kotor would be complete without mention of the cats. They were initially brought around the 15th century on ships. After traveling all over the world, the ships held feline “sailors,” who kept rats and mice out of the supplies and goods on board. Once docked, the feline sailors would head into towns and take up permanent residence. They were welcome in Kotor to keep the rat population down and have been there since. They are vaccinated, well cared for and friendly. The walled city is a safe home for them as there are no unleashed dogs and no cars. The town is famous for its cat population, which has become an unofficial symbol of the city. There are all kinds of cat souvenirs and even a cat museum.
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