Dubrovnik coast

Lake Skadar

The largest lake in the Balkans, shared with Albania: glassy water, karst mountains and, seen from a boat, wide fields of water lilies.

This album follows a week in August 2023 along the coast of Montenegro, with one day across the border in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Distances are short, but the scenery changes quickly: a large lake among limestone mountains, a deep bay hemmed in by walls of rock, pebble beaches and fortified towns on the Adriatic, all in the hard light of a Mediterranean summer.

Radanovići

From the hills at Radanovići, the view crosses the plain around Tivat toward the waters of the bay.

Kotor

The Bay of Kotor from above and the walls of the old town, a UNESCO site, with its round bastion mirrored in the green water.

The trip begins and ends at Lake Skadar, the largest lake in the Balkan Peninsula, shared by Montenegro and Albania; the Montenegrin side is a national park. On the first day the lake lies still, with the mountains mirrored in it. The pictures from August 12 were taken from a boat: glassy water, wide fields of water lilies and reed beds, with karst hills behind.

Sveti Stefan

The fortified islet of Sveti Stefan, tied to the shore by a narrow isthmus, at sunset above the reddish pebble beaches.

Kotor sits in the innermost corner of the bay that bears its name, a natural and cultural landscape on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1979. The photos show the bay from above, with a cruise ship anchored off the town, and the walls of the old town, their round bastion reflected in the green water at the foot of the mountain. The same day, from Radanovići, the view crosses the plain around Tivat toward the bay, and in the evening it moves on to Sveti Stefan.

Donja Lastva

The Bay of Kotor seen from the water near Tivat: red-roofed villages on the shore and wooded slopes running down into the sea.

Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik from the coast road and up close: Fort Lovrijenac on its rock, the old town walls and the island of Lokrum offshore.

Sveti Stefan is a former fortified fishing village on an islet tied to the shore by a narrow isthmus, turned into a hotel complex in the second half of the 20th century. The reddish pebble beaches around it catch the last light as the sky colors over the island's silhouette. On August 10, from Donja Lastva near Tivat, the Bay of Kotor is photographed from the water: villages with red roofs along the shore and wooded mountains dropping straight into the sea.

Dubrovnik coast

Dubrovnik's old harbor and the clear water off the island of Lokrum, with kayaks heading out to sea.

Dubrovnik first appears from the coast road, with the island of Lokrum offshore and the old town in the distance. Up close come Fort Lovrijenac on its rock above the sea, the walls that run for almost two kilometers around the historic center, also a UNESCO site since 1979, and the old harbor, with kayaks on clear water. The last view of the coast looks out from the hills above Petrovac over Montenegro's green shoreline.

Petrovac

The Montenegrin coast seen from the hills above Petrovac, with wooded slopes and small coves.