Next Stop: Budva & Kotor (Montenegro)

Kuidas oleks vahelduseks ühe reisipostitusega? Tegelikult mõtlesin päris kaua, kuidas seda postitust teieni tuua, sest mulle tundub, et praegune süsteem on kuidagi kuiv ja igav, tahaks pajatada rohkem kuidagi seiklustest, et ka teil põnevam lugeda oleks, aga teiset küljest soovin, et need postitused oleks ka kasulikud ehk sisaldaksid peale seikluste tähtsat infot majutuste, söögikohtade, piletite jms kohta, seega valisin hetkel veel vana süsteemi, sest lihtsalt põnevate/kasulike faktide toomine on ilmselt küll kergem lugemine, aga samas tunnen, kuidas vajalik info võib niimoodi kaotsi minna. 

Seekordne postitus on veidi teistmoodi (edit: ei tulnudki nii teistsugune) ka sellepärast, et see on üks neist väga vähestest reisidest, mille planeerimises ma üldse ei osalenud, kuna tegemist oli reisiga, kus Olafi rahvatantsurühm osales tantsufestivalil, seega tuli ka korraldus nende poolt ja ma lihtsalt läksin kaasa. Lisaks sellele oli tegemist ka väga suure puhkusereisiga, mis pole mulle samuti tavaliselt kombeks. 
Aga alustame algusest! 

Asukoht:
Budva ja Kotor, Montenegro 

Reisi kestvus: 
7 päeva, millest 4 veetsime Budvas ja ülejäänud Kotoris. 

Sihtkohta reisimine: 
Tegemist oli Novatourisi kaudu võetud reisipaketiga, kus meid lennutas edasi-tagasi Smartlynx lennufirma. Lend toimus marssruudil Riia-Tivati-Riia ning piletid läksid kokku 269€ inimese kohta. See oli mul esimest korda sõita mõne reisifirma alt, samuti Smartlynx firmaga, üldiselt ei ole mul midagi kurta, kui tunnine hilinemine tagasisõidul välja arvata. Lennuki välimus ja teenindus olid pigem odavaklassi liinidele omale- erilisi mugavusi polnud (tasuta söök, ekraanid istmetel jne), aga midagi hullu ka mitte. Küll oli aga oli see-eest kohutav Tivati pisike lennujaama, mis meie tagasisõidu päeval oli rahavast puupüsti täis, sees valitses pea samasugune leitsaks nagu väljas ning lennujaama turvala ainsamast poest oli vesi otsa saanud (kohvikuid seal ei olnud). Kuigi riiki saab sisse ka ID-kaardiga (mis kohati valmistas mõnel siiski pisikesi probleeme, näiteks tuli kauem oodata vms), siis soovitan neil, kellele meeldib oma passi mälestusi koguda, turvakontrollis just passi näidata, sest nad jagavad templeid! Kuna meil oli linnadevaheliseks liikumiseks renditud eraldi buss, siis kahjuks ei oska ma kohalikul ühistranspordi kohta midagi öelda, küll aga on takso hinnad umbes samad mis meil ning soodsama diili saamiseks soovitan hinnas enne sõitu kokku leppida. 

