Why the sand is dark
It is grey-brown rather than white, and people sometimes assume it is dirty. It is not — it is river silt carried down by the Bojana and the Drin, rich in minerals and iron. Local belief holds it to be therapeutic, and people have come here for that as much as for swimming for a long time.
The consequence for swimming is that the water clouds when the wind picks up, because there is fine sediment to stir. It is never mirror-clear the way Kamenovo or Sveti Stefan are. It is warm, shallow and gentle instead.
The shape of it
| Length | About 12 km |
| Depth at 50 m out | Often still waist-high |
| Water temperature, August | 26 – 28°C — warmest in the country |
| Surface | Fine sand, no pebbles |
| Shade | Almost none — a few pines at the western end |
| Sunbeds, two plus parasol | €10 – €20 |
The shallow shelf is why the water is so warm and why it suits small children better than anywhere else on the coast. It is also why it is the best kitesurfing beach in the region.
Which end to go to
- Western end, nearest Ulcinj town: bars, sunbeds, showers, people. Busy in August.
- Middle: kitesurf and windsurf schools cluster here, because the shallow water and the afternoon thermal wind are ideal.
- Eastern end, towards Ada Bojana: increasingly empty. Walk twenty minutes from the last bar and you may have a kilometre to yourself, in August.
Ada Bojana, beyond the end
A triangular island where the Bojana river splits and meets the sea, formed around two shipwrecks that silted up in the nineteenth century. It is a naturist resort — the whole island, not a section of it — and there are fish restaurants on stilts over the river channel that are among the best places to eat in the country.
You can visit the restaurants without staying, and the dress code on that side is normal.
The salt pans
Ulcinj's Solana, just inland, was an industrial salt works and is now one of the most important bird sites on the Adriatic flyway — flamingos, avocets, and something over 250 recorded species. It was fought over for years between developers and conservationists and is now protected.
It is a twenty-minute drive from the beach and almost nobody staying on Velika Plaža knows it is there.
Getting there
Ulcinj is the southernmost town, 25 km from the Albanian border. From Budva it is about 1 h 30, from Podgorica 1 h 20, from Kotor two hours. Buses run from Bar and Budva. Parking along the beach road costs a couple of euros and there is plenty of it once you are past the western end.
