Things to do in Perast, Montenegro: A 2024 Guide

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Perast is a tiny, idyllic village on the breathtaking Bay of Kotor (Boka Bay) in Montenegro. Despite a mere population of 269 (the last time they officially counted), Perast’s rich history, ancient architecture, jaw-dropping views, and romantic waterfront restaurant patios make it a captivating destination.

The village occupies a thin, sloping strip of land between Mrčevac road (E80), the main roadway around the Bay of Kotor, and Obala Marka Martinovića a low-traffic lane running along the waterfront. 400 meters off the coast, the islets of St. George (Sveti Đorđe) and Our Lady of the Rocks (Gospa od Škrpjela) are occupied by majestic churches that seem to float on the bay.

View of Perast and Bay of Kotor
Perast and its two islets viewed from the highway above town

Most people visit Perast as a half-day trip from Kotor, which is a 20-minute drive away. While you can’t miss Kotor (see why in my guide to Kotor and how to visit Kotor with kids), we actually liked Perast more, and wished we could have stayed for even longer than two nights.

Note that Kotor and Perast are only a few hours’ drive south of popular Dubrovnik in Croatia.

More fun in the region: Read about our travels to Dubrovnik, Mostar, Croatia, Lake Bled, and Italy!

Compared to Kotor, Perast is much smaller, far more laid back, and in the evening it becomes dead quiet. It’s the kind of place many tourists add a quick side trip and wish they’d devoted more space in their itinerary to. Without a doubt, it is one of the most photogenic places in Montenegro!

Below I’ll introduce everything you need to know for planning a trip to Perast, whether you are stopping for a few hours or spending several nights. I’ll cover how to get to Perast, things to do in Perast, where to stay in Perast, and where to eat in Perast.

Tips for Visiting Perast

  • If you don’t have enough time in your tour to spend the night in Perast, consider visiting it on this tour.
  • Another fun way to get from Kotor to Perast is by taking the Hop-on Hop-off Sightseeing Bus, which also includes stops at Risan and Bajova Kula Beach.
  • If you’re coming from Dubrovnik in Croatia, you can sail down the beautiful Adriatic coast to Perast and Kotor on this boat trip instead of taking the bus.
  • Like nearby Kotor and Dubrovnik in Croatia, Perast is extremely popular in summer, and the tiny village can become crowded with tour groups. Visit in late spring or early autumn to enjoy fine weather, just warm enough to swim, and far fewer people. But do note that things start shutting down around mid-October, and don’t get going again until around May. Winters can be cold and rainy.
  • To enjoy Perast at its finest, spend the night! I’ll give my Perast hotel recommendations at the end of the article.
View of Bay of Kotor from Perast at dusk
Spend the night to enjoy the best views of the Bay of Kotor from Perast

A Quick History of Perast

St. George Island, Perast
St. George, one of two islets on the Bay of Kotor in front of Perast

The area around Perast has been settled going as far back as the Neolithic period. Perast was originally founded by the Illyrians, an Indo-European tribe, and has records as an important fishing village dating to 1336.

The village occupies a strategic position facing the narrow entrance to the Bay of Kotor. With time, it developed into a great naval force in the region.

The tiny natural islet of St. Geroge (Sveti Đorđe), which consists mostly of the 12th century Saint George Benedictine monastery, is right in front of Perast, while the neighboring artificial islet of Our Lady of the Rocks was constructed by sinking and piling up captured ships with rocks, and now has a church on it as well.

A view of the Perast waterfront and a palace
Beautiful palaces at every bend on the waterfront in Perast

Perast prospered in the Venetian period, when its defensive towers and the Fortress of St. Cross were built above town. The city grew to include over 20 baroque palazzi (palaces), 18 churches, and an important maritime school. This explains why the village has a distinctly Venetian feel to it even today, and an unusually high concentration of churches for what is now a much smaller village than it used to be.

After Venice fell to Napoleon, Perast (like most of Montenegro) was taken over by Austrians, Italians, and the French before becoming part of Yugoslavia. Finally Montenegro achieved independence in 2006.

