Petrovac
Petrovačka plaža
A 600-metre crescent of reddish sand and fine shingle with a town promenade along its whole length and two chapel-topped islets offshore.
Our verdict
Petrovac is the family beach of the southern riviera: the sand really is red from the local rock, the water stays shallow and calm near the shore, and everything — cafés, gelato, restaurants, the bus terminus — sits on the promenade behind it. The Venetian Castello anchors the harbour end and the Katič and Sveta Nedjelja islets, now inside a protected marine area, give the bay its postcard. It is busy in July and August but it is a town, not a resort strip, and the better swimming at Lučice is a fifteen-minute walk over the headland.
Petrovac, in facts
The shore
Facilities
Access
Rules and character
Facts verified September 28, 2026 · Length: Budva Tourist Organisation (600 m, 9,525 m²); our city hub and 25-best list agree · Facilities from OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL · 8 more still to check on the ground
Petrovac in pictures
Photographs and footage by Montenegro.com, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Map
The shaded water is the official bathing zone for station Plaža Petrovac 01 — the stretch JP Morsko dobro actually samples, not an outline of the beach.
Getting there
13 km
Budva
18 km
Bar
28 km
Kotor
Straight-line distances — Montenegro's roads are mountain roads, so the drive is longer.
- On the The Roman Road walkThe Roman Road
- By busBudva–Petrovac (Mediteran Express, roughly hourly 06:10–23:10, terminus in town)
- By carPetrovac is 20 km south of Budva on the coast road; leave the car at the edge of town and walk in — the seafront is a promenade
- 5 min on footflat — From the bus terminus or the car parks at the edge of town along the promenade
Today at Petrovac
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 29, 2026: Excellent
Sea 21.5 °C when the sample was taken
9 of 10 samples Excellent across the 2026 season
Official result from JP Morsko dobro, station Plaža Petrovac 01
Calm and shallow near the shore, with the sampling point off the town beach rather than the islets
No award we can cite for this beach. Absence is information too.
Know before you swim
- Boats run in and out of the harbour under the Castello — keep to the buoyed bathing zone at that end
- The islets look close but are several hundred metres out across open water with boat traffic: do not swim to them
- The bay opens to the south-west, so a jugo sends swell straight onto the beach and the red shingle shifts underfoot
- Water-sports hire works from the beach in season — watch for the towing lane
When the water is warm
Petrovac was at its warmest, 27.9 °C, on June 23, 2026, and at its coldest, 20.4 °C, on May 26, 2026. Every point is a real sampling visit with the temperature read on the spot, not a monthly average copied from somewhere else.
The hollow point is the one sampling that came back below Excellent.
See all 10 samplings
| Sampled | Sea | Result |
|---|---|---|
| September 29, 2026 | 21.5 °C | Excellent |
| September 15, 2026 | 25.3 °C | Excellent |
| September 1, 2026 | 27.6 °C | Excellent |
| August 18, 2026 | 26.1 °C | Excellent |
| August 4, 2026 | 26.6 °C | Excellent |
| July 21, 2026 | 25.1 °C | Sufficient |
| July 7, 2026 | 21.1 °C | Excellent |
| June 23, 2026 | 27.9 °C | Excellent |
| June 9, 2026 | 22.5 °C | Excellent |
| May 26, 2026 | 20.4 °C | Excellent |
Official result from JP Morsko dobro, station Plaža Petrovac 01
Season by season
Petrovac has been sampled 69 times since 2020: 57 of those readings Excellent, 12 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 | 6 | 3 | 24.1 °C | 26 °C |
| 2021 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 25.8 °C | 27.8 °C |
| 2022 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 24.4 °C | 30 °C |
| 2023 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 24 °C | 28.3 °C |
| 2024 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 24.7 °C | 27.5 °C |
| 2025 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 22.8 °C | 25.6 °C |
| 2026in progress | 10 | 9 | 1 | 24.7 °C | 27.9 °C |
Official result from JP Morsko dobro, station Plaža Petrovac 01
Licensed as
The state leases this coast lot by lot. Petrovac is tendered as 12 lots covering about 664 m of shore, each with an official category.
Among them: Quiet bathing.
| Category | Lots | Shore |
|---|---|---|
| Family bathing | 6 | 417 m |
| Hotel beach | 5 | 208 m |
| Quiet bathing | 1 | 39 m |
About 9,851 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
Petrovac and its neighbours
The same nine measures for the beaches you could reach the same day. Bold means it differs from this one.
| Measure | Petrovacthis beach |  Lučice1.0 km |  Buljarica2.5 km |  Sveti Stefan7.0 km |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surface | sand and fine pebble | sand and fine pebble | sand and fine pebble | sand and fine pebble |
| Entry | gentle | gentle | moderate — differs | moderate — differs |
| Depth | shallow | shallow | shallow | deepens quickly — differs |
| Shade | umbrellas for hire | trees and umbrellas — differs | umbrellas for hire | umbrellas for hire |
| Character | organised | organised | organised and free sections — differs | organised |
| Length | 0.6 km | 0.2–0.3 km — differs | 2.2–2.5 km — differs | 0.3 km — differs |
| Latest water | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent |
| Crowd | busy in season | quiet — differs | quiet — differs | busy in season |
| Getting there | by road | by road | by road | by road |
Stay near Petrovac
All stays in Petrovac →
Questions
- Is Petrovac beach sandy?
- Reddish sand mixed with fine shingle — the Budva Tourist Organisation calls it a sand beach, our hub says sand and shingle. It is comfortable barefoot and the bottom near the shore is shallow.
- Can I swim to the islets?
- No. Katič and Sveta Nedjelja are several hundred metres offshore across open water used by boats. The protected marine area extends to the islets; see them from the Castello or on a boat trip from the harbour.
- How do I get to Lučice and Buljarica from here?
- On foot along the coastal path through the pines from the south-eastern end of the beach: Lučice is about 15 minutes, and the Roman Road walk continues over the next headland to Buljarica — around 8 km in all.
Sources
- Budva Tourist Organisation (budva.travel) — attraction 33 (Petrovačka plaža) and the public-transport page (Mediteran Express routes)
- montenegro.com — Petrovac city hub
- montenegro.com — “25 Best Beaches in Montenegro” (2026 list)
- OpenStreetMap — beach way 156809755