The Beaches of Tivat.

The Beaches of Tivat in Montenegro.

September 2021.

“Life is always better at the beach”, or so the well-worn expression goes. In many ways it’s hard to disagree, despite the fact that I’ve never been much into sunbathing. Or just lying around beaches in general. While there is definitely a time and a place for beach lazing, I usually get restless before too long.

Still, there is something undeniably special about coastal travel and beach life. Time tends to go slower, which is always a good thing. What’s more, chilling at the beach never fails to bring a much-needed sense of calm that can temporarily strip away life’s troubles.

I’m talking about the freshest of fresh air and the warming, healing powers of Vitamin D. And then there’s the sea, of course—I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t love it. The rhythmic, therapeutic sound of crashing waves, the regenerative lift of a salty swim. A marine biologist named Wallace J. Nichols even gave this connection a name: the Blue Mind Effect, describing the calming, restorative influence water has on our minds and bodies. It makes perfect sense to me.

The Montenegrin town of Tivat is home to around twenty official beaches, in addition to dozens of natural, less-developed segments on the edge of town stretching down the coast in both directions. Following my article on the town itself and its historic P-821 Submarine, it would be remiss of me not to report on Tivat’s lovely beach scene.

The Beaches of Tivat.

The first thing to tell you, and let’s get this right out of the way, is that for the most part there are no sandy beaches in and around the town. Instead, you’re looking at pebble and shingle beaches, that’s how Tivat rolls. If one is determined to find a sandy beach, Plavi Horizonti (Blue Horizon) does the trick and is about a 20 minute drive from Tivat.

If truth be told I’m not a huge fan of pebble beaches, certainly not to walk on barefoot. Ouch, etc. Nevertheless, we found ourselves doing a beach walk of some sort just about every day of our monthlong stay. After all, Tivat’s appeal lies largely in not the beaches themselves but the magnificent blue of the Bay of Kotor and its surrounding hills and mountains.

Happily, the majority of Tivat’s beaches are public spaces that are free to enter. Some have deckchairs and parasols for  rent, though many do not. One of the most popular in the centre of town is Ponta Beach, a signature Tivat beach in many ways in that it is pebbly and narrow with crystal clear water.

Just 250 metres in length, Ponta Beach snakes seductively around a small promontory. Away from the most populated segment, with its huddled community of white sun loungers and umbrellas, things become far more casual.

Ponta Seljanovo.

In fact, this quieter part of the beach, known locally as Ponta Seljanovo, is where folk come to simply throw their towel down in a spot of their choice.

Its red and white lighthouse meanwhile gives Ponta Seljanovo a distinctive feel and serves as a useful meeting point. People tend to gather around it, thus we usually sought out a quiet corner at the far end of the beach.

Sladja and I spent time here on a handful of occasions, setting up camp right by the water. I could never resist the pull of the bay’s azure waters—still warm against the skin even into the final week of September.

While visitors to Ponta Seljanovo are mostly left alone, we did meet a local lady doing the rounds with her home baked pastries. Perfect for an inexpensive beach snack, though I had a strong feeling she was in the habit of overcharging folk like us.

Wherever you are in Tivat the sunset rarely disappoints and in that regard Ponta Seljanovo delivered handsomely on each of our visits.

The Beaches of Tivat.

Several beaches scattered around the town centre are exclusively for the use of hotel guests. Take Hotel Palma for example, a 4-star joint situated just five metres from the shoreline.

We caught several glimpses of the hotel’s small private beach during our walks down the coast on Tivat’s main promenade. Lined with giant palm trees, potted plants and walls of thick bushes, they have done a fine job of giving their customers a sense of tranquility and privacy.

Amusingly, there is a no-frills section of public beach tacked onto the side. Here, locals sit and sunbathe, while teens play football on the narrowest strip of stone court imaginable. That’s surely going to help improve your ball control after a while.

The fanciest strip that’s open to the public is Waikiki Beach. Attached to the resort of the same name, the beach occupies an absolutely gorgeous position on the bay where one can rent a plastic sun lounger for 15 Euros per person.

They also have a VIP section (25 Euros per person) where the sun loungers are wooden and come fitted with a mattress.

