Tivat & Porto Montenegro: the back story

About Tivat & Porto Montenegro: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Podgorica Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Tivat faces the widest, sunniest part of the Bay of Kotor, about an hour and a half by road from Podgorica, and its airport makes it many visitors’ first sight of Montenegro. It is a relaxed, easy-going town: a promenade of palms and cafés, a yacht harbour, and islands and old villages within a short boat ride or drive.

Summer palaces

Long ago, Kotor’s noble families chose Tivat for their summer houses. The finest survivor is the Buća Luković residence, begun in the 14th century, with its chapel of St Michael and a tower gate.

A garden town

Tivat’s seafarers brought plants home from their voyages, and in 1892, under Austro-Hungarian rule, a park was laid out on land belonging to the Radalli and Verona families. Today Tivat City Park is a cool green oasis whose trees, some 130 years old and 25 metres tall, shade the centre on hot afternoons.

In Tivat the bay opens wide and sunny, and the masts of Porto Montenegro sway beside a 1933 sailing ship.

From arsenal to marina

For many years the waterfront was a naval arsenal. Today it is Porto Montenegro, a luxury marina of superyacht berths, waterfront apartments, restaurants and cafés, joined seamlessly to the town’s Pine promenade. Moored at the quay is the training ship Jadran, built in Hamburg and launched to Tivat in 1933.

Islands of the bay

Across the water lie Sveti Marko, the largest island in the Bay of Kotor, and the Flower Island, Miholjska Prevlaka, with its monastery of the Archangel Michael. Inland, the stone village of Gornja Lastva climbs the slopes of Vrmac, and the Solila salt pans are a protected Ramsar wetland for migrating birds.

Our advice: arrive by the morning, walk the Pine promenade to Porto Montenegro for coffee, take a boat to the islands after lunch, and stay for sunset over the bay. Spring and early autumn are the loveliest; July and August are hot and busy.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Tivat & Porto Montenegro: the back story before you go.