Sveti Stefan
To get to Sveti Stefan in Montenegro, it’s best to catch a bus for a few hours from Kotor, which has a medi-evil castle that you don’t want to miss. The bus will take you to Budva, where it’s only five kilmoters further to Sveti Stefan.
In the 15th century, Sveti Stefan was a fisherman’s village. All the fisherman were kicked out though by 1950 though and the town was preserved and turned into an ultra-exclusive celebrity hotel island. In fact, Villa Montenegro is a hotel that overlooks the island and was awarded the very rare 5-Diamond Award in 2006. I had a look inside this hotel, pretending I was thinking of staying there. It’s okay, but for $70 AU per night, I think the view from the balcony of the small apartment we hired from a nice local family did just fine.
After we settled in and found accommodation, we tried to walk across the bridge connecting the mainland with the Sveti Stefan exclusive-vip-people-only island. We didn’t even get halfway across the bridge, when a security guard sprinted out and told us no one was allowed to enter who wasn’t staying at one of the hotels. I guess it didn’t help that I had my giant Canon 7D digital SLR hanging around my neck. You see, the rumor is, this little island is where celebrities from America vacation. For the simple fact that the hotels are extremely expensive and security doesn’t let anyone in who’s not staying.
Still, the restaurants and beach on the mainland were well worth the visit. And looking at the little-exclusive-bastard-of-an-island while doing shots of Jack Daniels was fun-enough.
Rob Kaay is an Australian author & musician.