Kohalik eripära:
*Montenegros kehtib turistimaks (u 1€ päev inimese kohta) ning turistid peavad ennast registreerima, kuna meie eest tehti ka see ära, siis endal mul kogemusi ei ole, kuid lugesin SIIT (postitus on inglise keeles, kahjuks eesti keelest ei leidnud), et ööbides hostelis/hotellis tehakse see klientide eest ise ära, võttes aga korteri tuleks minna kas politseijaoskonda või turistipunkti, samas postituses on registreerimise punktid samm haaval ära toodud. 
*Kuigi Montenegro ei kuulu Euroopa Liitu on seal valuutas euro. Panga automaate ei ole seal eriti palju, seega soovitan sularaha Eestist kaasa võtta, kaardimakse oli enamus kohtades. Budvas ja Kotoris olid enam-vähem samad hinnad, mis Eestis, seega odavat elu nendes linnades ei olnud.
*Budva ja Kotor on kuurortlinnad, mis mõlemad asuvad Horvaatia lähedal Aadria mere kaldal. Sealt võib leida palju välismaalasi, näiteks leidub Budvast palju venelasi, seega eeldan, et võrreldes ülejäänud riigiga ongi need kohad kallimad. Hoolimata sellest on teenindava personali inglise keel küllaltki algeline. Tegemist on pigem puhkuste kohtadega, vaatamisväärsusi leidub seal vähe.
*Kotor on tuntud ka kui linnana, kus leidub palju kasse, neil on isegi loodud kassitoitmise koht, samuti leiab seal kassimuuseumi. 
*Kui minna grupiga välja sööma, siis tuleks teenindajaga kindlasti enne kokku leppida, kuidas tehakse tšekid, sest vastasel juhul lükatakse kogu tellimimus ühe arve peale ning hiljem on juba raske ainult enda eest maksta. 

Majutus:
Budva: Budvas ööbisime kohas nimega Vila Palma, villaks või isegi hotelliks on seda kohta küll palju nimetada, sest tegemist on pigem tagasihoidliku kohaga, bookingus on tubade pildid enam-vähem reaalsed, aga millegipärast ei seostu mul selle kohaga ühtegi head sõna, pigem tuleb meelde, kuidas vesi duššikabiinist alla ei läinud, või kuidas wifi oli ainult fuajees ning sealgi ainult hea õnne korral, või kuidas töötajate inglise keel algelise tasemega oli. Majutuskoht asus mere äärest umbes 5-8 minuti ning vanalinnast umbes 30-40 minuti jalutuskäigu kaugusel. Kuna terve linn oli igasugu uhkeid hotelle ja ööbimiskohti täis, siis ma pigem ei soovitaks sinna minna, otseselt polnud midagi halvasti, aga midagi head ka ei olnud. Kahjuks ei oska ma selle koha hinda öelda, kuna see oli festivali tasu sees. Hindeks annan 10-st punktist 3. 
Kotor: Kotoris oli see-eest aga väga kena kohake nimega Apartments Babilon, mille ainuekses miinuseks oli tema kaugus vanalinnast, arvan et see vahemaa võis olla kuskil 3-5 km (takso maksis u 5€), ka toidupood asus 15-20 minuti jalutuskäigu kagusel. Tube leidus erinevaid, oli väga väga ilusaid tube ja siis olid sellised korralikud, aga tavalised toad, lisaks sellele oli mõnes ka oma kööginurk. Majutuse juurde kuulusid peale tavaliste rätikute ka rannarätikud, üle majutusala oli 3 erinevat wifit, mis töötasid, alumusel korrusel oli mõnus privaatne väliterass koos toidukohaga ning kõigest üle tee oli meresopp koos kauni vaatega mägedele, lisaks oli seal väike päevitus ala. Ranna-ala miinuseks oli puuduv rannariba, seal oli lihtsalt nö kai, mille kaudu sai vette minna. Samuti läks vesi väga ruttu sügavaks, niiet väikelastele seal lustimise võimalust ei ole. 2 ööd 73€ inimese kohta. 10-st punktist annan 8,5. 

Vaatamisväärsused:
Budva: Nagu ma juba ennist mainisin, siis vaatamisväärsusi just üleliia palju ei ole. Budvas oli armas väike vanalinn, mis meenutab natukene Itaalia vanalinna kitsaid tänavaid. Minu lemmik koht oli kindlasti tsitadell, kust avanes kaunis vaade vanalinnale ja merele. Vanalinna lähedale jääb ka "Tantsja Budvast" kuju, mille ümber liigub palju legende, kuid mis enamasti on kõik seotud armastuse, ustavause ja lojaalsusega. 
Kotor: Kotoris on samuti kena vanalinn, mis mulle tundus pisut suurem, aga omamoodi kinnisem kui Budva oma. Sealt saab alguse ka tee mäe otsas asuvasse kindluse varemetesse, kuhu minnakse imetlema loojuvat päikest. Sissepääs kindlusesse maksab 8€ inimese kohta, kuid peale 20.00 peaks sissepääs tasuta olema, küll aga ei jõua nii hilja enam õigeks ajaks päikeseloojangut vaatama, sest suviti loojub seal päike varem ning tee tippu kestab umbes 1-1,5h. 

