Herceg Novi, Montenegro: The Complete Travel Guide to the City of Sun and Stairs

Herceg Novi is the first town inside the Bay of Kotor and the last before the Croatian border, founded in 1382 by the Bosnian king Tvrtko I as a salt-trading port. Its Old Town climbs the hillside in stairways past four fortresses: the Sahat Kula clock-tower gate, Forte Mare on the waterline, Kanli Kula at 85 metres and Španjola at about 170 metres. Below it the flat, free Pet Danica promenade runs about 7 km from Igalo to Meljine, and boats leave Škver harbour for Mamula, the Blue Cave, Žanjice and Rose. With around 200 sunny days a year and gardens planted by sailors and the Austrians, it is a garden town rather than a party town.

Herceg Novi at a glance

• Old Town (Stari grad) — entered through the Sahat Kula clock tower (1667, free); roughly a thousand public steps.
• Fortresses — Španjola free and always open; Forte Mare a small unpublished fee; Kanli Kula by event ticket, performances July–August.
• Pet Danica promenade — about 7 km from Igalo to Meljine on the old Zelenika railway bed, flat and free, completed on 20 June 2025.
• Beaches — Gradska plaža below Forte Mare; pebble and concrete at Igalo, with free healing mud at Blatna plaža; Žanjice and Mirište on Luštica by taxi boat.
• Boat trips — half-day to Mamula, the Blue Cave and Žanjice €30 (€15 ages 6–11), from Škver at 09:05 and 12:40; taxi boat to Rose about ten minutes, €5–10 each way.
• Airports — Dubrovnik 28 km (plus the border); Tivat 20–25 km via the Kamenari–Lepetane ferry or 46 km round the bay; Podgorica 113–133 km.
• Getting around — town bus €1.50 a journey, taxis €0.90 per kilometre; parking is free on Sundays except from 1 July to 1 September.
• Best time — June and September; the Mimosa Festival runs through February and March, every year since 1969.
• Population — 30,824 in the municipality (2023 census), the biggest in the Boka.

The Old Town and its fortresses

Herceg Novi is the city of stairs. The Old Town climbs the hillside in narrow stairways, arched passages and small squares shaded by oleander and bougainvillea; locals give directions in skalinade rather than street names, and roughly a thousand public steps stitch the town to the sea. The “100,001 steps” on souvenirs is a boast, not a count. Wear comfortable shoes.

The four fortresses are the town's own defensive system, read from the water upwards, and they are priced very differently:

Forte Mare and Kanli Kula are programmed by the municipal institution JUK Herceg Fest rather than run as ticketed monuments, and neither the tourist organisation nor Herceg Fest publishes a standing admission price; summer hours move with the season too. Ask at the fortress door, or call Herceg Fest before you plan an evening around it.

Sahat Kula (the clock tower)

The natural starting point is Sahat Kula, the Ottoman clock tower that serves as the main gateway into the historic quarter and the symbol of Herceg Novi. Built in 1667 by order of Sultan Mehmed IV, this 16-metre octagonal tower was designed to announce the hours of daily prayer. Clock faces decorate all four sides, and the tower appears on the city's coat of arms and flag.

Forte Mare

Directly below the Old Town at the waterline sits Forte Mare, the sea fortress, above the Gradska plaža (town beach) and the harbour, Škver. Its foundations date to the 14th century, but it reached its current form under Ottoman rule, when cannons and defensive walls were added. Venice took the town on 30 September 1687 and gave the fortress its Italian name; Austria then raised and reinforced the upper works, the silhouette you photograph today. It became a summer stage in 1952 and films have run there every season since, which makes it one of the oldest working open-air cinemas in Europe. The 1979 earthquake damaged it badly and the rebuild followed a 1984 project. Today it has a summer cinema, a cafe built into the walls and a view down the bay toward Mamula and Luštica. Nearby are the Kusturica cineplex-cinema "Aurora", the house of the painter Vojo Stanić and the pool of the water polo club "Jadran".

