Next destination! I decided to group all 3 of these together because although they are all technically different cities, they are all in the same country of Montenegro and 2 of them were day trips taken from our home base in Podgorica.

I’ll start by saying this: Podgorica (or Montenegro in general) was never on our original travel list for this trip! I had actually visited Kotor, Montenegro on a cruise 3 years ago very briefly and thought it was very cool, but didn’t really put it on my list to return to. What ended up happening is that our bus ride from Belgrade to Dubrovnik actually got cancelled completely! This left us scrambling for solutions. We actually were planning on changing buses in Podgorica anyways, so we decided to just stay in Montenegro for a few days and catch a later bus to Dubrovnik (and I’m so glad we did).

Many of you reading this post may have no idea where Montenegro even is- and I think that’s pretty common! Montenegro is the country shaded red, so smack dab in the center of Eastern Europe and right on the beautiful Adriatic sea.

Although I knew many people went to Kotor and Budva, I’d never really heard much about Podgorica, the small capital of Montenegro nestled in between several mountains. On our bus ride, it was absolute countryside until about 2 minutes from the bus station, where a few buildings started appearing. Regardless, this city is pretty small with a total population of about 150,000 people.

We arrived October 6 at around 9 am from an overnight bus ride, so Evan was pretty tired. Having gotten a full night of sleep (classic) my plan was to go on a run to scope out the area. I got on my running gear and did about a 5 mile loop, quickly discovering that the water and natural beauty of this city was absolutely unmatched.

The city itself proved to have enough restaurants and entertainment as a home base, but we quickly booked a couple of day trips to make better usage of our time. We spent the rest of the day exploring and ended up eating absolutely MASSIVE gelato cones for dinner- we know, super healthy!

I woke up early the next day to take a sunrise run and it did not disappoint. The sunrise was almost as beautiful as Belgrade (as you can tell, I was definitely impressed)

That day we boarded a 2.5 hour bus ride to Kotor, which is a beautiful bay nestled in between so many mountains. It was the best experience. We ate at this really incredible meat shop called Tanjka where they literally sell you a platter of different kind of meats with toppings, fries, and dips to share with however many people you have. It was the best BBQ! We walked all over the island and spent several hours just lounging at the beach. At the end of the day we found a cute little garden where we got a glass of wine before we caught the last bus around 8:10 pm to head back to Podgorica. I would definitely recommend visiting Kotor for the day, especially if you are someone who loves to swim and enjoy the beach atmosphere! They have private boat tours where they take you to see the Lady of the Rock Church which is on this tiny island. I did that when I was there with my parents and it was also a really cool experience!

Day 3

The next morning I started my day in the best way- with a long run! I did 8 miles and the scenery was absolutely beautiful- only scary part was around mile 6 when there were a couple of huge German Shepards that chased me the long length of a fence (but luckily they couldn’t get me). That started my day off great 🙂

After I finished that we hopped on a bus around 11 am to go to Budva, another city in Montenegro that many people loved and recommended. I would say we recommend this city even more than Kotor. The old town is absolutely beautiful, it reminded us so much of Dubrovnik (which we hadn’t seen yet) with the completely authentic stone alleyways that you can just get lost in- and they had dozens of outdoor restaurants and bars with amazing outdoor furniture looking right over the ocean. This is 100% a vacation spot. As soon as we got there we walked pretty much the length of the coast, so about .8 miles. We ended up getting a glass of wine and lunch at this adorable outdoor restaurant called Casper Bar. I got a delicious monte cristo croissant and Evan got a yummy wrap and olives. It reminded us so much of France or Italy! After lunch we walked to see the famous dancer statue, and all along the way were kids playing on the beach, street artists selling their local art, and pizza shops in little alleyways advertising amazing-smelling pizza. We walked around old town for quite a while and ended up settling on the beach around 4 pm. We also went to a nearby grocery store before for some beach refreshments. We watched kids play and the sun set- and when it did we took a walk down to the famous Mogren beach- it’s secluded and past all the restaurants, but the view is so worth it!

We went to dinner at a place on the beach that advertised an 8 euro seafood pasta and glass of wine and did not regret it. We talked, enjoyed our seafood by the beach, and enjoyed another great night before heading back to the bus station around 8:30 pm to head back to Podgorica. The trip from Budva to Podgorica is only about 1.5 hours (so doable!)- but we were headed to Dubrovnik the next day.

If you’re a beach lover, I 10/10 recommend Montenegro. The combination of beach and mountains is truly stunning and so unique. Budva feels like your typical beach destination- there is no shortage of beach restaurants, shops, and gelato to make your vacation amazing. Although this was not a planned stop I know both of us are glad that we added it into our itinerary.