Hotel New Star

Hotel New Star is a hotel in Podgorica, in Montenegro's central region, offering a compact room for two guests with one bedroom, one bed, and a private bathroom. Built in 2013, it suits couples or solo travellers who want a straightforward base close to the city centre — the Main Square is 1 km away, the main bus station 800 metres, and a food store and market sit just 30 metres from the door. The room is air-conditioned and elegantly appointed, with free WiFi, a flat-screen TV with satellite channels, a safe, and a mini-bar; the bathroom includes a hairdryer, bathrobes, and complimentary toiletries. On site there is an à-la-carte restaurant serving local and international dishes, a bar with a terrace, and free garage parking. Laundry service is available for a fee, and the hotel arranges excursions to Lake Skadar and Ostrog Monastery, plus canoe trips on the Tara River. Rates start from 138 EUR per night.

About the area

Kralja Nikole is Podgorica's long commercial spine, running east from the centre through a mix of shops, offices and older residential blocks; this end of it puts you about a kilometre from the main square. The best thing within a minute's walk is the green market — stalls of tomatoes, figs, pomegranates, sheep cheese, njeguški pršut and mountain honey, busiest before nine in the morning — with a food shop beside it and the main bus station under a kilometre off.

This part of the city is a good place to eat plainly and well: grills, bakeries and family konobas serving lamb, and fish brought up from the Morača and Skadar Lake. From here the capital's set-piece excursions are all straightforward — the lake at Virpazar for boat trips through the lily beds, Ostrog monastery pressed into its cliff north-west of the city, and rafting on the Tara in the far north. In the city itself, walk west to the Morača gorge, where paths drop to shingle beaches beneath the bridges and locals swim through the hottest weeks of the year. Evenings belong to the terraces, which stay full until the heat finally lets go.