Montenegro is a country of about 13,800 square kilometres in which you can go from sea level to 2,500 metres in the space of an hour's drive, and winter is the season that makes the difference obvious. In the north it is a normal mountain winter: deep snow, cleared passes, ski lifts running. On the coast it is usually green and wet, with lemons still on the trees. Every few years a cold spell collapses the distance between the two, and the photographs on this page come from one of those winters.
The winter the snow came down to the sea
In the space of a few weeks a severe cold wave crossed the whole of Europe, and Montenegro was not spared. In the north of the country nothing unexpected happened for the time of year, and the extra snow was welcome at the winter centres on Durmitor and Bjelasica. In the south, things happened that are close to unimaginable.
Podgorica sat under snow cover for days, and the white line came down almost to the shore of the sea. The capital is a low, hot city built on the Zeta plain, where January is normally a matter of grey rain and a few degrees above zero, so the sight of the municipal building, the monument to Marko Miljanov and the whole of the centre under snow was one residents remembered for years.
The old royal capital of Cetinje was the champion of that winter. In the course of a single night around a metre of snow fell on the town. Cetinje sits at roughly 670 metres in a karst field under Lovćen, and it is one of the snowiest inhabited places in the country in any year, but this buried it: the centre, the old Russian embassy building and entire houses disappeared under the drifts.
Along the Bay of Kotor the snow reached the waterline. Prčanj, the Verige strait and Perast were photographed with white roofs above dark green water, a combination that appears perhaps once in a generation. Further south, Rumija stood white above Bar, and even Dobre Vode, a stretch of coast that grows olives and figs, had snow on the ground.
Two climates in one small country
What that winter exaggerated is true every year in milder form. The coastal strip has a Mediterranean climate, with January daytime temperatures often around ten to thirteen degrees and rain rather than snow. The Bay of Kotor is one of the wettest inhabited parts of Europe: the settlement of Crkvice above Risan has recorded some of the highest annual precipitation totals on the continent, most of it falling between October and March.
Cross the mountain wall behind the coast and the numbers invert. Cetinje and the Lovćen karst catch enormous snowfalls, the Zeta plain around Podgorica stays mild but grey, and the northern plateaux around Žabljak, Kolašin and Rožaje settle into months of frozen ground. Žabljak, at 1,456 metres, is the highest town in the Balkans and behaves accordingly.
Where winter is the point
Two areas carry Montenegro's winter tourism. Durmitor, above Žabljak, has the Savin Kuk slopes and gentler beginner terrain closer to town, along with the national park's frozen lakes and marked ski-touring ground. Bjelasica, above Kolašin, has the two centres known as Kolašin 1450 and Kolašin 1600, the larger and better-connected of the country's lift systems. Smaller local hills operate at Vučje near Nikšić and at Hajla above Rožaje. The season generally runs from December into March or early April, depending on the snow.
The coast out of season
Winter on the Adriatic side is not beach weather, but it is the only time the old towns belong to the people who live in them. Kotor, Herceg Novi and Budva empty out, the citrus harvest fills the markets of Boka in late autumn and early winter, and the light on the bay after a storm is worth the trip on its own. Many seasonal hotels and restaurants close between November and April, so a winter visit means working with what stays open year-round in the larger towns.
Practical notes
- Winter equipment is required on mountain roads during the cold months, and a hire car in Montenegro should come fitted with it; check before you leave the counter.
- High passes such as Trešnjevik and Čakor close or become unreliable after heavy snow. The main north-south corridors are cleared, but journey times stretch.
- The Sozina tunnel keeps Podgorica and Bar connected when the old Sutorman road over the mountain is unusable.
- Days are short and mountain weather turns fast. If you are heading into Durmitor or the Komovi, check conditions the morning you travel rather than the week before.
Gordan Stojović, with photographs from Podgorica by Boro Milović.
