Mala plažasand · 400 m · water ExcellentUlcinj’s town beach: about 400 m of sand in an enclosed bay directly below the Kalaja walls, five minutes from the bus station and never quiet after ten.Mala plaža or Velika plaža?
Two beaches 7.8 km apart, measured the same way. Mala plaža and Velika plaža side by side, on the nine things that decide which one your afternoon should go to.
Mala plažasand · 400 m · water ExcellentUlcinj’s town beach: about 400 m of sand in an enclosed bay directly below the Kalaja walls, five minutes from the bus station and never quiet after ten.
Velika plažafine sand · 12–13 km · water ExcellentTwelve to thirteen kilometres of fine dark sand from Port Milena to the Bojana mouth, shallow for a long way out and swept by a thermal wind every summer afternoon.The short answer
Choose Mala plaža for
- loungers, food and somewhere to change
Choose Velika plaža for
- room — it is half again as long
- arriving by road
Measure by measure
| Measure | Mala plaža | Velika plaža |
|---|---|---|
| Surface | sand | fine sand |
| Entry | gentle | gentle |
| Depth | shallow | shallow far out |
| Shade | umbrellas for hire | umbrellas for hire |
| Character | organised | organised and free sections |
| Length | 0.4 km | 12–13 km |
| Latest water | Excellent | Excellent |
| Crowd | busy in season | busy in season |
| Getting there | on foot | by road |
Bold marks a measure where the two differ.
Each in our own words
Mala plaža
Mala plaža is where Ulcinj swims, eats and walks in the evening, with the fortified Old Town on the rock above every view. The sand is real, the bay shallow and sheltered, and the promenade behind it is lined with restaurants. It is a lively, multicultural town beach rather than a place for space, and it is the natural first stage of the Pinješ Pines walk east to Ženska plaža and Velika plaža.
From mid-morning in high summer it is crowded and loud, and nothing about toilets, lifeguards or water results is published for it; for room, go to Velika plaža.
Velika plaža
Velika plaža is not a beach you visit so much as a coast you choose a kilometre of. The named sections — Copacabana, Miami, Safari and their neighbours — have loungers, bars, fish restaurants and kite schools; the sand between them has nothing at all, and that is the point. Wade out waist-deep for a hundred metres in the morning, then give the afternoon to the maestral and the kites. It is the one beach in Montenegro that never fills.
The same wind that makes it a kite beach makes afternoon swimming a chore, and outside the sections there is no shade, no water and nobody watching; do not expect Blue Flag sectors or published water results here.