We tried out Waikiki one day. Boy they really do pack those sun loungers in, so if you’re unlucky enough to be parked next to a noisy family of four there’s not going to be much in the way of serenity. We were lucky in that regard, having seemingly caught the beach on a fairly sleepy afternoon.

Waikiki Beach.

The beach bar’s waiters take and deliver orders directly from and to one’s lounger, which adds to the buzz of the place. Cocktails are pricy and average, while the waiters themselves are… I would say… competent albeit aloof.

Overall, neither Sladja nor I were bowled over by the setup at Waikiki. However, I”m glad we gave it a try just because we got to enjoy what has to be one of the best bay spots in Tivat. I’ll let the photographs speak for themselves.

There is of course an onsite restaurant at Waikiki Beach. We ate there one night, it was solid, but nothing to write home about. We much preferred the food at Big Ben, a popular restaurant just across the road from Waikiki’s gated entrance.

If there’s a free table, I highly recommend sitting on the rooftop terrace, which has fine views across the bay.

Big Ben specialises in… no, not fish and chips or bangers and mash (sorry, guv’nor), but pizza and bruschetta. Naturally, that’s exactly what we ordered—and we weren’t disappointed. Both dishes were a delight, 10/10.

Away from the centre of town, down both sides of the coast, the beaches get a little bigger, prettier and certainly quieter. One afternoon we spent some time hanging out on Donja Lastva Beach near Tivat’s historic quarter.

The Beaches of Tivat.

This beach stuck in our minds thanks to a chance encounter with what we could only assume was a street dog—or perhaps one with a very laid-back owner. Either way, he’d clearly appointed himself king of the beach. When we arrived, he was mooching about, greeting people at will and receiving a mixed bag of responses. Then, as if to cool off from his royal duties, he eventually took a swim.

Finally, he found us. Or should I say Sladja, who he was quite taken with. Playfully rolling around next to her and lapping up her strokes, a few moments after I took this photo he got over-exuberant with Sladja and I had to shoo him away.

Just behind Donja Lastva Beach, on the other side of the road, lies a pretty catholic church and cemetery that is well worth a visit. It’s called the Church of Saint Mihovila, a small stone construct dedicated to St. Michael.

The cemetery is beautifully kept, pleasingly peaceful and wonderfully leafy.

The highlight was this impressive family crypt, a sculpted work of art. It is the final resting place of the Ivović family, with over a dozen burials taking place here between 1919 and 1977.

Another laid back strip of pebbles, down the other side of the coast towards the sleepy neighbourhood of Zupa, is the lovely Belane Beach.

Belane Beach.

Belane Beach lies just a short stroll from Kalimanj Marina, a mooring station for smaller vessels that mostly belong to locals. It is a far cry from the glitz and glamour of Porto Montenegro and a glimpse of Tivat’s pervading vibe before its modernisation.

I’ve decided to save the best for last. Regular readers might remember our fondness for the sleepy district of Zupa, with its woodland trails and abandoned palaces. Well, the neighbourhood also boasts a dozen or so small, mostly unnamed beaches that— for reasons I can’t quite fathom—seem to attract little to no attention from the tourist crowd.

One afternoon we went exploring these beaches, many of which we had to ourselves. Some of them were extremely narrow, others petered out altogether and we had to duck back into the woods to continue on down the coast.

Along this stretch of Montenegrin coast the views across the bay are something else, the dictionary definition of quietude.

Late afternoon was melting into early evening by the time we reached the biggest (but still nameless) beach we’d seen thus far. The beach itself was perfectly empty, not a soul aside from ourselves.

The Beaches of Tivat.

Exploring a little, we realised there was in fact a tiny beach bar tucked away in a leafy corner. There were three locals sat chatting to the waitress at a table, the rest of the joint just as deserted as the beach. Consulting Google maps, we learned that it is called Cafe Bar Bova.

As lovely a spot as it was, we ultimately decided to stay on the beach itself. Settling down against a stone wall next to a pair of canoes, it was a lovely moment as we took in the scene.

Enraptured, we sat for a while on our little private beach, waves gently lapping at the shore as the sun slowly made its way toward another Tivat sunset.

It was a hypnotic scene, disrupted only briefly by the sound of a plane taking off from nearby Tivat Airport.

That evening’s swim was the most memorable of all, bathed in a radiant orange glow. It had taken nearly a month, but at long last, we had found our favourite Tivat beach.

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