Söögikohad:
Budva: Nagu kuurortlinnale kohale on Budva söögikohti täis, kuna otseselt halba kogemust mul ei olnudki (valetan, tsitadelli restoranis oli kohutav õunakook, ärge teie sama viga tehke!), siis täna toon välja oma lemmikud. Minu lemmik hommikusöögi koht oli kindlasti Forsage Gastro Lounge, kus olid imemaitsvad söögid ning wifi, kahjuks läks seal aga toidu ootamisega veidi kaua. Mõnusa lõuna- või õhtusöögi soovitan võtta Jadran Kod Krstas, kus ettekandjad kannavaid uhkeid mereväe vorme ning toidulauad lähevad mööda kaid, seal on ka eesti keelne menüü (uskumatu eks!), samuti sõin seal ühte oma elu parimat pitsat (tegemist oli singi-seene pitsaga). Imeline koht koos väga mõnusa toiduga on aga vanalinnas asuvas hotell Astoria restoranis, sealne atmosfäär oli väga mõnus ning ka toiduga jäädi enamasti rahule, minu mojito oli ainult suur pettumus (hint: valge suhkur). Mõnusaid kokteile sai aga tsitatelli kõrval asuvast MB Ice Clubist, soovitan Coco Locot! 
Kotor: Kotoris einestasime kahes kohas. Uheks neist oli vanalinnas asuv Scorpio restoran, teisel õhtul sõime aga oma ööbimispaiga restoranis, mina pettusin mõlemas toidus ja mulle tundus, et minuga arvas samamoodi päris palju seltskonnas viibivaid inimesi, seega võib needkohad südamerahus vahele jätta. 

Vaba aeg:
Budva: Budvas jätkub tegevusi küllaga, peamiselt on hinnas vee ja merega seotud atraktsioonid, mina käisin sõitmas näiteks jetiga (55€/ 1 või 2 inimest) (kus ma küll enamus aja lihtsalt tagaistmel karjusin), kiirpaadiga (55€/ grupp), mis vahvaid trikke tegi ning vesijalgrattaga (5€/h). Peale selle pakkus sama firma veel tuubitamist (15€/inimene) , paraglidingut (joostakse mäe pealt langevarjuga endale hoog sisse, antud teenuses tehti seda koos instruktoriga) (60€), paraseilingut (paadi järgi on langevari) (40€/1 inimene, 60€/ 2 inimest, 80€/3 inimest), sukeldumist 40€ jne. Kuna neid firmasid olid mitmeid ja me valisime lihtsalt ühe suvalise, siis kahjuks ma nime ei oska öelda. Samuti on võimalik võtta teiste firmade alt erinevaid paadituure, minu jaoks polnud see nii põnev, sest mul olid Türgis paremad tuurid. Ranna lähedal asub ka täitsa korralik lõbustuspark. Sissesõidul Budvasse nägime veeparki, mis asub linna kohal kõrguva mäe otsas, kuna me ise seal ei käinud ka kodulehton neid suletud, siis ei oska ma täpsemaid hinnanguid selle kohta anda, aga päris elus nägi see nukramas seisus välja kui piltidel. Küll aga käisime veepargi kõrval asuvas ööklubis Top Hill, mis väidetavalt pidi olema suurima ööklubi terves Balkanis, tegemist oli vabaõhu ööklubiga, pileti hinnaks oli 5€. Minule ta erilist muljet ei jätnud, aga peoloomadele pakub kindlasti huvi! 
Kotor: Kotoris tundus lõbustusi vähem olevat, üldse tundus seal veidi rahulikum ja idüllilisem kui Budvas, seega on Kotoris lihtsalt mõnus rannas/ kaide peale vedeleda ning kohalikku merd ja päikest nautida. Kassisõbrad saavad eelpool mainitud kassimuuseumi külastada. 

