Things to Do in Kotor: City Walls, the Old Town and the Bay

Kotor rewards you for getting the timing right and punishes you for getting it wrong. The old town is small, the fortress climb is exposed, and on a two-ship cruise day the streets are shoulder-to-shoulder from mid-morning until late afternoon. Do the same things four hours earlier and it is one of the best towns on the Adriatic.

The city walls and San Giovanni fortress

The climb is the reason most people come. The fortifications run up the cliff behind the town to the San Giovanni fortress, roughly 1,350 steps above the old town, with the bay opening up further with every switchback.

• Entry: around €8–10 in 2026
• Bring cash. The gates take euros in cash and card facilities are rarely available — this catches people out constantly
• Open roughly 8am to 8pm in peak season
• Time needed: 1.5 to 2.5 hours return, depending on how often you stop

Go at 8am. Not 9, not 10. The route faces the morning sun and there is almost no shade; by 11am in July it is genuinely punishing, and by then the cruise crowds are on the lower sections. The other good window is after 6pm, when the light on the bay is better anyway.

Wear real shoes. The steps are uneven, worn smooth in places, and there are stretches without a handrail.

The old town itself

A compact grid of stone lanes and small squares inside the walls, with no cars. You do not need a plan — the town is small enough to walk end to end in fifteen minutes, and getting lost in it is the point.

Worth stopping for:

• St Tryphon’s Cathedral — the two mismatched bell towers on the main square are Kotor’s other postcard
• The Maritime Museum, in the Grgurina Palace — Kotor was a serious seafaring town and the collection shows it. Admission around €4, generally open 9am–5pm in summer
• The cats. Kotor’s street cats are a genuine local institution rather than a nuisance, and there is a small museum dedicated to them

Out on the bay

Kotor is a base as much as a destination. Within twenty minutes:

• Perast — one street of baroque houses, no cars, and boats out to Our Lady of the Rocks, a man-made island built up by sailors over centuries. Details in our day trips guide.
• Risan — Roman mosaics, and much quieter than anywhere else on the bay
• The Ladder of Kotor — the old mule track that zigzags above the town to Krstac. Harder and longer than the fortress, and almost empty

What Kotor is not

It is not a beach town. The bay water is calm and clean but you swim off concrete platforms and pebble strips, not sand. If the holiday is about the beach, base yourself further south and visit Kotor for a day — see the best beaches and where to stay.

Practical

• Cruise days decide your day. When ships are in, the old town is packed 10am–5pm and then empties completely. Plan the walls and the museum for early morning, and the town itself for the evening.
• Parking is the daily problem. Use the paid lots outside the walls rather than circling.
• Getting there: 20 minutes from Tivat airport, 40 from Budva, and 40 from Herceg Novi if you take the Kamenari–Lepetane ferry.
• Emergency: 112 from any phone, including foreign SIM cards with no credit.

Prices and opening hours change. Confirm before you go.