Things to do in Herceg Novi

Herceg Novi sits where the Bay of Kotor meets the open Adriatic, 45 minutes from Kotor via the Kamenari-Lepetane ferry (5 EUR per car, sailing every 15-20 minutes in summer) or roughly an hour round the bay by road. The climate is noticeably milder than Kotor's: mimosa trees flower from February, decades before anything blooms further up the fjord-like inlet.

The old town is stacked in tiers up the hillside, crowned by the Kanli Kula fortress, and linked to the seafront by a stepped street of close to 1,000 steps - climb it or descend it depending which end of your stay you tackle it.

Unlike Kotor's old town, this one sees a fraction of the cruise-ship crowds between 10am and 4pm, so the terraces and stairways stay walkable through the day.