Montenegro's Beaches by Type: Sand, Shingle, Wild

Montenegro has 293 kilometres of coast and around 120 beaches, and they differ sharply. The bay gives you concrete platforms and fine shingle, the centre resort beaches with loungers, the south thirteen kilometres of sand. And then there is a category of its own: coves with no road to them.

Here they are by type, so you do not spend a day searching.

Sandy

Velika Plaža at Ulcinj is the country’s longest beach: 13 kilometres of fine dark-grey sand carried down by the Bojana river. The entry is very shallow — fifty metres of walking to get chest-deep. One of the best places for families with small children. Loungers €12–20 a set.

Ada Bojana is a river island in the Bojana delta with a three-kilometre sandy beach, a naturist zone and a kitesurfing centre. Walking or cycling in is free; drivers pay for parking — €1 an hour in June, €2 an hour from 1 July to 15 September, capped at €10 a day (the scheme since June 2025). How to get there and how the island works: Ada Bojana.

More on the south in Ulcinj and Velika Plaža.

Mogren in Budva — two small beaches under a cliff, ten minutes on foot from the old town. Clear water, sandy beaches. Loungers here are expensive: a set from €30–40.

Bečići — almost two kilometres of sand mixed with fine shingle, and the most “resort” beach of the centre.

Shingle

Jaz — two and a half kilometres from Budva, wide, with a free section. A set of loungers from €10, more often €15–20.

Ploče — platforms and pools on the rocks between Budva and Tivat, with a night-time party crowd.

The bay’s concrete platforms

Beaches inside Boka are mostly built up or concrete: the shore there is steep and rocky.

Upside: the water is always calm, there is never swell, and you get depth immediately. Downside: you enter by ladder, and there is no sand at all.

You find these in Kotor, Dobrota, Prčanj and Herceg Novi. Awkward for toddlers, excellent for swimming.

Wild and hard to reach

The most interesting and the emptiest.

Kraljičina plaža, named after Queen Milena, beyond Čanj between Sutomore and Petrovac — shingle under pines with no road leading to it. Sea access only: ten minutes by boat from Čanj.

The Luštica coves — Žanjice, Mirište, Dobreč: Žanjice has a road, Dobreč is reachable only by boat.

The islets off Petrovac — Katič and Sveta Nedelja, 700–900 metres offshore, with a church on the rock.

The only way to most of them is a boat. A skippered yacht starts at €355 for three hours, for the whole vessel and your whole group: the coastal cruise, yacht charter.

How to choose

• With small children — Velika Plaža, Jaz, Bečići: shallow entries.
• For water and quiet — Luštica, Kraljičina plaža, the Petrovac islets.
• For facilities — Slovenska in Budva, Bečići: bars, slides, rentals.
• For looks — Mogren and the beaches by Sveti Stefan: Sveti Stefan. By the island, the left-hand, public part of the beach is open to everyone; on the hotel section a set of loungers costs €220, and on the King’s Beach (Kraljeva plaža) at Miločer €240. The Queen’s Beach (Kraljičina plaža) at Miločer — not the one near Čanj — is open only to hotel guests from 8:00 to 20:00.

How to choose not just a beach but the resort to stay in is covered in where to stay in Montenegro.

Practicalities

Loungers cost €15–30 a set (two loungers and an umbrella) in season, less in May and September. At Slovenska beach in Budva it is €10–15, €20 at the peak; at Velika Plaža, €12–20. Many beaches keep a free section, usually at one end.

Parking is the August problem. At popular beaches it is paid — €1–2 an hour in Budva, €2–4 at Sveti Stefan — and taken by mid-morning. On zones and payment see parking in Montenegro.

Water shoes are useful almost everywhere except the south: the shingle is coarse and slippery.

Swimwear is for the beach and the seafront promenade only: Budva, Tivat and Ulcinj fine people for walking round town in it. The amounts are in Montenegro etiquette.

A car is not essential for a beach holiday, but it opens the beaches buses do not reach. Options are on the car rental page; what is reachable without one is in Montenegro without a car.

Prices checked in September 2026; they are higher at the height of the season.