The city of Bar (Montenegro) is a port town with comfortable hotels, architectural sights of the old city, coastal cafes and small restaurants with seafood dishes, and inexpensive shopping. These are beautiful mountains and forests in the vicinity, wonderful sea landscapes.
The Montenegrin Bar was first mentioned in chronicles from the VI century, but the age of settlements on the territory of the Old Bar, scientists, historians and archaeologists determine more than 2000 years.
One of the sunniest cities in Europe is located in the south of Montenegro, on the shores of the Adriatic Sea. Most days of the year the sun shines here. In the languages of the nearest neighbors, its name sounds differently. In Italy – Antivari, as opposed to the Italian Bari, which is located on the other side; on Albanian maps it is designated as Tivari, and the Greeks call Bar Thivárion.
Nowadays, the city of Bar is one of the two major ports in the country and a popular resort.
According to the latest data, about 15 thousand inhabitants permanently live in the Bar (an area of almost 600 sq. Km). By our standards, this is quite a bit. But in a small Balkan country, its favorable geographical position and the intersection of three traffic flows: rail, road and sea made the city an important economic, business and tourist center.
Due to the proximity of the border with Italy, it is easiest to buy branded Italian goods here: clothes and shoes, cosmetics and jewelry. And their prices in comparison with other Black Sea resorts are not so touristy.
How to get there
Tivat (65 km), Podgorica (52 km) – the nearest airports. The road takes a little more than an hour.
Transfer to the resort Bar expensive. For independent trips around Montenegro, you can find suitable options for Bla-bla or rent a car.
The bus station is 2 km from the center. From the bus station on the road Jadranska magistrala (Adriatic Way) hourly buses run to other large resorts along the coast. On the serpentine of the old highway, stunning views of the coast open and Skadar Lake is clearly visible.
Podgorica can also be reached by road through the two-lane tunnel of Sozin, cut down in a mountain range. The road through the tunnel shortened the path by 22 km. Travel time has also decreased, as the speed in the tunnel is set at 80 km / h, and in some sections when leaving it 100 km / h.
Sozina is the longest tunnel (4189 m) and the only one paid in the country. Forced ventilation, lighting and illumination work, there is the possibility of emergency communications.
Tariffs: from 1 to 5 euros depending on the type of vehicle, its overall and lifting characteristics. On the north side at the entrance is equipped with a payment station with 6 gates. There is a system of discounts, including the purchase of subscriptions. You can pay for travel in a variety of ways.
500 m from the center of Bar – train station. From here you can leave for Belgrade and Podgorica.
There is a yacht pier in the seaport, there are a lot of yachts, boats, boats and small pleasure boats. Reviews and illustrated stories on tourist portals and sites are full of photos with masts of first-class yachts from the lord’s berth.
Ferries leave for the Italian city of Bari from the passenger terminal (travel time one way 9 hours). Such an excursion is quite expensive, costs 200-300 euros, but is always available for tourists who have a Schengen visa. Sometimes in the visa regime there are concessions between the two countries, and tourists can go to that shore even without a visa.
The city’s attractions
The city consists of two parts: Old Bar (Montenegro) – 4 km from the sea, on a hill at the foot of the mountain and the resort Bar – in the new, coastal part.
This part of the city is compared with the historical and architectural museum directly in the open. Curious tourists interested in history, architecture and archeology can wander around it for a long time.
At the end of the XIX century, the Bar was almost destroyed, and many historical monuments (and there are more than two hundred here) are now available to tourists only in the form of various degrees of ruins: old city gates, picturesque ruins of the Cathedral and churches of the XI century, and cottages are nearby modern building. All this peacefully adjoins.
The main attraction of the Old Bar is the palace of King Nikola. In the park near the port there are two beautiful palace buildings with gardens – a botanical and a winter one. Near the chapel.
Permanent and traveling exhibitions are often held in the halls of the palace, and the exposition of the local history museum is located in the main rooms.
The large Orthodox church is located almost at the entrance to the city from Budva. It amazes with its grandeur outside and decoration inside. Mandatory to visit!
The Montenegrins have such an interesting tradition: until the young man has planted 10 olive trees, he cannot marry – he simply has no right, and he will not be allowed to do this.
Montenegrins honor and love this tree, give it glory and honors. Every year in November, after harvesting, they celebrate Masliniada in the Bar and hold a children’s creative festival, Meetings Under the Old Olive. All this happens not under the fictitious and speculative, but under the real olive at a venerable age of about 2000 years. The fact is confirmed by scientific research.
The most amazing thing is that the tree still bears fruit. It is on the UNESCO list of attractions as world famous. Oliva is also protected by the state of Montenegro.
