The vertical
From the seafront promenade to the main coastal road at the top of the town is roughly 150 metres of climb, and the connections between the levels are stairways rather than streets. There are hundreds of steps in the old quarter alone.
This is why people who love Kotor sometimes find Herceg Novi hard work, and why people who love Herceg Novi find Kotor flat and crowded.
The levels
| Level | What is there |
|---|---|
| Top — the Adriatic Highway | Bus station, most parking, supermarkets |
| Upper old town | Kanli Kula fortress, Bloody Tower, views |
| Middle — Trg Herceg Stjepan | The main square, Sahat Kula clock tower, cafés |
| Lower old town | Forte Mare, the sea gate |
| Sea level | Pet Danica promenade, beaches, boats |
The promenade
Pet Danica runs about seven kilometres along the water from Igalo through the town centre to Meljine, and it is flat. This is the one horizontal thing in Herceg Novi and it is the best part of it — swimming ladders into deep clear water every hundred metres, cafés, pines, and the whole width of the bay opposite.
The plants
The town is unusually green for this coast because of a specific history: Austro-Hungarian and later Yugoslav sea captains brought back plants from everywhere they sailed and planted them here. Mimosa, agave, palms, eucalyptus, camellia and about eighty species that have no business being in the Adriatic all grow in the town's gardens.
The Mimosa Festival in February exists because of it, and it is the only significant tourist event on this coast outside summer.
What to go inside
- Kanli Kula — an Ottoman fortress at the top, now an open-air theatre. €2 – €3, and the view is the reason.
- Forte Mare — the sea fortress at the bottom, with a bar on the walls.
- Savina Monastery, twenty minutes east on foot, three churches in a cypress garden above the sea. Free, quiet, and almost nobody goes.
Where it sits
Herceg Novi is the first town inside Montenegro coming from Croatia — about 40 minutes from the Croatian border and 25 from Dubrovnik airport plus the border queue. Kotor is an hour away round the bay, or twenty minutes shorter if you take the Kamenari–Lepetane ferry across the narrows, which costs €4.50 for a car and runs continuously.
It is also the closest town to the Blue Cave and the Luštica peninsula, and boat trips leave from the harbour all day in season.