Ja selline oligi meie puhkuse reis Montenegrosse, ühel päeval tahan ma sinna kindlasti tagasi minna, natukene rohkem ringi vaadata ja päris elu näha!
Cheers! 

Budva: 

Kotor: 


Hello!
It's time for a travel post! Actually I was thinking for a while how to do it at this time, because I feel that these kind of posts are too boring and I'd like to speak more about our adventures, but on the other hand I want, that those posts are also useful and full of information about accommodation, eating places, tickets and so on, so today I am going to follow the old system, because I haven't find the better one. 

This post will be also a bit different (edit: actually it's pretty same as the other ones), because at this time I didn't organize the trip, Olaf's folk dance group went to dance festival and I just went with them. Also this trip was most of the time a big vacation with just a little bit exploring, which is not usually my kind of travelling. 
But let's begin! 

Destination:
Budava and Kotor, Montenegro 

Duration of Trip:
7 days, 4 in Budva and 3 in Kotor
Travelling to Destination:
Tickets were bought from Novatours travel agency, which makes co-operation with Smartlynx airline company. Our flight went from Riga, both ways tickets costed 269€ per person. This was my first time to use travel agency, also my first time to fly with Smartlynx. I must say that there wasn't anything bad, except the one hour delay, which happened while we came back. Everything looked like one cheap airline plane looks- there wasn't any special comforts like free food or screens from where to watch movies, but everything was still decent. The only catastrophic moment was in Tivati airport during our leaving day- small airport was full of people, it was super hot, there was only one shop after the security control and it was empty of water (there wasn't any eating places). Although it's possible to enter to county with ID card (which sometimes caused some small problems), then for those, who likes to collect memories to passport, I recommend to enter with that, because they put stamps to passport! As we had our own bus to go hotels, then unfortunately I don't know anything about public transport, but taxis cost around as much as in Estonia, to get better deal, make an agreement about the price before the ride. 

About Local Life: 
*In Montenegro you have to pay tourist tax (around 1€/per day/per person) and tourists must register their-selves, as it was done by our hotels, then I don't have experience with that, but I read from HERE, that if you are staying in hotel/hostel then they will do it for you, but if you rent an apartment, then you should to it by your own, all the details about it is in that post. 
*Although Montenegro is not in EU, their currency is still euro. There's kind of lack of ATM-s, so take some cash with you, card payment in most places also works. The prices in Budva and Kotor are not cheap, like in other Balkan places, they are more similar to Estonian ones, so it's not very cheap to have an holiday in there (at least in my perspective). 
*Budva and Kotor are both near of Croatia and next of Adriatic sea. You can find from there a lot of foreigners, especially Russians (at least in Budva). Despite of that local people don't speak good English. As they are resorts, then there's quite few sightseers. 
*Kotor is also know as a town of cats, they have even public cat feeding places and a cat museum. 
*If you having meal with group of people, then before ordering, make sure to say to waiter how you will pay, because usually they put all the orders in one check and after it may be difficult to pay only for your own food. 

