Lustica peski peske: coves that the car cannot see
The peninsula that separates Boca from the open sea has coves that can only be reached by sand, through olive groves older than all the houses around them.
You leave the car at the end of the macadam above Klinac, there is still only a path. Fifteen minutes downhill through an olive grove, through the smell of immortelle that clings to your feet, and then you are hit by blue that no other road on Lustica shows. The cove below you is empty because a tire cannot reach it - only the sole.
PeninsulaLusticais about47 km²stone, agave and olive trees, carved between the Bay of Kotor and the open Adriatic. While the world is pushing in Kotor and Budva, three cars an hour meet here in summer. The secret is not that the place is unknown - the secret is that most people don't get out of their cars.
Why is it best to walk on the sand here?
The western tip of the peninsula, around the villageRose, which can be reached the fastest by boat from Herceg Novi in about fifteen minutes, guards a row of coves that asphalt has never reached. They are iconicZanjiceandYou smell— whitefish so bright that the water above it seems illuminated from below — but they have a parking lot and a speedboat taxi, so in the summer they turn into a row of sunbeds.
The real prize is one bay away. UntilDobrecadescends from the land along a path through a pine forest, and there is no road or electricity — only a tavern on the water that runs on a generator and a cistern. The same applies to a series of nameless coves below the villageThe hillandCarrots: a twenty to thirty minute walk down the stone terraces, and you have the beach to yourself. If you are planning a long tour to the south, the logic is the same as onroutes for the extended weekend— the car is a tool to get to the place where you leave it.
What to bring on the descent
The paths are stony and loose, through maquis without shade at noon. Hard-soled sneakers, not flip-flops. A liter and a half of water per person because there is often nothing in the bays. And leave before 10 a.m. or after 5 p.m. — at two o'clock in the afternoon, the stone rejects the banter.
Peninsula Lustica is about 47 km² stone, agave and olive trees, carved between the Bay of Kotor and the open Adriatic.
Olive groves that are older than the state
Above each bay stands a stone retaining wall and a row of olive trees that no one counts how old they are anymore. Indigenous Montenegrinyolkit grows here on the red rock and the rock, on100 to 250 meters above sea level, and produces an oil with a low yield but a hard character — bitter and spicy, with a burning sensation in the throat that is a sign of healthy polyphenols. We explained how to read the difference in the bottle in the guidehow to read the olive oil label.
VillagesKids,The hillandGornji Radoviciare half empty, but the olive groves are still harvested in November. If you come across a local who is drinking, buy a liter directly — a bottle from a stone house tells more than any label in the market. Along with that comes a bunch of fish from the zara, and we wrote about how to choose it at the counter separately in the text aboutto the fish.
Crucial: Lustica rewards those who go slowly. Anyone looking for a beach bar and wok-fu music will be disappointed. Whoever is looking for a bay without a single voice and an olive tree that remembers the Austro-Hungarian border — gets exactly that.
Questions & answers
short and to the point- How do you get to the hidden bays on Lustica?
- Most of them are reached by foot: you leave your car on the macadam above the villages of Klinci, Zabrdje or Mrkovi, and you go down the path for 20-30 minutes. The fastest way to Rosa and Blue Cave is by boat from Herceg Novi in about fifteen minutes.
- When is the best time to visit Lustica without crowds?
- End of May to mid-June and all of September. The sea is then 22-24°C, and on the beaches in the summer there are only a few people instead of rows of sunbeds.
- Can you buy domestic olive oil in Lustica?
- Yes, in the villages of Klinci, Zabrdje and Gornji Radovici, from the locals who squeeze the native yellowtail. The harvest is in November; it is bought directly from stone houses, liter by liter.
