Destination: Montenegro

Odyssey travels by coach and occasionally uses local transport, including trains and ferries. Specifics are always outlined in your tour itinerary. Buses and taxis are cheap and commonplace in Montenegro and are a fairly convenient way to get around.

Odyssey always engages local guides with regional knowledge to ensure an authentic experience during which you can learn as much as possible about the history and culture of places you visit.

Montenegro lies on the Adriatic Sea between Croatia and Albania, also borders with Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Montenegro is a small country with its 13,938 square km, with a coastline of 293 km, 73 km of which are beaches. It is a beautiful country with towering mountain ranges, deep canyons and many lakes.

Montenegro has 4 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. You can view them here: http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/ME

Historical Region of Kotor – natural harbour, was an important artistic and commercial centremasonry and iconography. Stećci

Medieval Tombstone Graveyards – 28 sites of cemeteries with medieval tombstones, also called stećci, mostly carved from limestone.

Durmitor National Park – A breathtaking national park, formed by glaciers and is traversed by rivers and underground streams. Along the Tara river canyon, which has the deepest gorges in Europe, the dense pine forests are interspersed with clear lakes and harbour a wide range of endemic flora.

Montenegro has many festivals and events to choose from. Holidays and events here are based on religious occasions, beloved folk traditions of music and dance and the changing of the seasons. Two of the favorites are the Kotor Carnival and the Mimosa Festival. Kotor Carnival is one of the liveliest festivals in Montenegro, kicking off every February with masked balls for adults and children. The Mimosa Festival, held all over Montenegro in February/March, celebrates the coming of spring with the appearance of the first fragrant, yellow mimosa blossoms. The event lasts for several weeks with fine art exhibitions, traditional and modern theater, music and dance, and street fun.

The Balkans; A Short History by Mark Mazower

Montenegro: Its People and Their History. [London-1877] by W. Denton

Montenegro : a land of warriors by Roy Trevor

Montenegro: and the Slavonians of Turkey by Walerjan Skorobohaty Krasinski

In Montenegro, most of the food is local, fresh and organic, and hence very seasonal. Th ecuisine also varies a lot from one region to another. Fresh fish and seafood along the coast and meat and cheese is popular inland. Traditional restaurants are known as konoba, look out for grilled kebabs (čevapčići), cabbage leaves stuffed with mincemeat (sarma), bean soup with flecks of meat (pasulj), goulash (gulaš), and the artery-clogging karađorđe vasnicla, a breaded veal cutlet roll stuffed with cheese. Montenegro drinks, especially alcoholic ones, are a part of our diverse cuisine, and extremely popular one at that – especially with visitors – in fact, so much so, they are often bought like souvenirs. Aside from wine that Montenegro is famous for, rakija is rather popular traditional alcoholic drink Montenegrins boast with, along with beer and mead.

Generally speaking, Albania is safe to travel in, though always exercise common sense while travelling.

Whenever you travel overseas, it’s always wise to take an appropriate travel adaptor. The electricity supply runs at 230V, 50Hz. Montenegron plugs, types C and F. C is the common plug with two round pins and plug type F is the plug which has two round pins with two earth clips on the side.