Like nearby Kotor, Perast’s popularity has spiked in recent years, in part as the tourists spill over from Dubrovnik in Croatia, and in part because the word is out about how beautiful Montenegro is.

While some of Perast’s ancient edifices remain in various states of ruin, others are being carefully renovated, adding new life to this compelling destination.

Old remains of a palace in Perast
Crumbling remains of a palace

Where to Stay in Perast

Like in nearby Kotor, we found the hotels in Perast to be pleasantly (even surprisingly) cheap for what you get. And since Perast is so narrow, almost all the accommodations in town are right on the waterfront or a few steps from it.

In Perast you can stay in palaces of the city’s former nobility. On the budget end, there are loads of apartments well under $100 per night, and most reviews I read emphasized the enthusiastic hospitality of the hosts, which is always a deal breaker for us.

Search here for the best accommodation deals in Perast here.

Our Budget Accommodation in Perast

Our apartment in Perast
Budget lodging in a traditional Perast stone house

After spending quite some time perusing apartments in Perast, we went with Waterfront Haven amid Medieval Palaces of Boka, near Bronza Palace at the quieter eastern end of town (note: we no longer support Airbnb, which is why I now recommend checking apartments in Perast on Booking instead).

Our lovely host was a retired woman who keeps her summer home there. The apartment is in a 300-year-old building, with a balcony in each bedroom with views of the sea. At the back, there was a lovely patio with shade provided by a kiwi tree. The apartment was perfect for our family, and one of the cheapest places we stayed on our two-month European trip!

My daughter on the balcony of our Perast accomodation
My daughter looking out our apartment window in Perast. Read more about our family stay in Kotor and Perast here!

Other budget places we seriously considered are Casa Vita Nova, which would be perfect for a family or larger group, and even has a pool.

Mid-Range and Luxury Perast Hotels

Iberostar Hotel Perast (Smekja Palace)
Iberostar Hotel, the most upscale hotel in Perast

Heritage Grand Perast (see on Booking / Agoda / TripAdvisor) is the classiest choice in town, housed in Smekja Palace and featuring an indoor spa, pool, and wellness center.

Conte Hotel & Restaurant (see on Booking / Agoda / TripAdvisor) is a high value choice, with excellent rooms at reasonable prices, and what is widely considered the best restaurant on the waterfront (see eating section below).

Heritage Hotel Leon Coronato

Heritage Hotel Leon Coronato (see on Booking / Agoda / TripAdvisor) is another exceptional and highly rated property in a beautiful building right on the water. The restaurant patio out front has a small playground suitable for toddlers or young children.

Apartmani Armonia (see on Booking / Agoda / read reviews) is yet another waterfront choice that gets excellent reviews and has a restaurant with great views.

Things to Do in Perast

For such a tiny village, there are plenty of things to do in Perast. You can cover the main Perast attractions detailed below in half a day or less, but add to that some time spent at the beach or reading a book in a sun chair on the dock in front of your hotel, and you may want to stay for a week.

Visit St. Nicholas’ (St. Nikola) Church

Outside view of Saint Nikola Church, one of the most famous Perast attractions

St Nicholas’ Catholic Church (Rimokatolička crkva Svetog Nikole) is the heart of Perast. The church was built in 1616, but replaced a church dating to 1564. A newer church was later built behind it but was never completed, and the name “St. Nikola Church” refers to both.

Interior of St. Nikola Church, Perast
Gorgeous interior of the church (see what camera I use here)

Officially the church is open 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. (10:30 to 6 on Sundays), but we found that it was sometimes closed at random during our stay. The main entrance will bring you into a small side chapel which is free to visit, while for a fee of 1€ you gain access to the church’s main room and small treasury of valuable items.

Inside the main room of the Church of St. Nikola, Perast
It’s worth the small entrance fee to see the main domed room

I would personally recommend paying to enter the main room, because it’s the only way to see the church’s most beautiful section, the domed room at the center.

In front of the church is the Main Square of Perast, with some statues of famous residents on Perast such as the one below.

