Herceg Novi sits at the mouth of the Bay of Kotor, in the far north west corner of Montenegro about five kilometres from the Croatian border, and it is the town on this coast built most directly into a hillside. The old town climbs from the water in a series of terraces linked by stairs, with two fortresses, a clock tower gate and a string of small squares, and the practical consequence is that almost every journey in Herceg Novi is up or down several flights of steps.
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It has been Bosnian, Ottoman, Venetian, Spanish for two years, Austrian, French and Yugoslav, and each left something standing, which is why a town of twelve thousand people has this many fortifications. It is also the warmest and most sheltered spot in Montenegro, which gave it a reputation as a health resort and produced the botanical collection that still grows along the promenade: palms, agaves, mimosa and eucalyptus that do not belong this far north and thrive here anyway.
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What Is Here
Forte Mare is the sea fortress and it is the emblem of the town. A Venetian and Ottoman structure on the rock directly above the water at the bottom of the old town, with ramparts you can walk and a view straight out of the bay mouth. In summer the inner court is used as an open-air cinema, which is a genuinely good way to spend an evening.
Kanli Kula, the Bloody Tower, is the upper fortress and the better one. An Ottoman citadel above the old town with walls several metres thick, used as a prison for centuries, now converted into an open-air theatre with the stage set into the fortress floor and the bay behind it. The conversion is unusually sympathetic and the acoustics are the reason the summer festival programme is held there.
Between the two is the old town proper: the Sahat Kula clock tower gate of 1667 that is the main entrance, the Belavista square with the Archangel Michael church in the middle of it, the Orthodox and Catholic churches a few metres apart, and the St Jerome's Church in the photograph at the top of this page. It is all compact and all on a slope.
The Pet Danica promenade is the town's spine and it is five kilometres long. A seafront walkway running from the Skver at the town centre west towards Igalo and east towards Meljine, almost entirely at sea level, passing beaches, the botanical plantings and a succession of small swimming platforms. It is the one flat walk in Herceg Novi and it is where the town actually lives in the evening.
The Savina Monastery, fifteen minutes east, is a three-church complex in cypress woods above the bay with an eighteenth-century main church and a frescoed older one, and is the quietest and most beautiful thing in the municipality. Igalo, to the west, is a spa settlement built around the Institute Dr Simo Milosevic, which uses the local mineral mud and is a genuine medical rehabilitation centre rather than a wellness hotel. And the Lustica peninsula and the Blue Cave are the boat trips from the harbour.
When to Go
May, June, September and October, and Herceg Novi has one festival worth travelling for in February. The Mimosa Festival runs through most of February, when the mimosa comes into flower across the hillsides here weeks before anything blooms elsewhere in the region, and the town holds a programme of events around it. It is the only reason to be on the Montenegrin coast in winter and it is a good one.
Otherwise the pattern is the regional one: spring and early autumn give you twenty two to twenty seven degrees, a swimmable sea from mid-June through October, and a town functioning normally. July and August are hot at around thirty and busy, though notably less so than Budva, because Herceg Novi has never had a resort strip and draws an older and quieter crowd.
Winter outside February is mild at ten to fifteen degrees, wet, and quiet, with the fortresses open and much of the restaurant trade closed. The bay traps cloud and this corner of it is the wettest part of Montenegro, which is the other side of the sheltered microclimate that grows the palms.
Getting There
Tivat Airport is about twenty five kilometres and forty minutes away around the bay, and Dubrovnik in Croatia is about forty kilometres but involves a border crossing that can take an hour or more in summer; Podgorica is ninety minutes inland.
The approach from the north involves a choice that matters. Coming from Dubrovnik or from Kotor the coast road runs around the inner bay through Risan and Perast, which is beautiful and slow, or you can use the Kamenari to Lepetane ferry across the narrows, which cuts a long way off the drive to Tivat and Budva and runs continuously. In summer the ferry queue can be long and the road queue longer.
Buses run frequently along the coast from Herceg Novi to Kotor, Budva and Podgorica, and the bus station is above the town, which means arriving involves stairs down into the old town with your luggage. That is worth knowing when choosing accommodation.
Locally everything is walking and the walking is vertical. There is no useful public transport within the town. The Pet Danica promenade links the settlements along the shore at sea level and is the easy route; anything up to the fortresses or the bus station is steps.
Is Herceg Novi Safe for Women Travelers
The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in Montenegro. It records that although there is no recent history of terrorism in the country attacks cannot be ruled out, that protests sometimes take place in front of government or religious buildings and are mostly peaceful but can lead to clashes, and that incidents of violent crime between organised criminal groups can affect others close by.
Herceg Novi is a quiet, settled, residential town and is among the easiest places in Montenegro for a woman travelling alone. It has no resort strip and no significant nightlife, the promenade is busy with local families walking in the evening, and crime against visitors is rare. The hazards here are the stairs, the water and the boat traffic.
