Some trips you plan down to the last reservation. Montenegro wasn’t one of them. We worked with a travel advisor to build our two-week honeymoon itinerary, and I’ll admit where my energy went: Croatia got the spreadsheets, the restaurant research, the obsessive tab-opening at midnight. Montenegro got the hotel booking and a general agreement that we’d figure it out when we got there.
That was intentional, mostly. Every good honeymoon needs a slow leg, and ours was Montenegro. The plan was to eat well, sleep late, and decompress before returning to real, married (!) life in Chicago. We arrived at One&Only slightly groggy from the night before, with high hopes and very few expectations. Which, as it turns out, is the right way to arrive.
Montenegro One&Only
One&Only Portonovi stretches across 1.8 kilometers of Boka Bay coastline, drawing on the Italianate architecture of the nearby medieval towns. Think arched windows, stone colonnades, terracotta rooftops, and palm-filled gardens winding their way down toward the water. One look at the grounds and I thought, damn, this is nice.
We dropped our bags and settled in for lunch, where our waiter greeted us by name without any introduction. I spent the rest of the meal wondering how they possibly kept track, and if everyone received the same treatment. Were we VIPs? Is this the Honeymoon treatment? By dinner, it became clear — we’d only seen a handful of other guests around the resort. Suddenly, the VIP treatment made a lot more sense.
As it turns out, mid-October is less “shoulder season” and more “end of season.” A few more guests trickled in during our stay, but the resort stayed quietly, almost eerily, empty. Which sounds romantic in theory (and it was, mostly), but there comes a point where secluded dips into something closer to desolate. Learn from us: book before October.
Private Boat Day: How to Do Boka Bay Right
Perast, Montenegro
We chartered a private boat on our first full day in Montenegro, and nothing that came before or after really compared. This was, hands down, my favorite part of the entire trip. Boka Bay is lined by mountains so dramatic they barely look real, which, fittingly, is exactly where Montenegro gets its name. Monte (mountain) + negro (black) in Venetian Italian, a nod to the centuries the Venetians controlled this region. The backdrop of dark peaks against the clear, calm water is one of the more beautiful things I’ve seen anywhere.
Our first stop was the medieval town of Perast.
Perast is the kind of place that makes you suspicious: it’s too pretty, too quiet, too perfectly intact. The waterfront is a single street of crumbling Venetian palaces; the kind of beautiful disrepair that no restoration budget could improve. We arrived too early for lunch at Conte, which sits right on the water and comes with serious recommendations. We wandered around instead.
Our Lady of the Rocks
Just off the coast of Perast sits Our Lady of the Rocks, the Adriatic’s only man-made island. Built stone by stone over the course of five centuries, it started with sailors who found an icon of the Virgin Mary on a reef in 1452 and made a pact: return safely, leave a rock. Every July 22nd, the village rows out to honor the legend — throwing stones into the water, same as they’ve done for 500 years.
Our Lady of the Rocks is also home to a small church filled with baroque paintings, maritime artifacts, and a tapestry made by a local woman named Jacinta. She allegedly spent 25 years embroidering it, weaving her own hair into the gold and silver threads, as an act of devotion. Local legend says she was waiting for someone at sea who never came back, and that she went blind before she finished it. True or embellished, it’s exactly the kind of story Montenegro seems to collect.
Dobrota, Montenegro
By the time we reached Dobrota, we were ready to eat anything that wasn’t moving. We pulled up to Forza Terra, a family-owned boutique hotel on the waterfront, with no idea it would be one of the best meals of the trip. We ordered sea bass that I’m still thinking about, split a bottle of wine, and sat there well past when we should have left.
Kotor, Montenegro
From there, back on the boat for the last stop, Kotor. We wandered the UNESCO-listed medieval city with a guide for a couple of hours, then returned to the water to decompress before dinner. One thing worth knowing: cruise ships flood Kotor during the day, so if you’re planning an evening there, wait them out. The city is a completely different place once they leave.
How to End a Honeymoon
Like all good things, the boat day eventually had to end. Sigh. Luckily, we spent the remaining two days in Montenegro relaxing on the hotel grounds, which is nothing to sneeze at either. We dedicated one full day to doing nothing — beach, pools, repeat. Never underestimate the power of a good rest day.
We saved our last day for the Chenot Espace, One&Only’s renowned wellness center and one of the most celebrated spa programs in the world. A couples massage there, followed by sushi at Tapasake… not a bad way to end a honeymoon.
Overall, Montenegro surprised me. I came in treating it as an afterthought and left wondering why the small Balkan country isn’t on more people’s radar. If you make it to Boka Bay, make time for Lovćen and Durmitor National Park as well. Both are on my list for next time.
Until next time, Montenegro.
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