Statue in the main square of Perast
Statue in the main square of Perast

Climb the Bell Tower

Perast Bell Tower beside St. Nikola Church. Climbing it is one of the most popular things to do in Perast

Connected to the Church of St. Nicholas, the 55-meter Perast Bell Tower provides an incredible view of Perast and the Bay of Kotor.

For another 1€ (separate from the church treasury entrance fee), you can climb up a very steep, narrow staircase to the top of the tower. Exercise caution, as the staircase is crumbling in parts, and you’ll have to duck down low under some jagged sections of wall while climbing up. Children under 15 are not permitted to climb the tower.

Interior staircase of the Bell Tower in Perast
The steep and narrow staircase up the Bell Tower

The Bell Tower seems to have more limited opening hours than the church, opening around 10:00 a.m. daily, closing whenever the bell needs to be rung, and closing entirely for the winter season from around mid-October to mid-May.

View of Perast from the Bell Tower, the best viewpoint in Perast
The view looking one way from the Bell Tower
Beautiful view from Perast Tower at St. Nikola Church Montenegro
And looking in the other direction

If you don’t get a chance to climb the tower, you can also enjoy an equally stunning view of the bay by climbing the stairs up past the church to the highway and walking along to find a good viewing spot. That’s how I got the below shot of Our Lady of the Rocks (telephoto lens required!)

Ride a boat to Our Lady of the Rocks

Two boats sailing away from Out Lady of the Rocks, the most famous of the places to visit in Perast

If you didn’t already visit Our Lady of the Rocks (Gospa od Škrpjela) on a boat tour from Kotor, then there are regular boats from the waterfront in Perast (5€ return per person, young children free) running from around 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

There seem to be a few companies operating, so you’ll be given a ticket and can just take any boat run by the same company to go back. You may also be able to barter with private boats, but make sure you settle on a price and ensure that the price is for a return trip. You’ll only need around 30 minutes on the island.

Boats depart from Marina Perast and a few other docks in town, and most pass right by the Island of St. George, where visitors are not allowed, so you can have a look. The island’s Benedictine monastery conceals a cemetery where important people from the area were once buried.

Our Lady of the Rocks church, Perast, Montenegro
Our Lady of the Rocks Church

Arriving at Our Lady of the Rocks, you can look down in the water to see the rocks piled up (you won’t be able to see the sunken ships). Every year, locals continue adding to the pile, which supports the island, by tossing more rocks into the water at the sides of the island during a festival.

After walking around the island and snapping photos of the church, you can enter the small chapel (2€, young kids free), including a museum of naval artifacts and artworks on the first and second floors.

Guns and swords in the Our Lady of the Rocks museum in Perast
Small museum at Our Lady of the Rocks

You may be lucky and have the island mostly to yourself, but what’s more likely is that large tour groups will come and go and clog the tiny island and church. It seemed nearly impossible to avoid, even when we visited first thing in the morning in the shoulder season.

Enjoy the View from Perast Museum

View from the second floor balcony at Perast Museum (Bujovic Palace)

Although Perast seems to have more palaces than normal houses, most of them are either private residences, in ruins, or have been converted into hotels.

If you’d like to see inside of one, the 18th-century baroque Bujovic Palace, former residence of Captain Visko Bujovic, now houses the Perast Museum (Muzej grada Perasta or Perast Maritime Museum).

Perast Museum

The museum’s small collection covers Perast’s Maritime History (if you’re not into that, you may find it boring and be out in five minutes), but I paid the admission mainly for the outstanding picture-postcard view of Perast from the second-floor balcony.

You can essentially get the same view from the dock in front of the museum, but the patio gives you some elevation to get even better shots.

Famous view of Perast, shot from Perast Museum
I captured this shot with a telephoto lens from the balcony at Perast Museum, about an hour before sunset

Entrance to the museum is 5€ (1€ for children up to 12, young children free), and the museum is open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m, closed Mondays (hours may vary or be shorter on certain days – always check before you go).

