WHERE TO STAY FOR BOKA MARATHON
EUROPE'S SOUTHERNMOST FJORD, with towns in it.
The Bay of Kotor is often called Europe's southernmost fjord. Geologically, it is a ria — an ancient river valley submerged by the sea — but from the road, with cliffs going up more than a thousand metres straight out of deep water, the comparison makes emotional sense. Four connected basins, and a thin ledge of habitable land at the bottom where people have been building in stone since the Romans.
The best-preserved inner section of the Bay of Kotor forms a UNESCO World Heritage property, bringing together the old towns, waterside settlements and steep cultural landscape. The marathon runs along the bay shore and finishes inside Kotor's fortified old town. This page covers where to sleep on that shore, where to eat, and what the villages you pass actually are.
KOTOR OR TIVAT, and why it isn't obvious.
This race starts in one town and finishes in another, twenty kilometres apart. Most runners should stay in Kotor — you sleep by the finish, take the organiser's bus to the start at dawn, and run home. But it genuinely depends which race you have entered.
KOTOR
A walled medieval town below a mountain, with a fortress climbing the cliff behind it in switchbacks. It is the finish, it has the old town, the restaurants and most of the beds, and after 42 kilometres you want to be able to walk to your room.
Best if you are running the marathon or half. Take the 06:00–07:15 bus over to Tivat on race morning and let the race bring you back.
TIVAT
Modern, low-key, built around the Porto Montenegro marina where the Yugoslav navy used to keep its shipyard. Less atmospheric than Kotor and considerably easier to park, arrive at and leave from.
Best if you are running the Saturday 10K or 5K, or travelling with family who aren't racing — and you'll want the 16:30 boat back from Kotor after the Sunday race.
WHERE I'D ACTUALLY STAY.
December is deep off-season on this coast, which is the one time of year the Bay of Kotor is affordable. Rooms that cost a fortune in August go for £35–65 a night. I would rather name one or two places properly than list a dozen from a booking site.
MY RACE-WEEKEND SHORTLIST IS COMING SOON.
I am checking which properties are genuinely open in December, close enough to make race morning simple, and flexible enough for an off-season trip. I will add a small, location-based shortlist for Kotor and Tivat once the accommodation links are ready — not a generic list of whatever happens to rank first on a booking site.
Until then, the practical rule is simple: stay in Kotor if you are running the marathon or half and want to finish close to your room. Consider Tivat if you are racing on Saturday, travelling with non-runners or want to stay close to the Sunday start.
One thing to check before you book anything: a lot of the bay's smaller guesthouses close for the winter. Confirm the property is actually open in the second week of December rather than assuming, and choose free cancellation — your race entry is already non-refundable.
Photo: Boka Marathon
FOUR TABLES, and what each is for.
Montenegrin coastal food is Venetian at heart — grilled fish, mussels in wine and garlic, cured ham from the mountains, olive oil from Bar. Four places, covering the cheap honest lunch, the old-town classic, the one you literally run past, and the dinner worth a taxi. Prices below are the going rate per person with wine, not my invention.
KONOBA CESARICA
The local oneWhere Kotor eats when it is not performing for anyone. Small enough that the cook sees every table, a menu handwritten that morning according to what the market had, and portions built for people who have done a day's work. The lamb ispod sača — cooked under an iron bell buried in embers — needs ordering a day ahead and is worth the planning.
KONOBA SCALA SANTA
The old-town classicA family kitchen that has held the same standards for years while restaurants around it opened and closed with the tourist cycles. Pršut from Njeguši, mussels in buzara, fish soup, grilled sea bass. Nothing is reinvented and nothing needs to be.
KONOBA PORTUN
On the courseYou run past this one three times if you are doing the marathon — Prčanj is the aid station at 15, 26 and 36.5 kilometres. It is a family tavern with a terrace that all but touches the water, grilling whole fish over wood, and the village behind it is a row of Venetian baroque palaces stacked on a ledge under the cliff. Come back the next day and eat at the place you ran past while you were suffering. It is the best hour of the whole trip.
STARI MLINI
The celebrationBuilt into the remains of an old water mill where a stream runs into the bay, with water on three sides and fig trees over the terrace. The trout are raised in the mill stream itself and the Adriatic fish changes with the morning boat. If you have just run a marathon and want the meal to feel like it meant something, this is where you go.
THREE THINGS WORTH KNOWING.
Buzara is the order
Mussels or scampi cooked in white wine, garlic, olive oil and breadcrumbs, served in the pan with bread to finish the sauce. It is the dish of this bay and it is what you should eat the night before, not after.
The bread charge is real
Bread arriving unasked comes with a €1–2 cover charge on the bill. This is normal and legal in Montenegro, not a scam — wave it away at the start if you don't want it.
Fish is sold by weight
Whole fresh fish is priced per kilo, and the waiter will bring the fish to the table before cooking it. Ask what it weighs and what that comes to before you nod. Nobody minds the question.
THE SHORT LIST.
You will have a Saturday and most of a Monday. That is enough for all of this.
KOTOR OLD TOWN
A walled Venetian town of squares and alleys with no straight lines in it, UNESCO listed, and small enough to get lost in for exactly the right amount of time.
THE CITY WALLS
Roughly 1,350 steps switchbacking up the cliff to the fortress of San Giovanni. Not before the race. After it, your legs will object and the view will win.
PERAST & THE ISLAND
A baroque village of palaces half an hour up the bay, and Our Lady of the Rocks — a man-made island built up over centuries by sailors dropping stones.
PORTO MONTENEGRO
In Tivat, where the Yugoslav navy kept its shipyard and superyachts now sit instead. Odd, and worth twenty minutes if you are staying at that end.
Save the walls for after the race. Everything else fits around a Saturday, and in December you will have most of it to yourself.
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