Good morning Montenegro

It’s not every morning that I wake up in Montenegro. We have been driving to the lovely town of Kotor by the bay and the area is astonishingly beautiful, even though many people likely cannot even find the country on a map.

The town of Kotor, Montenegro.

Montenegro almost had its fifteen minutes of fame in the movie “Casino Royale” from 2006, where James Bond (Daniel Craig) visits a picturesque town in “Montenegro”. But unfortunately no scenes were actually shot in the country. The town depicted on screen was in fact Loket southeast of Prague, and the “Hotel Splendide” visited by Bond and Vesper can be found in the town of Karlovy Vary in western Czechia, with real name Grandhotel Pupp.

The country did however manage to get a bit of Bond feeling when Pierce Brosnan shot a few scenes of his latest movie “November Man” in nearby Perast and Herceg Novi last year.

Deserted alley in Kotor.

As I’m roaming the deserted streets of Kotor in the dark, I wonder why the country is not better known to the general public. Even though Montenegro brings in three times as many visitors as it’s total population every year, their neighbor Croatia has a much larger visitor count despite being more expensive.

One would almost think that all this secrecy was made on purpose to keep the hordes of tourists away. To let them all perish in the crowds of Dubrovnik while the people of Montenegro can enjoy their beautiful country on their own. Whatever the reason, I’m happy to be here without the crowds.