Climb up to Our Lady of the Rosary Church

Our Lady of the Rosary Church Perast (Zmajević Palace)

The 17th-century Our Lady of the Rosary Church (“Rimokatolička Crkva Gospe od Ružarija” on GoogleMaps) is a Catholic Church. It sits up on the hill at the northwestern end of town, only a few minutes from the waterfront on foot, just below the highway. It was the family chapel of the adjacent Zmajević Palace, which is closed to the public. The palace is also known as the Bishop’s Palace (Biskupija), and was built in 1664 by bishop & poet Andrija Zmajevic

The church itself is closed (you can peer into it), but the most notable feature is its tall octagonal belfry (the tower in the photo above), one of the tallest structures in Perast.

I would recommend walking up to have a look and enjoy the excellent views looking down on Perast and the Bay of Kotor. The staircase up to it is located at the back-right of a small parking lot across from Marina Perast, just east of Palace Jelena Hotel.

You’ll pass the tiny 9th-century (!) Church of the Holy Spirit along the way.

Another option, and exactly what I did, is to do a loop by following the stairs from Saint Nikolas Church up to the highway, walk northwest along the highway, then follow the staircase down to Our Lady of the Rosary Church and continue down to the waterfront.

Gaze at More Palaces and Churches

Just walking along the waterfront road, you’ll spot numerous palaces and churches, the more significant ones of which are marked and dated with red signs. Note that the term “palaces” is used to describe what were very luxurious homes in their day; some of them are not actually very large.

Beginning at the western end of town and walking southeast, you’ll pass the following:

Bujovic Palace: see “Perast Museum” section above

St. John the Baptist Church: a small 16th-century church sandwiched between buildings and set back from the main road

Jelena Palace: now houses Jelena Palace Hotel and restaurant

Smekja Palace: a striking white palace that is the most impressive in town, dating to 1764, and now houses Heritage Grand Perast. It is right next to the Perast Marina, where boats depart to Our Lady of the Rocks.

View of Smekja Palace behind the Perast Marina
Smekja Palace, the most impressive palace in Perast, behind Perast Marina

St. Mark’s Church (Rimokatolička Crkva sv. Marka): right beside Iberostar Hotel and, according to one reviewer, now owned by it. The beautiful Venetian church is always closed, but it’s worth admiring from the lovely square in front of it.

St. Mark’s Church, with Iberostar hotel on the left

Palača Brajković-Martinović: now houses Heritage Leon Coronato Hotel, named after the original inhabitant, of the Brajković-Martinović family

Conte Hotel: a protected heritage building that once housed the Home of Culture, and now has Perast’s most famous restaurant, of the same name

St. Nikola Church (see above)

Palača Visković and Palača Balović: set back from the main road on a narrow lane

Palača Mazarović: with ruins visible above the fire station from the waterfront road

You can read more about the churches of Perast here.

Perast Beach and Pirate Bar

Perast Beach, the best beach in Perast
My son on the tiny beach in Perast

Perast has a very small pebble beach (Peskovita plaža Perast) at the far northwestern (furthest from Kotor) end of town, below the parking lot. The water here is very clear and views are stunning.

When we visited in mid-October, the water was on the verge of too cold to go in, but we had the beach entirely to ourselves, and it was still warm enough to bask in the sunshine.

It is also possible to climb or jump into the water from many boat docks in town. The water is very clear and has a surprising number of fish.

Where to Eat in Perast

Perast restaurant by the sea

One of the quintessential things to do in Perast is to dine at one of the dozen or so waterside restaurants. These patios overlook the Bay of Kotor, and are particularly romantic in the early evening. The menus are predictably seafood heavy, with Italian and Montenegrin fare represented.

Conte restaurant, one of the best restaurants in Perast
Conte Restaurant, considered by many to be the best restaurant in Perast

Walking from west to east, these are the waterfront restaurants we saw during our recent stay, most of which are operated by hotels: Jelena Palace restaurant, Armonia, Riva Terrace (Iberostar Hotel), Fish Restaurant Djardin (Heritage Leon Coronato Hotel), Conte (the most famous and popular restaurant in Perast), Admiral, and Nauta.