On everyday crime the advisory names the places rather than generalising: be wary of pickpockets in tourist hot spots, beaches, airports and on public transport, use a hotel safe, and do not leave luggage in a parked vehicle. Its two concrete recommendations for reducing the risk of bag-snatching and mugging are to avoid isolated areas at night especially if walking alone, and to use licensed taxis ordered in advance or through an app rather than hailed. On card fraud it advises using ATMs inside banks where possible, checking street machines for signs of tampering, and keeping your card in sight when paying.
The stairs are the genuine daily hazard and nobody puts them in a guidebook. Herceg Novi's old town is built on a steep slope and the connections between its levels are stone staircases, many of them centuries old, with worn and polished treads, uneven risers, no handrails in places and sections that are slick after rain. Add the fact that most visitors arrive at the bus station above the town and walk down with luggage, and falls on these steps are the commonest injury here by a wide margin. Shoes with grip matter more in Herceg Novi than in any other town in this batch, and going down slowly after rain is the whole of the advice.
The Montenegrin advisory's water-safety section names a hazard most beach advice omits. Alongside the usual instruction to read the warning signs, follow the lifeguards and observe the flags, it states that speedboats and other watercraft operate frequently along the coast, particularly in summer, and tells swimmers to remain aware of vessels nearby and to use designated swimming areas where they exist. On a coast this busy with tenders, taxi boats and jet-skis, swimming outside a marked area puts you where a boat does not expect a head. It also advises taking local advice on jellyfish and sea urchins, which are both present. For anything rented, the advisory asks for a safety briefing and clear instructions on where you may and may not ride, and the appropriate licence and insurance.
Applied to this town, the swimming is from concrete platforms and rock rather than sand, and the bay is busy. Herceg Novi's beaches are small, mostly shingle or built platforms along the promenade, with ladders into deep water. That means no gradual shelving, deep water immediately, and sea urchins on the rock. The bay mouth also carries continuous boat traffic, including the Lustica and Blue Cave excursion boats leaving from the harbour, so the buoyed areas matter.
If your passport is lost or stolen in Montenegro you cannot leave the country on a police report. That is the FCDO's own statement and it is unusual enough to be worth planning around, because in several countries a police report is exactly what gets you onto a flight home. Here you must renew the passport or obtain an emergency travel document, which means dealing with your embassy in Podgorica and building in the days that takes. Photograph your passport's data page, keep a copy somewhere separate from the document, and treat the passport itself as the one thing you do not risk losing on this trip.
You must carry identification at all times in Montenegro, a passport or a photocard driving licence, and the police can fine you for not having it. Keep a copy of the passport photo page somewhere separate. Note also that photographing police or military installations, personnel or vehicles is illegal and the FCDO warns it could lead to arrest and prosecution, which is worth knowing in a country where the coast road passes naval installations in the Bay of Kotor.
Two more. The Croatian border is five kilometres away and crossing it is a real administrative act, not a formality: queues of an hour or more in summer, hire car paperwork including a green card for insurance, and passports needed. Check your rental agreement allows the crossing before you plan a Dubrovnik day. And the coast road through the town is narrow with pedestrians on it, and the promenade is the safe walking route rather than the road above it.
The Herceg Novi Packing List
A mild Adriatic town built on stairs, so the list is sun protection, something for deep-water swimming, and shoes that grip worn stone.
Merino base layers, for the evenings and the air conditioning
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women earns its place here because the bay cools quickly once the sun drops behind the mountains, which happens early in a town facing north west, and an evening on the promenade in May or October wants a layer. It also handles the standard Mediterranean problem of a damp swimsuit under clothes in an air-conditioned bus or restaurant.
A sun hoodie, which is the most-used garment here
A Columbia sun hoodie, with a wide brim sun hat. The promenade has long unshaded stretches, the fortress ramparts have none at all, and boat trips to the Blue Cave are hours of reflected light. Long sleeves also cover shoulders for the Savina Monastery and the old town churches, which expect it.
Shoes with grip, which matter more here than anywhere in this batch
Salomon X Ultra 4 GTX shoes with Darn Tough merino hiking socks. Worn polished stone stairs with uneven risers and no handrail, slick after rain, repeated several hundred times a day. This is not a town for smooth-soled sandals, and it is a genuinely poor choice of destination for anyone with mobility difficulty, which is worth saying plainly.
A dry bag for the boat trips
A waterproof dry bag. The Blue Cave and Lustica boats are open and take spray, and swimming from a platform means leaving your things on concrete with nowhere secure or dry.
