Postcard from Montenegro

Montenegro is a surprise. Craggy mountains sweep down to the ice-blue Adriatic. World-class hotels and busy marinas greet an international clientele. Sailboats and fishing boats and ferries and massive yachts cross the busy Bay of Tivat. The Bay, often incorrectly called the southernmost fjord in Europe — is actually a Ria, caused by the flooding of a river valley rather than carved by glaciers.

Part of a vast Venetian Empire for 350 years, and later controlled by the Ottoman Empire, you can see remnants of both Eastern and Western influences in art, architecture, and culture. We ate squid ink risotto and sushi, drank local wines, sampled olive oils, prosciutto and cheese.

With the Aman Resort at Sveti Stephan closed due to Covid and (reportedly) a dispute with the locals over public beach access, I was there with the owner of my company, Currie & Company Travels, to check out some new hotels in the area. We stayed at the new One & Only Portonovi and the Regent Porto Montenegro in Tivat. We also checked out the “scene” at Nikki Beach, ate lunch at Iberostar Heritage Grand in the charming waterfront village of Perast, and stopped in at Lazure Hotel and Marina, closest to the Croatian border.

On the way back to Dubrovnik, we visited Savina, a local winery that is working to restore the wine-making history of the region, where grapes have been grown since ancient times. The nearby Savina Monastery has crowned the impressive hillside since the Middle Ages. Today, Savina Winery is producing 20,000 bottles of red (cab, merlot, shiraz), white (grenache, chardonnay) as well as an indigenous white varietal, Zizak. You can make reservations to tour the winery and taste the wines while overlooking the entrance to Boka Bay from high on the mountainside. If you didn’t know better, you might think you were in the South of France or the Amalfi Coast — but you’re in Montenegro. Again, what a surprise!