Kanli Kula

Higher up is Kanli Kula, the "bloody tower," built in 1539 at 85 metres above sea level after the Ottoman recapture of the town. It served as stronghold and prison, controlling the town and the entrance to the bay: where Forte Mare guards the sea, Kanli Kula guards the land.

The interior became a summer stage in 1960 and an open-air amphitheatre by 1966. The tourist organisation puts the seating at 1,000, expandable to 1,500; the summer programme runs to film, concerts, opera and theatre.

Španjola (the Spanish fortress)

At the very top of the Old Town, in what was once the Upper Town, the Spanish Fortress commands the highest ground. The Spanish captured Herceg Novi from the Ottomans in 1538 and began building this hilltop fortification. They held the town for only nine months before the Turks recaptured it, but they left behind the foundations of a fortress that still bears their name. The Ottomans completed the construction a decade later.

The climb is steep — the fortress sits at about 170 metres, above the ⁠Savina district — and the reward is a 360-degree panorama of the bay, the mountains and the open Adriatic. There is no ticket office and no opening time. Nothing has been garrisoned here in a century, the curtain wall is breached in places, the interior is roofless and there is a good deal of spray paint. Nobody will stop you falling off it either, so keep away from the wall heads in wind and take a torch if you go near dusk. Underground passages once connected Španjola to both Kanli Kula and Forte Mare. Walkers heading further uphill can use the Mountain House – Subra, the base for hiking in the hills behind the town.

What to do in Herceg Novi

Squares, churches and streets

Herceg Novi has two main squares. The lower one, Trg Nikole Đurkovića, formerly Salt Square after the trade the town was founded on, is the everyday social heart. Up through the Clock Tower is Belavista, the “beautiful view” square, in the heart of the Old Town.

Belavista is dominated by the Orthodox Church of St. Archangel Michael, built in the Byzantine style with elements of the Orient and unique for its stone iconostasis; the city Archives, the Library, Radio Herceg Novi and an art gallery stand around it.

Down the stairs from Belavista are the Catholic Church of St. Jerome, which holds a rich treasury, and the church of St. Leopold Mandić, the Novljanin. A Ginkgo biloba grows in the street-staircase named after the writer Marko Car. In the church of St. Ascension of Christ, in the former suburb of Toplo, Petar II was once taught to read.

The main street, Njegoševa, runs from the square all the way to Igalo, past boutiques, the City Tavern, the City Park and the Main Post Office, and is crossed again and again by the streets-stairs for which the city is famous.

A botanical garden by the sea

For centuries sailors brought home seeds of exotic plants, which is why Herceg Novi, the City of Greens, became a botanical garden over time. The seafront promenade carries the largest outdoor exhibition of exotic plants in the country: palms, cacti, bananas, magnolias, mimosas, wild oranges, camellias, pittospores, oleanders and eucalyptus.

Savina Monastery

A 20-minute walk east of the Old Town, on a wooded hillside, Savina Monastery is one of the most important Serbian Orthodox monasteries on the Adriatic coast. The site dates back to the 11th century; its current form took shape in the 17th and 18th centuries, when monks fleeing the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina found refuge here.

The complex contains three churches. The oldest is the Small Church of the Dormition, traditionally dated to 1030 from an inscription added in 1831. The Church of St. Sava Srpski, on a nearby hill, is believed to have been built by Saint Sava himself in the 13th century. The Great Church, also dedicated to the Assumption, was built between 1777 and 1799 by Nikola Foretić of Korčula, in a blend of Byzantine, Romanesque and Dalmatian Baroque. Its iconostasis is by Simeon Lazović. Much of the treasury arrived with monks fleeing the Ottoman conquest of Herzegovina, who brought it from the monastery of Tvrdoš.