The small things, and the first two are specific to this coast
Something on your feet in the water, because the swimming here is off rock and platforms and the urchins are real; we give that advice with no link because the only water-shoe entry in our product register has an unresolved product identity. A quick dry travel towel, since you will swim from the promenade rather than from a hotel beach. Cash in euros for the smaller places and the boats. A photograph of your passport data page stored separately, for the reason in the advisory section. Something modest for the monastery. And if you are crossing to Croatia, the hire car's green card and your passport.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Herceg Novi
Emergency numbers: 112 for all emergencies throughout Montenegro, with 122 for police and 124 for ambulance directly. English is reasonable in the tourist sector. For anything in the water, note that the bay is busy with excursion traffic and the harbour office is the fastest route to a boat. The local tourist organisation has an office near the Skver and is the practical first stop for complaints about operators.
US State Department travel advisory: the Montenegro advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/montenegro, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital: Herceg Novi has a general hospital in Meljine, which is the useful fact here because it means you are not dependent on Kotor: the Meljine hospital handles emergencies and the Igalo institute next door is a substantial rehabilitation facility. Kotor's hospital is forty minutes east and the Clinical Centre of Montenegro in Podgorica, ninety minutes inland, is the only tertiary facility in the country. For anything serious the realistic destination is outside Montenegro, and because Dubrovnik is forty kilometres away with a hospital of its own, this corner of the country is better placed than most, though crossing the border for treatment is an insurance question rather than a given. Montenegro is not in the EU, so a UK GHIC or an EHIC does not cover you and travel insurance is your only cover. Sea urchin spines are the most common minor presentation and the pharmacies deal with them routinely.
Official health authority: the Montenegrin Ministry of Health. MONTENEGRO IS NOT IN THE EU so a UK GHIC or EHIC covers nothing and travel insurance is your only cover. Herceg Novi does have its own general hospital at MELJINE, which makes it better placed than most of the coast, with Kotor forty minutes east and the only tertiary facility ninety minutes inland at Podgorica. The commonest injury here is A FALL ON THE OLD TOWN STAIRS and the commonest minor one is sea urchin spines
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Podgorica.
Official tourism authority: the National Tourism Organisation of Montenegro. TWO LOCAL THINGS. THE MIMOSA FESTIVAL runs through most of FEBRUARY, when the mimosa flowers on these hillsides weeks before anything else in the region, and it is the only real reason to be on this coast in winter. And the KAMENARI TO LEPETANE FERRY across the bay narrows cuts a long way off the drive east, though the queue can be long in summer
The old town is stairs and the treads are worn and slick after rain. Falls are the commonest injury here, and the bus station is above the town.
Swimming is off rock and concrete platforms into deep water. No gradual shelving, and urchins on the rock.
If your passport is lost or stolen you cannot leave Montenegro on a police report.
Crossing to Croatia is an hour-plus queue in summer and needs the hire car's green card.
Solo women safety assessment: Herceg Novi is among the easiest towns in Montenegro for a woman travelling alone: quiet, residential, with no resort strip and no significant nightlife, a promenade busy with local families in the evening, and rare crime against visitors. The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in Montenegro, records that attacks cannot be ruled out although there is no recent history of terrorism, notes that protests outside government or religious buildings are mostly peaceful, and warns that violence between organised criminal groups can affect others close by. Its everyday crime advice names pickpockets in tourist hot spots, beaches, airports and public transport, and makes two concrete recommendations: avoid isolated areas at night ESPECIALLY IF WALKING ALONE, and use licensed taxis ordered in advance or through an app rather than hailed. THE DAILY HAZARD HERE IS THE STAIRS AND NO GUIDEBOOK MENTIONS IT. The old town is built on a steep slope and its levels are joined by centuries-old stone staircases with worn polished treads, uneven risers, missing handrails and sections that are slick after rain, and most visitors arrive at a bus station above the town and walk down with luggage. Falls on these steps are the commonest injury in Herceg Novi by a wide margin, which makes shoes with grip matter more here than anywhere else in this batch, and makes this a genuinely poor destination for anyone with mobility difficulty. THE SWIMMING IS OFF ROCK AND CONCRETE PLATFORMS into deep water with no gradual shelving and urchins on the rock, and the advisory's warning that speedboats and other watercraft operate frequently along this coast applies directly at a bay mouth carrying continuous excursion traffic, so stay inside the buoyed areas. You must carry ID at all times and can be fined without it, photographing police or military installations is illegal which matters on a bay with naval facilities, and if your passport is lost or stolen you cannot leave on a police report. Montenegro is not in the EU so a GHIC or EHIC covers nothing.
Reading On
Herceg Novi is the first town inside Montenegro coming from Croatia and the gateway to the Bay of Kotor. The Kotor packing list covers the walled town forty minutes east at the head of the bay, which is the region's main draw. The Tivat packing list covers the marina town by the airport, reached quickly by the Kamenari ferry. The Budva packing list covers the coast's main resort an hour south, and the Dubrovnik packing list covers the Croatian city forty kilometres north west across the border. For the country as a whole the Montenegro travel guide for women and the Montenegro packing list carry the driving, the borders and the practical material in full. For why a wool layer suits a bay that cools fast at dusk, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
