Žukotrlica
A kilometre of pebbles under mature Aleppo pines at the northern end of Bar’s seafront, the start of the 3.6 km King’s Promenade and the town beach locals use.
Our verdict
Žukotrlica is Bar’s pine beach: about 1,000 m of pebble shore with real trees behind it, several contracted sectors and the free halves the public-beach rules require. It is the first stage of the King’s Promenade, so a swim here pairs naturally with the walk past Šušanj and Topolica to King Nikola’s palace and the marina. The pines are the reason to come; the sea is open, honest and not always calm.
Žukotrlica, in facts
The shore
Facilities
Access
Rules and character
Facts verified September 28, 2026 · Length: Tourism Organisation of Bar (about 1,000 m, 55,000 m²), quoted in our guide · Facilities from OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL · 8 more still to check on the ground
Žukotrlica in pictures
Photographs and footage by Montenegro.com, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Ours were shot on September 20, 2026.
Žukotrlica in motion
Under the pines of Žukotrlica, the sea a few steps away
Small waves on the pebbles at Žukotrlica
Photographs and footage by Montenegro.com, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Ours were shot on September 20, 2026.
Map
The shaded water is the official bathing zone for station Žukotrlica 01 — the stretch JP Morsko dobro actually samples, not an outline of the beach.
Getting there
2.6 km
Bar
23 km
Ulcinj
28 km
Budva
Straight-line distances — Montenegro's roads are mountain roads, so the drive is longer.
- On the The King's Promenade walkStop: zukotrlica
- By carNorth of the centre off the Bar–Sutomore road; parking rules and availability change street by street — use the current signs
- 25 min on footflat — Along the seafront from King Nikola’s Palace through Topolica and Šušanj — the King’s Promenade, 3.6 km end to end
Today at Žukotrlica
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
7 of 10 samples Excellent across the 2026 season
Official result from JP Morsko dobro, station Žukotrlica 01
Three official points; the 2026 season ran from Excellent to Sufficient — the most mixed record on the Bar coast
No award we can cite for this beach. Absence is information too.
Know before you swim
- Pebbles shift underfoot at the waterline and the bottom drops quickly — swimming shoes help, and children need watching
- An open bay: small waves run on to the pebbles whenever the wind is up, even on a September day
- Water results vary point to point; 2026 had four Sufficient classifications — check the monitor after heavy rain
- Pine roots and needles make the shaded backshore uneven; the shade itself moves with the sun
When the water is warm
Žukotrlica was at its warmest, 27.4 °C, on August 31, 2026, and at its coldest, 19.5 °C, on May 25, 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 3 samplings that came back below Excellent.
See all 10 samplings
| Sampled | Sea | Result |
|---|---|---|
| September 28, 2026 | 20.0 °C | Excellent |
| September 14, 2026 | 24.2 °C | Excellent |
| August 31, 2026 | 27.4 °C | Excellent |
| August 17, 2026 | 26.0 °C | Good |
| August 3, 2026 | 24.1 °C | Excellent |
| July 20, 2026 | 24.5 °C | Excellent |
| July 6, 2026 | 21.6 °C | Excellent |
| June 23, 2026 | 24.0 °C | Good |
| June 8, 2026 | 22.2 °C | Good |
| May 25, 2026 | 19.5 °C | Excellent |
Season by season
Žukotrlica has been sampled 69 times since 2020: 45 of those readings Excellent, 24 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 | 9 | — | 23.6 °C | 25.5 °C |
| 2021 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 25.5 °C | 28.4 °C |
| 2022 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 23.5 °C | 25 °C |
| 2023 | 10 | 3 | 7 | 24.8 °C | 27 °C |
| 2024 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 23.8 °C | 25.5 °C |
| 2025 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 22.8 °C | 24.4 °C |
| 2026in progress | 10 | 7 | 3 | 24.7 °C | 27.4 °C |
Licensed as
The state leases this coast lot by lot. Žukotrlica is tendered as 8 lots covering about 976 m of shore, each with an official category.
| Category | Lots | Shore |
|---|---|---|
| Family bathing | 8 | 976 m |
About 18,317 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
Žukotrlica and its neighbours
The same nine measures for the beaches you could reach the same day. Bold means it differs from this one.
| Measure |  Žukotrlicathis beach |  Sutomore3.5 km |  Čanj8.6 km |  Veliki Pijesak10.0 km |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surface | pebble | sand and fine pebble — differs | sand and fine pebble — differs | pebble |
| Entry | moderate | gentle — differs | moderate | moderate |
| Depth | deepens quickly | shallow — differs | shallow — differs | deepens quickly |
| Shade | trees and umbrellas | umbrellas for hire — differs | umbrellas for hire — differs | umbrellas for hire — differs |
| Character | organised and free sections | organised — differs | organised — differs | organised — differs |
| Length | 1000 m | 1250–1600 m | 1100–1200 m | 380–480 m — differs |
| Latest water | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent |
| Crowd | quiet | busy in season — differs | quiet | busy in season — differs |
| Getting there | by road | by road | by boat — differs | by road |
Stay near Žukotrlica
All stays in Bar →
The full guide
Read the Žukotrlica guide
Everything above is the short form. The guide has the sources, the sector codes, the sampling dates and the things that change within a season.
Questions
- Is Žukotrlica a protected area?
- On paper. Ratac with Žukotrlica was declared a natural monument in 1968; a 2024 revision covering 155.18 ha was not adopted. The pines are the visible legacy of that status.
- How clean is the water?
- Variable. Across three official monitoring points the 2026 season to 17 August produced 11 Excellent, 6 Good, 4 Sufficient and no Bad classifications; the August round put points 01 and 02 at Good. Check monitoring.morskodobro.me after rain.
- How do I walk there from Bar?
- Take the King’s Promenade in reverse: from the cathedral through the centre, past the marina and King Nikola’s Palace, along Topolica and Šušanj to Žukotrlica — 3.6 km, flat, about 45 minutes.
Sources
- montenegro.com — Žukotrlica guide (/cities/bar/zukotrlica-pine-beach-bar)
- montenegro.com — Bar city hub and the King’s Promenade walk page
- Morsko Dobro bathing-water monitor (monitoring.morskodobro.me), 2026 season, and BarInfo’s report on the August 2026 round
- OpenStreetMap — beach relation 13048448 (sector 7C; centre used for the coordinates)