Accommodation:
Budva: In Budva we staied at place called Vila Palma, well, I can't call it villa, it was more like a cheap hostel, in booking.com photos are quite real, but I still don't have nothing good to say, because the first things, what comes to my mind, are the badly working shower, wifi, which was only in reception and sometimes even not there and non English speaker staff. Sea was around 5-8 minutes and old town around 30-40 minutes away (by walk). As entire Budva is full of fancy hotels and accommodations, then I don't recommend to go Vila Palma, it was okay, but nothing special. Sadly I don't know how much it costed, because it was together with festival money. From 10 points I'm giving 3. 
Kotor: But in Kotor we had a lovely place called Apartments Babilon, the only minus was the distance from old town, which was around 3-5 km (taxi to there costed around 5€), also the food store was around 15-20 minutes away (if to walk). There were different rooms, some of them were very pretty and some of them were decent, but nothing special, in some rooms there were even kitchen. Besides normal towels they had also towels for beach, there were 3 different wifi spots, which all were working and on the ground floor was a nice private outdoor terrace with restaurant. Across the road was a sea with a beautiful view to mountains, also a small area where to sun bath. It wasn't a beach, more like a small quay, where was possible to spent time and swim. Water went deep pretty fast, so it's not for sure a place where little children can play. 2 nights in there costed 73€ per person. From 10 points I will give 8,5. 

Sightseers:
Budva: As I told before, then there's not much to see. I liked the small and lovely old townwith it's narrow streets it reminds me Italy. My favourite place was citadel, where was a nice view to old town and sea. Next of old town was a local famous sculpture called "Dancer from Budva", there's a lot of legends around of it, which all are about love and loyalty. 
Kotor: Kotor has also a lovely old town, which seemed a bit bigger than Budva one, but not so romantic. Also from there starts the road to old castle(ruins), which is on the top of the mountain and where people go to see a sunset. The entrance to castle costs 8€ per person, but after 8 pm it should be free, although then it would be late to catch the sunset, because it tooks about 1-1,5 hour to get to the top. 

 Place to Eat:
Budva: Like a proper resort, then also Budva is full of different kind of eating places, as I didn't had any bad experience (lying, there was an awful apple pie in Citadel restaurant, please don't do the same mistake!), then today I will speak about my favourite places. My favourite breakfast place was Forsage Gastro Lounge, where everything tasted very well and they had wifi, I only didn't like that every time we waited so long to get food or pay money. For a nice lunch or dinner I recommend to go to Jadran Kod Krstas, in there waiters are wearing hot marine uniforms and there's a nice area, where you are surrounded by sea, and omg, there was a menu, which was in Estonian (usually it never happens!). In there I also ate one of the best pizza of my life (it was with ham and mushrooms). A very nice place with a good food is in old town, it's hotel Astoria restoran, the vibe is just so nice in there and most of the people liked their food, well I must say that my mojito wasn't good at all (hint: white sugar). In old town we also drank very nice cocktails, MB Ice Club is next of citadel, I recommend to take Coco Loco! 
Kotor: In Kotor we had dinner in two places, one of them was in Scorpio restoran and the second one was our accommodation restaurant, I didn't like both of them and for me it seemed, that also some other people didn't like their food, so you can skip those places. 

Free Time:
Budva: There's actually quite a lot to do, most of them are connected with sea and water, for example I ride with jet ski (55€/ 1 or 2 persons), well... most of the time I just sat on the backseat and screamed. I also had a ride with fast boat, which made cool tricks (55€ per group). They also offered tubing (15€/person), paragliding (when you ran with parachute down to hill to fly, they had also instructors), paraseiling (boat+parachute) (40€/1 person, 60€/ 2 persons, 80€/3 persons), scuba diving (40€) and so on.There were some companies, who offered the same things, we just picked a random one, so I don't remember the name.  Also there's a possibility to take boat tours, a lot of companies are offering them, for me it wasn't so special, had the better ones in Turkey. Near of the beach is a nice amusement park. On our first day, before arriving to town we saw a water park, which is on top of the mountain, as we didn't visited it, I can't say much more, but it looked older than on photos. But we visited a night club called Top Hill, it was next of this water park, there was even rumors, that it is the biggest night club in Balkan. It's an opened air night club, ticket costs 5€. I wasn't very excited about this place, but I am sure, that for party animals it's a good place! 
Kotor: Kotor was more quiet place, there wasn't so many entertainment, in there we just were on the beach and enjoyed local sun and sea. For cat lovers there's also a  cat museum

And that was our Montengro trip! In one day I want to go back there and see some more places and more real life! 
Cheers! 

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