We didn’t have the chance to explore the coast of Montenegro as we had to come straight into the bay of Tivat to clear-in a month ago, so we decided to hop a bus one day and head over (it would have taken a day to get there by boat, but only an hour by bus).
Budva, at 2,500 years old, is one of the oldest towns on the Adriatic coast. Founded by the Illyrians, it has undergone Greek, Roman, Serbian, Ottoman, French, Austrian, and Venetian rule, all of which are apparent in the Stari Grad (old town). Budva is actually a huge modern city, but we don’t have much use for casinos, fancy hotels, and ritzy beach bars, so we focused on the old town which is manageable in an afternoon.
The old city is right on the waters edge, surrounded by typical high stone walls and includes a citadel and a few churches. It’s like a maze wandering through the streets. We were very much reminded of Kotor, though hipsters have definitely moved into Budva, judging by the trendy little shops.
Though there were plenty of tourists, we pretty much had the citadel and the local history museum to ourselves . It’s evident that the season is coming to a close, and we were lucky not to be fighting the crowds.
Budva suffered a lot of damage in 1979 from an earthquake, but you wouldn’t know it from the detailed rebuilding that preserved the original structures.
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