Luštica

Lustica is the long peninsula that closes the western side of the Bay of Kotor, running from the Tivat side out to Rose at the bay mouth. It is largely undeveloped — olive groves, scattered stone hamlets and a coastline of coves — with the open Adriatic on one flank and the bay on the other.

Plavi Horizonti (Blue Horizons) is the pick: a sheltered sandy bay backed by pines, unusual on a coast that is mostly pebble. Zanjice and Mirista, near the tip, are the other two, both reached easily by boat from Herceg Novi.

By car from Tivat over the peninsula, or by boat from Herceg Novi to the seaward beaches and Rose. The Kamenari-Lepetane ferry shortens the drive considerably from the Herceg Novi side. Roads on the peninsula are narrow and winding.

Lustica Bay is a large resort development on the peninsula, combining a marina, an 18-hole golf course, the Chedi hotel and residential villages. It sits at the opposite end of the spectrum from the old hamlets a few kilometres away.

Boat trips to the Blue Cave and Mamula island, walking or cycling the olive-grove tracks between hamlets, eating at the fish konobas in Rose and Bigovo, and visiting the Austro-Hungarian forts around the bay mouth.

It suits travellers with a car who want quiet and beaches over nightlife and old towns. Accommodation runs from village apartments to the Lustica Bay resort, with Tivat, Herceg Novi and Kotor all within reach for a day out.