Luštica and Mamula: beaches, the drive and the island fort

Luštica is a 13-kilometre peninsula at the mouth of the Bay of Kotor, about 40 minutes’ drive from Tivat; Mamula is the round island fortress of 1853 just off it, which has been a hotel since 2023. You can drive onto Luštica — a road runs all the way down to its main beach, Žanjice — but you cannot land on Mamula under your own steam. Nearly everyone sees it from a boat.

Most visitors know the Bay of Kotor from the cruise ships moored at Kotor, deep inside it. Luštica is the other end, where the bay opens onto the Adriatic, and it is the quietest corner of the whole bay: olive groves, stone hamlets, around two dozen churches and coves that no road reaches. Below: how to get there, which beach to pick, and where things actually stand with Mamula in 2026.

In short

• Where: a 47 km² peninsula between the Tivat bay and the open sea, facing Herceg Novi across the mouth of the Bay of Kotor.
• By car: Tivat to Žanjice is 23 km, about 40 minutes; from Budva, about an hour. From Herceg Novi you drive round via the Kamenari–Lepetane ferry, €5 a car.
• Beaches: Žanjice, Mirište and Arza in the south; Dobreč, reachable only by boat; and the fishing village of Rose, opposite Herceg Novi.
• Mamula: a hotel since April 2023. The island and its pier are hotel property, so you cannot simply land.
• From the water: group boats from Herceg Novi to the Blue Cave, passing Mamula, from €30 per person; from the Žanjice and Mirište beaches to the grotto, €5–10.
• Your own boat: four hours from Herceg Novi from €415 for the whole vessel, from Tivat from €390.

Where is Luštica?

The peninsula closes the Bay of Kotor off from the sea. One shore faces the Tivat bay, the other the open Adriatic, and across the narrow mouth of the bay lies Herceg Novi. Luštica is about 13 km long, covers 47 km² and has roughly 35 km of coastline. On paper it is split between two municipalities, Herceg Novi and Tivat.

What sets it apart from the rest of the bay is what it lacks: there is no resort strip. Instead of a promenade lined with bars you get hamlets of a handful of houses, olive groves and abandoned Austrian fortifications — forts near Rose, on Cape Arza and on Mamula itself. Cut into the rock of the peninsula are three submarine shelters, tunnels that boats enter from the water. The local produce is olive oil, cheese, pršut (dry-cured ham) and home-made rakija.

How do you get to Luštica?

By road, the peninsula can be reached only from the Tivat side. The roads are narrow and winding, and in places getting past an oncoming car takes some manoeuvring, so allow more time than the map suggests.

From	To Žanjice	Time without traffic
Tivat	23 km	about 40 minutes
Tivat airport	19 km	35–40 minutes
Kotor	22 km	40 minutes to an hour
Budva	34 km	about an hour
Herceg Novi	43 km, via the ferry	about 1 h 15 min, plus the queue
Podgorica	94 km	about 2 h 15 min

From Herceg Novi the drive makes little sense, even though Luštica is just across the water. The car has to cross the bay on the Kamenari–Lepetane ferry, which runs round the clock — every 20 minutes from 6:00 to midnight, hourly through the night — and charges €5 for a car; foot passengers travel free. The crossing itself takes under ten minutes, but at peak times in July and August the queue can run to 45–60 minutes.

The village of Rose shows the difference best. From Herceg Novi it is about 3 km by water and about 44 km by road, ferry included. The Herceg Novi municipality says boats link the two all year round, but no fares or timetable are published officially — ask on the waterfront.

Without a car, the easiest way onto Luštica is by boat from Herceg Novi. For a day of cove-hopping by road, pick up a car in Tivat or at the airport: car hire in Tivat.

Which Luštica beach should you choose?

Beach	What it is	How to get there
Žanjice	shingle, over 300 m, a cove among olive trees	by road or by boat
Mirište	the next cove along, shingle and concrete terraces	five minutes’ walk from Žanjice
Arza	a small, undeveloped cove below an abandoned fort	on foot from Mirište
Dobreč	a cove on the western shore	by boat only
Rose	a fishing village opposite Herceg Novi	by road or by boat
Plavi Horizonti	a sandy beach on the Tivat side	by road from Tivat

Žanjice is the peninsula’s main beach: shingle, more than 300 metres long and up to 15 wide, backed by olive groves. In season more than a thousand people swim here, so do not expect solitude, though there is room for everyone. Small boats run from here to the Blue Cave (Plava špilja) for €5–10 per person.