Konoba Skolji restaurant Perast
Foods grilled “under the bell” at Konoba Skolji

We really loved our meal at Konoba Skolji (Коноба Шкољи on GoogleMaps), which specializes in seafood and meats cooked “under the bell,” and is not directly on the water like most restaurants in town (just a few feet away from it). I had grilled octopus, while my wife enjoyed lamb, their top specialty, which is slow cooked for multiple hours. Both were truly excellent.

Grilled octopus at Konoba Skolji Perast
My grilled octopus at Konoba Skolji

Don’t be surprised when an army of cats shows up at your table at dinnertime in Perast, just like we experienced in Kotor!

How to Get to Perast

Perast is located approximately 10 kilometers from Kotor. Blue line buses between the two take about 25 minutes and run every half an hour. You can hop on the bus on the main road just north of the Old Town of Kotor, and it drives right down into Perast.

There are many other long distance buses running along the highway that you can hop on between Kotor and Perast, but you’ll only get dropped off at the highway stop and have to walk down into Perast (5-10 minutes). If you’ve got a lot of luggage (or kids + luggage like we did), then taking the bus is not recommended.

If you’re driving to Perast, there are parking lots at either end of the town charging 2€ for the day. By taxi, we paid around 22€  from Kotor Old Town to our hotel in Perast.

The Bay of Kotor Hop-on Hop-off Sightseeing Bus is a convenient way to get to Perast and other towns in the bay. It even includes the entrance to Perast Museum, Roman Mosaics in Risan, and a guided walking tour in Kotor.

Early morning mist over the Bay of Kotor in Perast
Early morning photo shot from the balcony of our hotel in Perast. (See what zoom lens I used to take this)

Well, I hope you’ve found all the information you needed for planning your trip in this detailed Perast guide. If you’ve got any questions, feel free to post them in the comments below!

24 thoughts on “Things to do in Perast, Montenegro: A 2024 Guide”

  1. I’m just reading this post exactly 3 years after our trip to Perast as I’m finally getting around to making a photobook of our trip and was looking for names of some of the places we saw. Your photos are absolutely gorgeous, and your details and suggestions are spot on. Coincidentally, we too stayed with Ljiljana and thought the accommodations and hostess were wonderful. Makes me wish we could go back again! Thanks for this trip down memory lane.

    Reply
    • Thank you so much for the kind feedback, Carol. I’m glad my post brought back some nice memories for you. This was one of our favorite places in all of Europe!

      Reply
  2. Thank you Nick./ I have read all of your European posts and thoroughly enjoyed them. They provided further insight into the towns/cities we wish to visit and rounded out my notes of things to see and do. Despite enjoying your report on the visit to the Ostrag Monastery, I wont be trying the public transport aspect.

    Reply
  3. I’ve been living in Budva for just under a year and this was a superb source of information. I look forward to surprising my lady with a little trip there for our anniversary. Thank you so much!

    Reply
  4. Are there any accommodations for someone who wants to move there? I am in love with it!
    Is there anyone I can contact for that information? Thank you

    Reply
    • Hi Irene,
      We loved it too, and I can understand why you would want to move there! However, I don’t have any specific information about how to do that. I am sure that you can find some good deals on monthly Airbnb rates though. Best of luck!

      Reply
  5. Great blog Nick, thanks a lot. We are in Perast right now and loving it. we are 198 steps from front door to sea. Place is really quiet thanks to covid but the boats and restuarants are all open.

    Reply
  6. Thank you Nick, currently sitting in Perast and reading your helpful review. Will be off to visit the suggested museum and churches today.
    September perfect time to visit, relatively quiet with long sunny days and beautiful sunsets, easy to get a table for dinner we ate at Conte restaurant last night and food was delicious.
    Thanks for sharing your experience

    Reply
  7. Excellent – I look forward to reading your other posts. This is my second time in Montenegro and Perast. This time I am spending over a month in Perast. It is such a peaceful, beautiful gem.

    Reply
  8. Good Stuff Nick. We were there for half a day during a 2 week land and cruise of Croatia and Montenegro. Really enjoyed it but next time I travel internationally from Toronto I will check to see if you have been there and read your travel guide

    Reply
    • It’s a very small town, so 1 hour is probably enough. Make that 2 hours if you want to have a meal or take a boat to the church island.

      Reply

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