One of the significant Orthodox shrines of Montenegro and its attraction is located near Bar (20 minutes by car), in a wonderful secluded corner in the middle of the forest and mountains.
In the monastery church of St. Basil on certain days there are services. Clothing when visiting the monastery must comply with the canons. In shorts, short skirts, breeches and trousers, women cannot enter the monastery buildings.
From the highest point, wonderful views of the sea and the ruins of the old city will open. Photos that beginners and professional photographers can take from here are always of excellent quality. A 600-meter tunnel passes through Voluitsa. There used to be military shooting ranges, now private plantations.
It was from the summit of Voluitsa (256 m) from the city of Bar in Montenegro to the Italian Bari on the other side that engineer G. Marconi transmitted the first wireless telegraph signal through the sea.
Those who wish to climb the mountain can take a taxi to the Milena Bridge, and moving along the right bank of the river, in 10 minutes they will get to the path leading to the top.
You need to go to the lord’s market just out of curiosity, especially if you bought a tour and eat at the hotel. You will remember juicy and bright colors, smells of spices from the malls, mountains of vegetables and fruits, colorful guys-traders who loudly invite you to look at their goods.
The season, as elsewhere, begins with a juicy garden strawberry, followed by beautiful tomatoes and cucumbers, carrots, shiny purple eggplant and different varieties and types of zucchini. The list will be continued by slides of fragrant and ripe peaches and apricots, red and yellow sweet apples, ripe amber melons and striped watermelons, kiwi and pomegranates – although this is not an oriental bazaar, eyes will certainly run wide. And all this is grown without a trace of any chemistry!
You will not have time to try everything, but after looking at the photos taken on the market, you will once again admire all this splendor.
Beaches
Like the Royal Beach in Crimea (New World), to visit the city of Bar in Montenegro and not visit the Royal Beach on the Barska Riviera will be an omission. You can immediately consider your program for visiting the sights of Montenegro unfulfilled.
The beach is located near the village of Chan in a secluded bay and is surrounded by sheer cliffs. The coastline on this prestigious beach is wide (coarse sand and clean fine pebbles), the water is clear, and the views are wonderful.
You can get here by sea, on a Taxi-boat (10 euros) from the pier in Bar.
The name of the beach is due to the Montenegrin Queen Milena, who swam here, sailing on a boat with the guards from the Palace when she was resting there. Security bathed on a nearby beach, in a small bay, also protected by high cliffs.
The best beaches of the Bar Riviera Zhemchuzhny, Val Olive and Krasny are located in places where river and sea streams connect.
It has a length of 750 meters, is located near the palace of King Nikola. There are most visitors here, the coast is large pebbles, there are also cobblestones. Pay attention to this, if you are going to relax with young children .. All the other beaches of the Bar are mostly pebble, there are sand and pebble, but there are much fewer people on the beaches than in Budva and Kotor. The water is clean everywhere at any time of the day and any weather, but utilities do not always cope perfectly with garbage collection.
Weather and climate of the resort
The climate of the resort of Bar (Montenegro) is Mediterranean, summers are hot and long, and winters are warm and short. But compared to some other places along the coast, it is not so hot here, and the humidity is slightly higher.
From May to October, daytime temperatures are above 20 ° C. The hottest months in the Bar are July and August: the air temperature is 27 ⁰С, and the water in the Adriatic Sea warms up to 23-25 ⁰С.
Fresh air and the smell of the sea are what will always accompany you in the Bar. Everywhere in the vicinity grow citrus fruits – thermophilic oranges and tangerines are in every yard.
The sun shines here 270, and sometimes more days a year. The “fault” of everything is the unique location of the Bar: between the Adriatic Sea and Skadar Lake, in the very south of Montenegro. In addition, the city is successfully closed from the winds from the continent by the rather high Rumia mountain range. And since the winds here are infrequent and not strong, the swimming season on the beaches of Bar begins in May and lasts two-thirds of autumn, until the very end of October. It is noticeably longer than in other places along the Montenegrin coast.
Great accommodation options in the city of Bar.
Bar is a city in two dimensions. Visit it and immerse yourself in a long centuries of history. But at the same time you will see a new and quite seaside city, quite comfortable for living. A kaleidoscope from the winding streets of the Old Bar and the sunlit squares, streets and boulevards of the new city park will remain in my memory. Guests and tourists will take away with them memories and a whole series of photos for memory – with wonderful sea views and attractions of the surroundings.
And although the city of Bar (Montenegro) is still far from the level of luxury and gloss of the best European resorts, it has a great future. Every year, the resort’s infrastructure is developing, and life is in full swing here even after the season has ended.
A map of Bar’s attractions, beaches, and infrastructure is provided below . All the places mentioned in the text are marked here.
Video from Montenegro.
