The numbers
| Steps | About 1,350, uneven and unrailed in places |
| Height gained | 260 m |
| Ticket | €15 (May–September), €8 shoulder, free in winter |
| Booth hours | Roughly 08:00–20:00 in season |
| Fit adult, non-stop | 35–45 min up |
| Average pace, with stops | 1 h – 1 h 15 up |
| Children 8+, unhurried | 1 h 30 up |
| Down | About two thirds of the time up |
The hour that matters
Start before eight in the morning or after six in the evening. Not to dodge the fee — although the booth is often unstaffed at those hours — but because the wall faces west and holds heat like a radiator. At noon in July it is genuinely dangerous rather than merely unpleasant, and the ambulance is called for someone most weeks.
What is actually up there
Three things, at different heights. The Church of Our Lady of Remedy sits at about the halfway mark and is where a lot of people stop — the view from there is already the postcard. Above it the path narrows and the steps get rougher. San Giovanni fortress at the top is a ruin you can walk into, with the bay laid out below and the Vrmac ridge opposite.
Between them the wall runs along the cliff with sections that are just rock and mortar with a drop on one side. There is no railing for much of it. Nobody has to go near the edge, but people with a real fear of heights should know that before they buy the ticket.
The back way
A footpath called the Ladder of Kotor starts north of the old town near the Škurda river and switchbacks up the mountain outside the walls. It is longer, unticketed, and joins the fortress from behind through a gap in the wall. Locals use it. It is a proper hillwalk rather than a staircase, and in the wet it is slippery.
Shoes
The steps are polished limestone, worn smooth by six centuries of feet. In flip-flops this is how people turn an ankle. Trainers are enough; sandals with a strap are fine; anything with a smooth sole is not.
