After Albania, we went to Montenegro. Our second stop was Kotor, on the edge of the Bay of Kotor (our first stop being at a farm stay). Kotor Bay is a beautiful bay in northwest Montenegro. The bay’s huge, and the rock faces surrounding it make it seem as if it’s a massive lake. Kotor Bay is enclosed in sheer rock faces on pretty much all sides. Beautifully tall light grey rocks that are at least 75 meters tall with small pockets of dark green evergreens shyly poking their needles out. It’s so pretty! The Bay of Kotor also has some pretty cool things to do around the area. Here are a couple of things we did there:

• Watching cruise ships - Kotor is known for being very touristy, and sure enough, we saw cruise ships almost every day (only once was there not a cruise ship in the bay near Kotor). On the first day, we saw The Royal Clipper, a fully-rigged cruise ship with 5 masts and 42 sails. It’s the largest fully-rigged sailboat in the world! I’m so glad we saw this ship! Along with The Royal Clipper, we saw other big cruise ships such as The Norwegian Gem, and MSC Fantasia, among many others. This was a fun way to wake up in the morning; with a massive cruise ship right out in the bay! There are many apps that are great to track which ships are coming and going, how big there are, their itinerary, etc. Besides being fun to watch the ships we saw from our window, it was also great to know what days there were no cruise ships docked in Dubrovnik (Croatia), making it a less hectic experience. We mainly used Cruise Mapper.

• Exploring Kotor’s old city - Kotor was made into a city fort all the way back in the 1380s. It was a pretty awesome location as well, situated atop a hill that overlooks most of Kotor Bay and has a pretty good view behind, being able to see up most of the hill above them. The fort itself looks pretty darn spectacular, since it started from the bottom of the hill (with a tower near the water) and steeply inclined up the hill to the top of the hill where it loops back down to the bottom tower. Inside the city’s walls were jam-packed with buildings with orange-tiled roofs and it was very nice to walk through it! Note; make sure to visit the city when there aren’t many people, i.e. later at night when cruise ships leave or when there aren’t any cruise ships (use the app recommended above!), as it gets very busy when the cruise people go and explore. 

• Stevi Stefani - Although we didn't go down into the city, but after exploring Budva, we stopped to take some pictures of Stevi Stefani. This is an amazing city that is literally on the water, with a thin strip leading from the mainland to the island city. Definitely worth a stop for the awesome pictures!

• Herceg Novi - we stayed here after spending a little less than a week in Kotor. This is a very pretty little town where you can see both Croatia and Montenegro. (Croatia’s on the right and Montenegro on the left). The place we rented was less than five minutes from the beach and we had a view of the open ocean (rather than just the bay). This was a great place to spend a couple of nights!

• Budva - This was a fun city! About half an hour from Kotor City, this city was really cool. Nestled right on the shore, the walled old town is great to explore. From there you can explore the walkway going from one side of the bay to the other. Here you can find water taxis that take you to the nearby island (perfect to spend the day on the beach) or go explore some to the nearby sites. There are also amazing seafood places, and we stopped at one and had delicious fish and squid.

• Kayaking - one day (while we were still in Kotor) we rented a kayak for a couple of hours. What fun we had! It was so cool to kayak around Kotor Bay and to see the cruise ships up close! This is definitely a must when in Kotor Bay!

• Dubrovnik - this Croatian city was spectacular! Though not necessarily in Kotor Bay, it’s definitely something you should see (especially if you’re in Herceg Novi, only about an hour's drive there)! This pretty city is situated inside very wide walls (at some points it’s more than 6 meters deep!) with many narrow streets and staircases. As if these aren't enough reasons to go to Dubrovnik, many of the scenes in the Game of Thrones series were filmed here! Many places offer tours of the Game of Thrones scenes, but I recommend this article to go to the places without paying for the tours. But, don’t go just because of that, this city is also incredibly beautiful by itself! Make sure to get there before the tour buses arrive (around ten in the morning) and if possible on days without cruise ships (use the Cruise Mapper app mentioned above!). It gets very busy!

• Oyster & Mussel Farm - A little bit out of Kotor city was an oyster and mussel farm called Luca's Oyster Farm. It was awesome! The family is really friendly, and the views are absolutely spectacular! The mussels and oysters came straight from the ocean, and we saw where they grew the oysters. The mussels were cooked in an amazing white wine sauce, and both the oysters and mussels were great!

Kotor Bay has a multiple other activities but these were definitely some that you’ve got to do in the Bay of Kotor! This was definitely one of my favorite spots in the Balkans! I think Kotor Bay definitely makes it to one of my favorite bays!