If so what was it like any recommendations, places to visit amd so on
Thanks

yes! it’s awesome.

I’d say this: it’s not quite as polished (also, expensive) as Croatia is but despite how small it is, there is still a fair amount lot to see and do.

The historical jewel is Budva, which is amazing, impossibly pretty medieval Venetian/Ottoman/Roman/everyone else town. It has a fabulously well-preserved walled city fort with amazing white marble pavements, ancient buildings etc. I rented a 3 bed apartment in an ancient building for EUR80 a night which had a balcony overlooking the city beach. Stunning. Very good food, superfriendly and safe. It’s like Italy used to be: drinking red wine and eating on the piazzo while kids run around everywhere. There are bars and one huge club if that’s your thing too.

Kotor has a similar vibe – immaculately preserved old town and historical stuff, with a couple of nice restaurants in the walled city etc. On an amazing inlet overlooked by mountains.

Podgorica is a nice enough Balkan capital town with some wanderable streets but frankly I wouldn’t spend more than a day trip there.

Ostrog Monastery is amazing but I would say that it’s up in the hills and it gets FANTASTICALLY HOT there during summer. You def need to take lots of cold drinks (and be reasonably modestly attired once you step thru the gates) and make an early start.

Because the mountains are right up against the coast for most of Montenegro’s coastline, beaches in Montenegro are usually narrow and pebbly/rocky. The exception to that is in the very south, where Ulcinj (pr. ool-chin) has a very long, wide, sandy beach. Ulcinj is much more of a family, beachy place than other towns in Montenegro, but even then there’s still a well-preserved old town with old buildings etc. Whereas Budva and Kotor tends to have a lot of Russian and Polish tourists, Ulcinj tends to get more Germans, Czechs, Albanians and Americans/Canadians with family locally who come back to visit. There are more campsites and pensions/B&Bs in Ulcinj than in other places, but I would say that they’re still not quite totally caught up as a mainstream Mediterranean tourist experience. Again – it’s like Spain or Portugal or France 20 years ago before everything was the same everywhere. 😉

Everyone is fantastically nice and polite imhe. Things are pretty cheap and food is very, very good quality (freshly made). Very safe – it’s one of those places where everyone knows each other. English isn’t universally spoken absolutely everywhere but you’ll have no real problems getting around. The country is small enough that you can just take cabs from one end to the other and it’s only about EUR50 or so; also, driving does require total awareness and zero alcohol, and parking is a bit of a hassle, so you may as well let someone else do it.

The exception to that would be e.g. renting a car to do a big day trip to Ostrog/Niksic/Podgorica or if you were car camping in Ulcinj.

There’s a great meat, meat and more meat restaurant just outside Podgorica. Can’t remember the name but it will come to me.

What sort of stuff are you into? What budget? How long? Are you going on the new cheap Ryanair flights into Podgorica or flying into Dubrovnik?

tl;dr? Great for historical stuff and relaxed break in pretty old walled towns.

Konabunny great review, we (SO and I only) are looking at Perast 12 km from Kotor on the coast, small but nice apartment, we have been advised to fly to croatia and drive in,(driven in sicily and Italy so semi prepared) so we though a couple of days in dubrovnik and then into montenegro, looking to walk in the mountains as well. I was looking to take my bike but that is optional.
Oh we are vegetrians so looking at the resturants we may struggle?!
Looking for beach and mountains plus relaxation and historical stuff,

I wasn’t in Perast so I don’t know anything about it myself but it looks tiny – which I am sure will be fine so long as you’re not there for three weeks! The best guidebook imho in English is the Bradt Montenegro book and this is what it has to say about it: http://books.google.com.au/books?id=j39fWAZ8A5sC&lpg=PA112&ots=OHS8BN3o2j&dq=%22the%20city%20was%20now%20on%20the%20brink%20of%20its%22&pg=PA112#v=onepage&q=%22the%20city%20was%20now%20on%20the%20brink%20of%20its%22&f=false And they’re only sick squid on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Montenegro-Travel-Guides-Annalisa-Rellie/dp/1841622257/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331464709&sr=8-1 I would want to know how close the accommodation is to the road – that road is the one main road for all traffic down the coast for the whole country so it is busy during the day.

I reckon you should be fine finding a couple of hiking trails etc and places like this seem to do well: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=966870 I didn’t do any bike riding but I heard there was some about – don’t know what kind or anything, tho. Roads aren’t going to be that great for roadies and it’s a pretty rocky, steep, rugged landscape so I am not sure if there will be much singletrack etc – but don’t rely on me, find someone who knows.

As for beaches – well, you might have to do a little drive to get there – Wikitravel says half an hour-ish to the nearest ones: http://wikitravel.org/en/Kotor If you’re happy to do that, you should be OK but I don’t think it’s a going to be like a Greek island step outside the pension and walk 20 secs onto the beach every morning deal.

Food – as you can tell from my earlier post, I’m not a veggie but I would have thought you’ll be more or less OK. Although they love a nice bit of meat, there’s a lot of pasta and pizza, a fair amount of salad – again, just like France 20 years ago! And I suppose that means the prosciutto in Njegus won’t be of much interest either…but there’s always the cheese!

Dubrovnik isn’t far at all and plenty of people do what you do instead of flying into Tivat or Podgorica but I would find out in advance if there’s going to be any sort of ball-ache with insurance and taking cars cross-border (obviously). Also, car parking and driving in Dubrovnik (which, by the way, is lovely but rammed – make sure to have sunset drinks at Buza) can be an utter ballache – so it may or may not be an idea to pick up the car on the morning you leave rather than at the aiport necessarily.

On driving – the wikitravel page is right imvho. Locals or tourists, they’re all numpty drivers and even more so when there’s alcohol/ darkness/ frustration at two-lane roads/donkeys/gravel involved. The cops aren’t thugs and don’t stop people for no reason, but there are lots of them around on the roads and they are all equipped with speed guns and breathalysers (and the limits are – suitably – low), so there’s no need to give them a reason to stop you instead of the bellend 2m off your bumper instead. 😉

many thanks Konabunny that is great
Cheers