Tivat and Porto Montenegro: Beyond the Yachts

Until 2007 this was a naval base; now hundred-metre yachts tie up here. Porto Montenegro was built on the site of an arsenal that had operated since 1889, and it is one of the most visible changes on the Montenegrin coast in half a century.

What to do here: walk the marina, visit the maritime museum with the submarine Heroj, swim at Plavi Horizonti, then move on — to the Luštica peninsula or out on the water. Half a day covers it. Tivat itself has stayed a small town of 16,000 people, with the airport ten minutes from the marina, Kotor twenty minutes away and Budva half an hour.

Porto Montenegro

A marina with more than 500 berths, including space for vessels up to 250 metres. Around it runs a waterfront of restaurants, shops and a hotel.

If yachts are not your thing:

The Maritime Heritage Museum in the former arsenal has the submarine Heroj on the hard, torpedoes and ships’ instruments. You can go inside the sub. Entry about €5.

The promenade — a kilometre along the water with the bay and mountains in view. Walking it is pleasant and free, and café prices drop to normal two hundred metres from the quay.

Beaches

Plavi Horizonti is one of the best beaches around: sand, a gentle entry and pines. Twenty minutes away on the Luštica peninsula.

Almara and the Porto Montenegro beach are paid clubs with pools on the waterfront.

The Luštica coves — Žanjice, Mirište, Dobreč: there is a road to Žanjice, while Dobreč can be reached only by boat.

The Luštica peninsula

The most underrated part of the bay. Olive groves, villages of ten houses, empty coves and almost no tourists.

The roads are narrow and winding. The Blue Cave and Mamula island are here too, but reachable only by water. Boats stop at the mouth of the grotto; you go inside by kayak or swim in from the boat, because motor boats have been banned from entering since 2026. Mamula is now a hotel and non-guests cannot land, so you see the island from the water. More in the Blue Cave. The peninsula’s beaches, the drive and the story of Mamula are in Luštica and Mamula.

Tivat as a starting point

With the airport and the marina, Tivat is a convenient place to begin.

On the water. Many of the bay’s pleasure boats leave from here: routes run through the Verige strait to the islands off Perast and out towards the open sea. Four hours cost from €390 and a full day from €650, and that is the price for the whole boat: see the yacht charter page. The route is described in the cruise from Tivat. Boats run in season only; there are no trips in winter.

The group option, if you have no party to fill a boat: a ship around the whole bay from €53 per person — Bay of Kotor by ship. It runs in season only, and the company behind it works only with Russian-speaking guides.

On wheels. Twenty minutes to Kotor, half an hour to Budva, an hour to Herceg Novi with the Kamenari–Lepetane ferry (€5 for a car). The loop is described in the Bay of Kotor in a day. Parking in Tivat itself costs €0.60–1 an hour.

Airport hire is on the car rental in Tivat page; how handover works is in car hire at Tivat and Podgorica airports.

How long to allow

Half a day for the marina, the museum and the promenade. A full day if you add Plavi Horizonti or a drive around Luštica.

Tivat is rarely the reason for a trip, but it is an ideal base: the airport next door, the bay twenty minutes away in any direction, and fewer crowds than Budva.

Museum, ferry, parking and boats: prices checked in September 2026.