Summer holidays on the Montenegrin coast

 For anyone thinking of visiting Montenegro with children, I thought I would share some of the things I found for my nieces, with information correct at the date of publishing and with some idea of how successful the activities were.

Beaches – apart from Plavi Horizonti (near Radovici) which has a sandy beach (€3 for parking), most of the beaches that were not completely packed were rather disappointing. These were mainly on the Bay of Kotor, and scored low because they were dirty, slimy rocks or just had a concrete area for sunbathing. We were too far from Ulcinj, and were trying to avoid the crowds of Budva.

Swimming – the Aqua Park in Becici at the Hotel Mediteran (can’t remember the price www.hotelmediteran.info/eng/index-2novi.html) was a great hit, with plenty of water slides and a nice swimming pool. I think we could have done this several times without it becoming boring. Also my youngest niece loved swimming in Lake Skadar half-way through a lake cruise, (www.pelikan-zec.com/eng/lake_cruise.htm - €20 each for a two-hour cruise) due to the warm fresh water.

Activities – the Adventure Park in Ivanova Korita (www.nparkovi.me/sajt/np-lovcen/aktivni-odmor/biciklizam), with many courses with zip lines through the trees (€18 for adults, something less for children) was good fun although my nieces got physically tired relatively soon. We were thinking of doing some rock climbing (montenegroplus.me/), but the price of €40 for the day each was perhaps too much.
Kayaking on the Zeta (self-organised) and rafting on the Tara (for which we managed to get special prices www.rafting-green.com/) were also good fun, despite being a long drive from Kotor, where we were mainly based.
A couple of cruises on the Boka, one in a larger boat, the other in a speedboat at least kept the girls busy and mainly out of trouble for a few hours.

Towns – this proved rather boring for my nieces, not used to doing much walking around – however we did visit Kotor (attended the carnival, walked half-way to the Fortress of San Giovanni, the cat museum), Herceg Novi and Budva. Looking at cute stray cats on the streets was a recurring theme.

Monasteries – not high on the kids’ list, but my brother very much wanted to visit them. We went to the monasteries of Ostrog, Zupa, Zagradje and Piva, in the continental part of Montenegro (we used Niksic as a base for activities in that part of the country).