Montenegro - Crna Gora (1986)
In 1986 my wife Corrie, Walter and I (Jan) spent a holiday in Montenegro in
former Yugoslavia. The holiday resort was just south of Budva, the nearest
airport Tivat. The touroperator was Yugotours. The resort was nice, but because
of disco noise and the fact that our appartment was overbooked (which implied
that we had to take a much smaller one), we demanded a financial reduction.
Half a year later we won the procedure and one third of the price was returned.
This holiday was not exactly a tour, but we made several trips, organised as
well as not-organised ones (the last ones by using public bus services).
It was a nice adventure to use the public bus services.
Some Trips
- Budva, reached by plane via Tivat. Budva has a nice harbour
and a beautifully restored old centre. The near mountains offer a fine
colourfull contrast to the beach areas.
- Dubrovnik, a splendid old city. We took an organised bus tour
along the coast.
The Bay of Kotor (a real fjord) was crossed near Bijela by a small ferry. In Dubrovnik
we walked for
many ours along the narrow streets and over the city walls.
- Tara river gorge, again by an organised tour. First we went to
Bar by bus, where we took the train to Titograd. The passing of the
Lake of Shkoder was very nice. After Titograd the train crossed a
mountainous country to Kolasin, a route with many tunnels and nice
panoramas. In Kolasin busses took as to the gorge, which offers a
nice scenary as well.
For Dutch people: the Tara river area is mentioned in the book Het land
achter Gods rug, written by A. den Doolaard.
- Albania border, our last organised trip, which was a bonus
(a bonus tour was given when two well-priced trips were paid before).
We visited the Albania border above Ulcinj, spent some time on a
local market in a moslim village (Walter was impressed by the
activities of the butcher who killed several beasts) and finally went
to the Lake of Shkoder. Here several nice points of view were visited.
- Sveti Stefan, an old pirat island, which now is a complete hotel.
We reached the place by a public bus, so we had left the
Budva busstation quite early (7.30h). On the beach near Sveti Stefan
we had to pass some time until 11.00h, when we were allowed to enter the place,
because first `breakfast had to be finished in the hotel'. But the
old village was very nice. We made many photos there.
- Centinje, the old capital of Montenegro, which lies behind the
mountains. First we missed the old palace, because it was so small,
but in the end we became familiar with the sizes of the important buildings
here. The people here were much more friendly than at the coast.
A second bus connection took us down to Kotor at its impressive
coast, which is a real fjord here.
Sveti Stefan.
Some good related links
- Montenegro
- Dubrovnik
- Skopje
- Albanian WWW Home Page
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Jan ter Maten's Home Page.