Andrew Brittain

We picked Kotor as the base for our week in Montenegro based on photos we'd come across online. It looked amazing - a huge natural bay surrounded by picturesque mountains, with well-positioned holiday apartments around the bay and the promise of virtually guaranteed hot sunny weather. Here's our advice on visiting Kotor on your family holiday... [caption id="attachment_408" align="alignnone" width="800"]…

On our first full day in Montenegro we headed to what appeared to be the closest beach to where we were staying in Kotor, - Plavi Horizonti beach, which is close to Tivat. It's a small and relatively quiet place with plenty of parking (at a cost of €3 for the day). Plavi Horizonti beach is situated in a beautiful…

Everything around Kotor revolves around the sea - and the calm, blue waters of the bay dominate the entire town and surrounding area, so it's no surprise that there are a lot of options for a boat trip in Kotor Bay. We wanted to do a boat trip from Kotor of some sort and see the bay and its surrounding…

One of the iconic sights of Montenegro's coastline is Sveti Stefan beach and island - a small peninsula jutting out of the coastline just up the road from Budva, with fortress walls built around a collection of red tile-roofed buildings. The island itself and the buildings on it are now privately owned by a luxury hotel group and not open…

St Nicholas Island is a popular and beautiful little island just a short boat trip away from Budva's main beach. We caught a boat over to St Nicholas Island in search of less crowded and more natural beaches to explore... Montenegro is a slightly different type of holiday destination than you might be used to if you typically spend your…

The central point of Kotor is the Old Town - built inside the walls of a medieval fortress which surrounds the town and stretches behind it up in to the mountain. The Kotor fortress walls up in the mountain behind the town form the shape of a lion on the hillside, which is visible at night when the walls are…

We woke on this morning to a rare sight in summertime Montenegro - a layer of cloud hiding the previously relentless sun. It was still hot (by UK standards) but thunderstorms were on the weather forecast, so we decided to visit Porto Montenegro, a new marina that's being heavily advertised in the region at the moment. We had no idea…

Before we left for Montenegro we'd been researching things to do and rafting in the Tara Canyon had come up several times. Travelling to do Tara River rafting from Kotor was something we really wanted to do - Montenegro's Tara Canyon is the world's second-deepest canyon and it looked amazing, but we were staying in Kotor, which is about 3-hours'…

We'd heard that of all the beaches along the Budva Riviera, Jaz Beach is the best beach near Kotor and Budva - the one favoured by Montenegro residents as it's more picturesque and quieter than the other beaches closer to Budva or Kotor. So we had to check it out and are pleased to report that it's absolutely true -…

The apartment we booked for our week in Kotor, Montenegro was located in 'Muo', the opposite side of the bay from Kotor Old Town. We found the Kotor Muo apartments on Homeaway.co.uk, the main appeals for us being the reasonable price and the location, with clear and brilliant views across the Bay of Kotor right from the balcony. [caption id=""…

We ate out at different restaurants in Kotor every day of our stay here - here's a run-down of our favourite places to eat in and around Kotor Bay and town... Kotor is absolutely full of restaurants so there's no shortage of places to choose from for visitors to eat. Inside the walls of the Old Town are numerous pavement-side…

I had read various comments and forum posts before travelling to Montenegro that suggested driving in Montenegro is a challenge. Stories of maniac local drivers, treacherous roads, crooked car hire firms and over-zealous officials and police were making me a bit nervous about driving with a car full of the family. Having spent the week driving around many of the…