Mirište (on some maps, Mirišta) is five minutes’ walk from Žanjice. The hotel’s boats to Mamula leave from its jetty: the island is about 1.7 km away across the water, and this is the nearest point to it on land.

Arza sits below a fort built at the same time as Mamula, at the suggestion of the same general, Lazar Mamula. The fort is abandoned, and the cove beneath it is small, with no sunbeds and no café.

Dobreč lies between Rose and Žanjice. No road leads there; you arrive from the sea. More places like it in coves with no road.

Rose is a fishing village on the north-western shore. Tradition has it that a Greek settlement stood here until the Saracens destroyed it in 867. Today it is a line of stone houses by the water and the Church of Our Lady, built in 1783.

As everywhere on the coast, two sunbeds and a parasol cost €15–30. Parking near the coves is paid, a few euros a day; there is no common tariff, and each beach sets its own.

What is Mamula, and what happened there?

Mamula is a round islet about 200 metres across, sitting between Luštica and the Prevlaka headland at the very entrance to the bay, about 6 km by water from Herceg Novi. Locally it is also called Lastavica, “the swallow”.

The fortress was built in 1853 and named after the Austrian general Lazar Mamula. It covers almost the whole island — around 90% of it. From 30 May 1942 the Italians ran a concentration camp here. The figures sources give for how many people passed through it and how many died differ several times over, so we do not quote any. A film about the camp, Campo Mamula, came out in 1959.

In January 2016 the government leased the island out for 49 years, and in April 2023 a 32-room hotel opened on it. Since 2025 it has traded under the Banyan Tree brand, and 2026 is its first full season under that name. Turning a former camp into a resort drew criticism; the hotel includes a historical and memorial gallery.

Mamula is easy to confuse with Our Lady of the Rocks, the other famous island in the bay. That one is a man-made islet with a church off Perast, far inside the bay; the boat there costs about €5 return and you can go ashore. See Perast and its islands.

Can you visit Mamula Island?

You cannot land on your own: the island and its pier belong to the hotel. Guests arrive by boat from Mirište or by helicopter from Dubrovnik or Tivat.

For everyone else, the picture is unclear. In 2023 the hotel’s management said its restaurants were open to outside visitors who booked ahead, that the boat from Mirište was free for restaurant guests, and that the memorial gallery could be visited free of charge on request. Whether any of that still applies in 2026, after the change of brand, we could not confirm: descriptions from August 2026 call a day visit possible “but not always”. If you want to go ashore, write to the hotel well in advance, and do not plan a day around it until you have a reply.

Most people see Mamula from the water, and that works perfectly well: boats heading for the Blue Cave pass within 40–60 metres of the fortress walls.

How to see Mamula and the Blue Cave from the water

Option	From	Price
Group boat to the Blue Cave, passing Mamula	Herceg Novi	from €30 per person
Small boat from the beach to the grotto	Žanjice, Mirište	€5–10 per person
Your own boat, 4 hours	Herceg Novi	from €415 per vessel
Your own boat, 4 hours	Tivat	from €390 per vessel
Your own boat, full day	Tivat / Herceg Novi	from €650 / from €855 per vessel

The group boat from Herceg Novi is out for two to three hours: you pass Mamula and stop at the Blue Cave for a swim. Since May 2026 motor vessels have been banned from entering the grotto, so the boat waits at the mouth and you go in by kayak or swim. The details are in the Blue Cave.

A boat of your own pays off for a group of four to six: you can shape the Mamula–Blue Cave–Luštica coves route around yourselves, with a swim at Dobreč. Herceg Novi is the nearest harbour to all of them, and four hours from there is enough. How chartering works is explained in a day on a boat; boats with prices and free dates are on the yacht charter page. Boats go out in season, and beyond Mamula you are on open sea: if there is a swell, the trip is moved to another day. Services are provided by independent companies; booking and payment happen directly with them.

How much time do you need?

• Half a day — drive from Tivat to Žanjice or Mirište, swim, and take the small boat to the grotto.
• A full day — loop the peninsula: Rose, Žanjice, Mirište, and Plavi Horizonti on the way back.
• Half a day on the water — Mamula, the grotto and Dobreč by boat from Herceg Novi.

For Tivat itself, its marina and the submarine museum, see Tivat and Porto Montenegro; for the town across the water, Herceg Novi.

Prices and times checked in September 2026. Sources: Herceg Novi municipality, the Mamula hotel’s press release (June 2026), the BBC, timetables of Herceg Novi boat operators.