Mala plaža
Small Beach
Ulcinj’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.
Our verdict
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.
- families
- swimming
- nightlife
- photography
Mala plaža, in facts
The shore
Facilities
Access
Rules and character
Facts verified September 28, 2026 · Length: Our 25 Best Beaches list; no official figure found · Facilities from OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL · 11 more still to check on the ground
Mala plaža in pictures
Some of these are ours, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0; the rest are licensed and are not. Ours were shot in September 2026.
Map
The shaded water is the official bathing zone for station Mala plaža — the stretch JP Morsko dobro actually samples, not an outline of the beach.
Getting there
1.8 km
Ulcinj
21 km
Bar
51 km
Budva
Straight-line distances — Montenegro's roads are mountain roads, so the drive is longer.
- On the Pinješ Pines walkStop: mala-plaza
- By carParking in the centre is tight in summer; this is a beach you walk to from wherever you are staying in town
- 5 min on footflat — From the town centre along the promenade; the Old Town above is reached by steps from the beach end
Today at Mala plaža
Which way the beach faces is computed from the OpenStreetMap coastline, so onshore and offshore mean this shore and not the region. Forecast by Open-Meteo
Water and awards
Excellent
Latest official sample September 28, 2026: Excellent
Sea 20.0 °C when the sample was taken
2 of 10 samples Excellent across the 2026 season
Official result from JP Morsko dobro, station Mala plaža
An enclosed town bay: flat and clearest at 07:00, stirred by bathers and boats by midday
No award we can cite for this beach. Absence is information too.
Know before you swim
- The busiest sand in Ulcinj by mid-morning in July and August — a town beach with the town on it
- The swimming ledge under the Kalaja walls is bare rock: check the depth before you jump and mind wet stone
- Small boats work the harbour at the edge of the bay — stay inside the buoyed water
When the water is warm
Mala plaža was at its warmest, 27.0 °C, on August 31, 2026, and at its coldest, 20.0 °C, on September 28, 2026. Every point is a real sampling visit with the temperature read on the spot, not a monthly average copied from somewhere else.
Hollow points are the 8 samplings that came back below Excellent.
See all 10 samplings
| Sampled | Sea | Result |
|---|---|---|
| September 28, 2026 | 20.0 °C | Excellent |
| September 14, 2026 | 24.3 °C | Sufficient |
| August 31, 2026 | 27.0 °C | Good |
| August 19, 2026 | 23.4 °C | Good |
| August 3, 2026 | 24.4 °C | Sufficient |
| July 20, 2026 | 23.9 °C | Good |
| July 9, 2026 | 21.1 °C | Sufficient |
| June 22, 2026 | 23.1 °C | Sufficient |
| June 8, 2026 | 22.0 °C | Excellent |
| May 25, 2026 | 20.4 °C | Sufficient |
Season by season
Mala plaža has been sampled 69 times since 2020: 32 of those readings Excellent, 37 below it.
How warm the water got, season by season. The average is of the July and August samplings only — a fixed window, so a year the inspectors happened to come early does not read as a cold one.
A handful of seasons is a record, not a trend: the spread here is what a few dated readings look like, not evidence of a sea warming or cooling. A hollow point marks a season that recorded a sampling below Excellent.
| Season | Samplings | Excellent | Below | Jul–Aug mean | Warmest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 23.8 °C | 27 °C |
| 2021 | 10 | 3 | 7 | 25.5 °C | 26.3 °C |
| 2022 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 22.3 °C | 24.5 °C |
| 2023 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 25.1 °C | 27.1 °C |
| 2024 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 23.7 °C | 25.2 °C |
| 2025 | 10 | 3 | 7 | 22 °C | 24.7 °C |
| 2026in progress | 10 | 2 | 8 | 24 °C | 27 °C |
Licensed as
The state leases this coast lot by lot. Mala plaža is tendered as 4 lots covering about 254 m of shore, each with an official category.
| Category | Lots | Shore |
|---|---|---|
| Family bathing | 2 | 162 m |
| Hotel beach | 2 | 92 m |
About 7,692 m² in total. This is what has been licensed, not what we saw: the number of sunbeds, toilets and showers on a lot is fixed in the signed lease, which is not published. JP Morsko dobro tenders
Nearby beaches
Mala plaža and its neighbours
The same nine measures for the beaches you could reach the same day. Bold means it differs from this one.
| Measure | Mala plažathis beach |  Women's Beach0.8 km |  Velika plaža7.8 km |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surface | sand | pebble — differs | fine sand — differs |
| Entry | gentle | rocky — differs | gentle |
| Depth | shallow | deepens quickly — differs | shallow far out — differs |
| Shade | umbrellas for hire | natural — differs | umbrellas for hire |
| Character | organised | organised | organised and free sections — differs |
| Length | 0.4 km | 0.1–0.1 km — differs | 12–13 km — differs |
| Latest water | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent |
| Crowd | busy in season | quiet — differs | busy in season |
| Getting there | on foot | on foot | by road — differs |
Stay near Mala plaža
All stays in Ulcinj →
Questions
- How do I get to Mala plaža?
- Walk. It is the main beach directly below the Old Town walls, a few minutes from the town centre along the promenade. The Pinješ Pines walk starts at the Old Town and passes the beach on its way east.
- Is the sand real?
- Yes — OpenStreetMap and the Ulcinj hub both record sand; our 25-best list calls it sand-pebble. Either way it is finer than anything on the Budva riviera.
Sources
- montenegro.com — Ulcinj city hub and the Pinješ Pines walk page
- montenegro.com — 25 Best Beaches in Montenegro (rank 14)
- OpenStreetMap — beach way 156809746 (centre used for the coordinates)