The monastery treasury and library house a crystal cross attributed to Saint Sava from the 13th century, a handwritten Gospel from 1375, silver-gilt icons and historical documents.

Dress modestly — covered shoulders and knees — and keep quiet during services. Entry is free and there is no ticket office; donations are welcomed. No opening hours are published: the churches are normally open through the day and the treasury is shown at the monastery’s discretion, so a weekday morning is the safe bet.

Museums and galleries

• City Museum (Mirko Komnenović Museum): archaeological, ethnographic and maritime collections in a historic villa with a botanical garden.
• Mikhail Bulgakov Museum: opened in 2020, the first international museum dedicated to the Russian writer.
• Ivo Andrić House: the Nobel laureate's seaside residence, now the Writers' Club and a garden stage.
• Villa Galeb: the former summer residence of Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito, on the waterfront in Igalo.
• Art galleries: the “Josip Bepo Benković” gallery and the Sue Ryder gallery showcase regional and international art.

The Pet Danica promenade and beaches

Šetalište Pet Danica

The seafront promenade, Šetalište Pet Danica, stretches from Igalo to Meljine: about 7 km, laid along the bed of the old Zelenika railway, and free from end to end. The 5 km and 6 km figures still in circulation predate the final section. The municipality completed the walk on 20 June 2025 by opening the last 1.7 km, Hotel Plaža at Savina to Hotel Lazure in Meljine — a €1.5m job that paved and lit the promenade along its whole length for the first time since it was built. Counted with its spurs, from Njivice in the west to Bijela in the east, the walkable seafront corridor runs 18.1 km. At an unhurried seaside pace the 7 km core is about an hour and a half one way, and it is the one walk in Herceg Novi with no stairs.

Along the way you pass the harbour, Škver, which means Shipyard, because a shipyard used to stand there.

Beaches

At the entrance to the bay, the water is among the cleanest in the Bay of Kotor, refreshed by open Adriatic currents. There are no long sandy stretches: expect pebbly coves, concrete bathing platforms and spots reachable only by boat.

Gradska plaža, the main town beach, sits directly below Forte Mare and the Old Town — a concrete and pebble affair, fine for a quick swim and steps from cafes and restaurants.

Igalo is the family end, and it is not sandy, whatever you read. The national tourist board measures the shore at 1,500 metres of pebble and concrete bathing platforms; what makes it work for children is the gradient: the water shelves so gently that a toddler can wade a long way out. The therapeutic mud collects at the western end, at Blatna plaža (Mud Beach), which the tourist board lists with a mud surface of 9,000 m². Using it costs nothing; two sunbeds and an umbrella on an organised stretch run about €8–14. Locals also call the mud beach Stara Banja or “the beach by Tito’s villa”.

Žanjice, on the Luštica Peninsula across the strait, is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful beaches in the Bay of Kotor: about 300 metres of white pebbles sloping into very clear water, with views to Mamula Island, sun loungers, restaurants and changing facilities. Most visitors arrive by taxi boat from the Herceg Novi waterfront, a 20-minute ride. It is the beach stop on the scheduled half-day excursion, and a local shuttle runs from it to the Blue Cave and back with a swim stop for about €10–15.

Mirište, next to Žanjice but quieter, is a pebble cove with good snorkelling. You can swim out to a small island with a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Mirište, and the ruins of the Arza Fortress are nearby. Further along, the Luštica coast has smaller coves reachable only by boat or on foot, with no facilities at all.

Nearby: Igalo, the riviera, Rose and boat trips

Herceg Novi anchors a riviera stretching 25 kilometres along the northern shore of the Bay of Kotor, a string of smaller settlements connected by the coastal road and the waterfront promenade.

Igalo and its healing mud

Igalo, joined to Herceg Novi by the promenade, is built on health tourism: mineral-rich sea mud and natural mineral springs. Its centrepiece is the Institut Dr Simo Milošević, founded in 1949 and now one of the largest institutions for physical medicine and rehabilitation in southeastern Europe. It counts 767 accommodation units and about 19,000 users a year on its own front page (more on its history pages, so read these as scale). Its physiotherapy college of 1976 became the Faculty of Applied Physiotherapy in 2004, making the Institute a member of the University of Montenegro.

