Best time to visit Kotor: May-June and September

The argument for skipping August

Ask around in Kotor Old Town and you’ll hear the same answer from guides, restaurant staff and apartment owners: if you can choose, come in late May, June, or September rather than the peak of summer. It isn’t a marketing line.

The Bay of Kotor gets genuinely uncomfortable in the second half of July and through August — heat that makes walking the city walls a slog, prices that climb with the temperature, and cruise ship days that can put two to four thousand extra people through streets that are only a few metres wide in places. The shoulder months don’t remove all of that, but they cut it down substantially, and the sea is warm enough on both sides of the gap to make swimming worthwhile.

This guide sets out what actually changes month to month — sea temperature, air temperature, rain, prices, and crowd levels — so the trade-offs are visible rather than assumed. It also flags the one place September has a real edge over the equally-praised June: rainfall.

Sea temperature, month by month

Swimmable water is the main reason people fixate on the June-to-September stretch. Early in the season the bay is still shaking off winter; by August it has caught up with air temperatures and stays warm well into autumn.

Month	Typical sea temperature	Swimming verdict
May	18-20°C	Cool; workable by late May for most swimmers
June	21-23°C	Comfortable, improving through the month
July	24-25°C	Warm
August	25-26°C	Warmest of the year
September	23-24°C	Still warm, closer to June than to May
October	19-21°C	Cooling fast, swimmable early in the month for the hardy

The practical read: if a swim in the bay or a boat trip out to the Blue Cave is part of the plan, June onward is safer than early May, and September holds up almost as well as June while the crowds and prices are already dropping.

Climbing San Giovanni without the heat

The fortress above the Old Town is one of the best reasons to build a trip around Kotor, and it’s also the single activity where season makes the biggest physical difference. The climb runs about 1,350 steps with almost no shade, and it typically takes 45 minutes to an hour and a half depending on pace and stops. In late July and August, doing this in the early afternoon means climbing exposed stone in temperatures that regularly hit the mid-thirties. People genuinely turn back.

In June and September, the same climb in the morning is a different experience — still a workout, but not a heat risk. If you visit in high summer regardless, start before 8am or wait until the last two hours before closing, and carry more water than feels necessary. Entry is paid in season, with the ticket price having moved around between roughly 8 and 15 EUR in recent years, so check the current rate rather than assuming a fixed figure. The free alternative, the old mule track known as the Ladder of Kotor, climbs from the back of the hill and is longer but avoids the ticket booth entirely — heat exposure is the same problem either way, though, so the seasonal logic applies just as much there.

Prices come down once the crowds thin

Accommodation in the Bay of Kotor follows demand closely, and demand peaks hard in July and August. Outside those eight or so weeks, rates for apartments and mid-range hotels typically ease, most noticeably by the second half of September and again before the July rush really builds in late June.

Item	High season (Jul-Aug)	Shoulder (late May, Jun, Sep)	Low season (Nov-Mar)
Apartment, per night	50-100 EUR	Often 10-30% below peak, more by late Sep	30-50 EUR
3-4 star hotel, per night	90-180 EUR	Noticeably softer, especially September	50-100 EUR
Coffee	1.20-2 EUR	Same year-round	Same year-round
Restaurant main, non-touristy	8-15 EUR	Same year-round	Same year-round

Meals and drinks don’t move much with the season — a coffee or a plate of grilled fish costs about the same in June as in August. It’s accommodation and, to a lesser extent, boat tour and car rental pricing that respond to demand. For a fuller breakdown of what a day actually costs, see the Montenegro daily budget guide.

Crowds and cruise ships, by the numbers

Kotor’s cruise season runs roughly April to October, and 2025 saw around 505 ship calls bringing more than 700,000 passengers through the bay. That volume doesn’t disappear in June or September, but the frequency and size of calls tends to be lower than the July-August stretch, when the port can see multiple large ships stacked on the same day.

Time of day still matters more than time of year. Whatever month you’re in, the Old Town is at its most crowded between roughly 10am and 4pm, when the bulk of shore excursions are ashore. Arriving before 9.30am or returning after 5pm gets you a noticeably calmer Saint Tryphon Cathedral and quieter lanes even in peak season — and in the shoulder months, that quiet stretches further into the middle of the day. If your dates are flexible, cross-check them against the high-season crowd guide before booking, and consider a short trip to less-visited Perast or up to Vrmac on the busiest cruise days.

