How it was made
In the nineteenth century two vessels — usually named as the *Merito* and another — went down at the river mouth. Silt built up around the wrecks, the river split around the obstruction, and over decades an island formed between the two arms and the sea.
It is still moving. The Bojana carries sediment down from Lake Skadar and the Drin, and the island's shape has changed measurably within living memory.
It is entirely naturist
Not a section of it — the whole island. It has been a naturist resort since the 1970s, when it was one of Yugoslavia's designated ones alongside places on the Croatian coast.
The restaurants on stilts
Along the river channel a line of wooden restaurants stands on piles over the water, each with a *kalimera* — a traditional square net on a counterweighted beam, lowered into the river and raised with whatever swam over it.
This is among the best eating in Montenegro and it is at the far southern end of the country, which is why most visitors never get there.
| Rough price | |
|---|---|
| Grilled river fish, per kilogram | €25 – €45 |
| Eel, the local speciality | €35 – €55 per kg |
| Mussels na buzaru | €12 – €18 |
| Meal for two with wine | €45 – €70 |
| Island entry per car, in season | €3 – €5 |
Eel is the thing to order. The Bojana is one of the last places in Europe where they are caught this way, and it is cooked simply — grilled, or in a stew with plums in the older recipes.
The beach
About three kilometres of dark sand facing the open Adriatic, shallow and warm, with the same fine river silt as Velika Plaža next door. Wind builds most afternoons, which is why kitesurfers use this stretch of coast.
There are simple bungalows and a campsite on the island, and very little else. This is not a developed resort.
The birds
The Bojana delta and the neighbouring Ulcinj salt pans form one of the most important bird sites on the Adriatic flyway — flamingos, pelicans passing through, avocets, and over 250 recorded species. The salt pans are twenty minutes away and almost nobody staying on the beach knows they are there.
Getting there
- From Ulcinj: 20 minutes, along the length of Velika Plaža
- From Budva: about 2 hours
- From Podgorica: about 1 h 30
- Albanian border at Sukobin is fifteen minutes away — the other bank of the river is Albania
- A bridge connects the island to the mainland; there is a small fee in season
