Kotor is a relatively small walled town, with no vehicular traffic inside the wall perimeter.
Many winding picturesque streets in Kotor are a perfect setting to “get lost” ♥♥♥. There is definitely a strong Venetian influence underscored by the fact that the defensive walls were built by erstwhile Venice overlords. The walls are part of a serial UNESCO World Heritage site. It is possible to go on them, but after doing likewise in Dubrovnik, we only looked from outside on the ones in Kotor.
You can also climb the wall path up the mountain, for sweeping views of the town, but I suspect it can only be attempted on a non-summer day.
Quite a number of churches are packed into the small town core. St Tryphon Cathedral ♥ has a fairly extensive treasury and an open platform at the roof level, in addition to a few nice interior features. St Luke is a small Orthodox church, more standout for its physical location as a pivot on the eponymous square. Nearby is a newish and larger Orthodox church of St Michael, with a traditionally impressive altar. St Clare is another church worth a quick look.
An unusual attraction is the Cats Museum ♥, a two-room compendium of postcards, posters, and paintings devoted to cats. It is a curious collection – those who are into cats may actually spend quite a lot of time looking through hundreds of items.
Among other attractions in town is the Maritime Museum, which we did not fit into our visit.
Places to Eat
Random choice for lunch at Scorpio ♥ on St Luke Square. The food is reasonably ok and the positive rating is mainly about live music – an able violinist with a background sound. In the seating area on the square there are not enough cooling implements for a hot day, but mostly bearable. Our damage: €49 for 4 people with a bottle of wine. Last visit: Summer 2019.
Note on border crossing
As many people travel to Kotor from Dubrovnik in Croatia, they need to be prepared to spend non-trivial time at the border crossing. The crossing primarily slows to a crawl on the Croatian side, regardless of leaving or coming. The line reputedly can be as long as a couple of hours; we spent half an hour each way, and were lucky to be in a faster-moving of two lines. Each passport is reviewed and stamped, and when leaving Croatia, the border agent also demanded to see our car papers. On the Montenegrin side, both times we were second in line upon arriving, and the whole procedure took less than a minute (it should be noted that when we were crossing back from Montenegro to Croatia around 5pm, the line in the opposite direction at the Montenegro checkpoint looked pretty long).
Bay of Kotor
The town of Kotor sits by the bay which is separately inscribed on the World Heritage list as a natural and cultural landscape. There are shades of Lake Como in the perspectives, but the mountains are higher, not as lush overall, and the towns are less picturesque on average. You can drive around the bay or take a quite efficient ferry service across its narrowest point. The town of Perast, together with two islands in front of it, is among the highlights that we had to cut from our limited time in the region.
Herzeg Novi
Herzeg Novi is a pleasant and comparatively quiet town at the northwestern edge of the Kotor Bay. Orthodox church of Holy Achangel Michael dominates the main square. The old sea fort ♥ is worth stopping by for views over the bay.