May’s catch: more rain than September

The trade-off that keeps May from being an unambiguous winner is rainfall. Spring in the Bay of Kotor brings a real chance of afternoon showers and the occasional thunderstorm rolling off the surrounding mountains, and early May is wetter than late May. It’s rarely a washout — storms tend to pass through rather than settle in — but it can knock a boat trip or a fortress climb off a tight one-day plan.

September, by contrast, is usually the drier and more settled of the two shoulder months, with fewer interruptions and a lower chance of a rained-off afternoon. If your itinerary is tightly scheduled around outdoor activities — a Kotor Bay boat tour, a Lovćen hike, or a day trip toward Perast and the islands — September carries less risk of a wasted day.

If you’re set on late spring, build in a flexible day or two, and keep an indoor backup such as the Kotor museums or a wine tasting in mind; see the rainy-day Budva guide for ideas that apply just as well around Kotor.

June or September: which to pick

There’s no wrong answer between the two, but the deciding factors are usually rain tolerance and what else the trip is built around.

• Pick June if longer daylight matters, if the trip continues into other parts of the Balkans where early summer works better, or if a livelier restaurant and bar scene as the season builds appeals more than a quieter one winding down.
• Pick September if a lower chance of rain matters more, if softening prices matter (the saving is bigger later in September than in June), or if you’d rather share the Old Town with fewer people at the tail end of the cruise season.
• Avoid both if you need cheap flights above all else — shoulder season fares into Tivat are still higher than the November-to-March low season, even if they undercut August.

What to book for a shoulder-season trip

Boat trips and fortress-adjacent activities are the ones that benefit most from milder weather, and they’re also easier to book with some flexibility once the peak-season rush has eased.

A full-day option that covers a lot of the bay at once is the full-day catamaran cruise to the Blue Cave, which suits the calmer June or September sea conditions well and avoids the midday heat that makes a long day on open water harder in August.

For a faster, more flexible version of the same idea, the private speedboat trip to the Blue Cave with swim time lets you set the pace and pick a quieter departure slot. On land, once the fortress climb is done, the Kotor museums entry ticket is a sensible way to fill a cooler morning or an overcast hour without competing for space with a docked cruise crowd.

For planning a full trip length around these months, see the one-day Kotor guide if time is tight, or the three-day Kotor itinerary for a pace that leaves room for a rained-off afternoon in May or a lazy September evening on the water. A broader look at how the whole year breaks down, including the quiet winter months, is in the Montenegro by season guide and the winter in the Bay of Kotor guide.

FAQ about the best time to visit Kotor

Is May too early to swim in the Bay of Kotor?

Late May is workable for most people, especially by the last week of the month, but the sea is still cool compared with July or August, typically in the low-to-mid twenties Celsius only from June onward. Early May can feel closer to a paddle than a proper swim for anyone used to warmer water.

Is September warmer than June in Kotor?

The sea holds its summer heat into September, often staying around 23 to 24 degrees, which is close to June and warmer than early May. Air temperatures in September are milder than the August peak, and rainfall is usually lower than in May, which makes it the more dependable of the two shoulder months.

Does it rain a lot in Kotor in May?

May is the wetter of the two shoulder months in the Bay of Kotor, with a real chance of afternoon showers and thunderstorms, particularly early in the month. It rarely rains for a full day, but it is worth building a flexible itinerary rather than planning every hour outdoors.

Are hotel prices lower in June and September than in August?

Yes. Kotor and the wider bay run close to their highest rates in July and August, and prices for apartments and hotels typically ease once the first two or three weeks of September pass, and again from late May before the July surge. The saving is rarely dramatic in June, which already sees demand building, but it is noticeable by mid-September.

Is Kotor Old Town still crowded with cruise passengers in shoulder season?

Cruise ships call at Kotor from April through October, so shoulder months aren’t crowd-free, but the number of calls and the size of ships thins out compared with the July and August peak. The daily pattern still matters more than the month: the Old Town is calmest before 9.30am and after 5pm regardless of season.

Can you still climb San Giovanni Fortress comfortably in June or September?

Yes, and it’s one of the clearest reasons to pick these months. The roughly 1,350 steps up to the fortress are exposed to direct sun with almost no shade, and doing that climb in the 35-degree afternoons of late July or August is genuinely unpleasant. June mornings and September in general are far more manageable.

Which is better for a first visit to Kotor: June or September?

Both work well and the choice often comes down to rain tolerance and whether other legs of a trip pull toward early or late summer. September edges ahead on lower rain risk and softer prices later in the month; June has slightly longer daylight and a livelier restaurant and bar scene as the season ramps up.