It publishes its prices. On its last list, therapy came as a daily package on top of the room in three tiers — roughly €45, €57 and €74 a day — with a half-board room from about €64 per person per day out of season, more in summer. Packages are only for guests staying at the Institute and single treatments are not listed, so ask when you write with your dates.

The mud, igaljsko blato, collects in the shallows along the shore. The Institute dates the scientific confirmation of its properties to 1935, at Vichy in France, though locals had used it for joint pain, skin conditions and rheumatic complaints for generations. At Blatna plaža it is, as the state tourist board says, a free treatment on a public beach, a few hundred metres from a clinic that charges for the same mineral. Mineral springs called igaljske slatine emerge along the shoreline and have long been drunk for digestion.

Meljine, Zelenika, Njivice and the riviera villages

Njivice, to the west, is where the 18.1 km seafront corridor begins. Meljine, three kilometres east at the end of the promenade, has its own beaches and the Lazareto, a former quarantine station that is one of the oldest in Europe. Zelenika, further east, is named after a Mediterranean evergreen and has the first hotel ever built in Montenegro, from 1902. Kumbor (from the Italian conborgo, suburb) has some of the best-placed waterfront restaurants. Djenovići claims a Greco-Roman history; Baošići, at the peak of Boka seafaring, had over 30 ships and 50 captains. Bijela, the easternmost settlement, is the starting point for the Kamenari-Lepetane ferry crossing to the other side of the bay.

Portonovi and Luštica Bay

At Portonovi, in Kumbor, a superyacht marina is paired with the One&Only Portonovi resort and an Espace Chenot wellness spa. Across the bay, Luštica Bay combines a marina, an 18-hole golf course, the Chedi hotel and residential villages.

Rose

Rose is a tiny fishing village at the tip of the Luštica Peninsula, about ten minutes by taxi boat from the Herceg Novi waterfront at €5–10 each way. It was Venice’s quarantine port before Meljine took the job, and it is now essentially a lunch with a hamlet attached: grilled fish on a single waterfront, reckon €40–70 for two. Some tours also visit a nearby former Yugoslav submarine tunnel carved into the cliffs.

Boat trips: Mamula, the Blue Cave and Žanjice

The classic route leaves the Pet Danica promenade or Škver harbour and heads south along the Luštica coastline to Mamula Island, the Blue Cave and Žanjice beach. What it costs depends entirely on which of these quite different products you buy, and the ranges get quoted interchangeably, so here they are separated:

Prices checked September 2026. Plan against the scheduled fare. The €15–25 you will see quoted for a “short trip” is the beach shuttle or a share of a private hire, not the timetabled boat.

Mamula is a small rocky island with a circular fortress built in the 1850s by the Austrian general Lazar Mamula, an internment camp under Italian occupation and now a hotel, Mamula Island by Banyan Tree. Excursion boats circle it but do not land; the hotel runs its own transfer from Mirišta on Luštica for guests.

The Blue Cave (Plava Spilja) is a sea cave where sunlight enters through an underwater opening and lights the interior blue. It is a protected site and viewing only: boats stop at the mouth, then anchor behind the cave for a swim. The effect is strongest on sunny mornings, which is the argument for the 09:05 departure from Škver over the 12:40.

Getting there and around

The nearest airport is in another country and the nearest domestic one is across the water, so the difference between a good journey and a bad one is usually a queue rather than a distance.

By air: three airports, three routes

The tourist organisation gives Tivat as “about 20 km” and our own record says 25 for the ferry route; the road round the bay is 46 km. The two Podgorica figures are the measured road distance and the municipality’s own sheet.

The Kamenari–Lepetane ferry