Things to Do in Kotor

City walls to San Giovanni fortress

The 1,350-step climb starts behind St Tryphon Cathedral, where smooth limestone soon turns to rougher serpentine paths. You'll sweat through pine shade before popping onto bare rock that drops straight to terracotta roofs and the silver-blue fjord. Pack water. The only vendor is a cooler-toting grandma halfway up who sells warm Coke and figs.

Maritime Museum in Grgurina Palace

Three floors of model galleons, torpedoes and captains' logbooks give you the smell of old varnish and the creak of wide floorboards. Look for the 19th-century painting that shows Kotor with more masts than roofs. Proof this tiny inlet once bossed the Adriatic.

Blue Cave speedboat run with submarine tunnel stop

Skippers gun the throttle from the old town pier, salt spray stinging your cheeks as you skip past Perast's twin islands. Inside the flooded cave the water glows electric neon. Jump in and your skin looks alien-blue while engine fumes hang in the cold air.

Ladder of Kotor hike to Njeguši village

The old postal trail switchbacks 940 m above the bay through chestnut forest that smells damp and mushroomy. You emerge onto pasture where shepherds offer still-warm cheese that squeaks between your teeth and smoked ham you can smell before you see.

Evening people-watching at Piazza of the Arms

Kids chase pigeons across polished stone while café umbrellas flicker with fairy lights and acoustic buskers bounce off stone arcades. Order a spritz. You'll catch the cathedral bell echoing off the Arsenal building as grilled squid drifts over from the next table.

Stari Grad: sleep inside the walls to wake to cathedral bells and echoing alleys. But pack light (no wheeled bags).

Dobrota waterfront: stone villas turned guesthouses, morning swims off the pier and quieter nights.

Prčanj: ten minutes up the bay, old captain houses, cheaper than town yet still walkable.

Muo: across the road from town, hillside houses with terraces hovering over the inlet.

Perast - twenty minutes by bus, baroque palaces, good if you want zero cars

Tivat - modern marina apartments, handy for late airport arrivals