Sveti Stefan Beach

Sveti Stefan is a small islet connected to the Montenegrin mainland by a narrow isthmus, about six kilometres south of Budva. The village on the islet was built in the fifteenth century by families using the proceeds of a raid on Ottoman ships; the beach is the sand on either side of the causeway.

Its twentieth century is unusual. Yugoslavia converted the entire village into a single hotel in the 1950s — every house became a room — and it became a destination for a specific international set through the 1960s and 70s. It closed during the wars of the 1990s, was leased to an international operator in 2007 and reopened, and has been closed again since 2021 amid a dispute between the operator and the Montenegrin state over public beach access.

That dispute is the substance of any current visit. Montenegrin law makes beaches public; the lease was read by the operator as granting exclusive use of the beaches beside the causeway during the season. The courts and the state disagreed, the operator withdrew, and the islet has stood empty since. The beaches themselves have been publicly accessible in that period, which is the reverse of the situation that made the place famous. The Miločer park behind the beaches was the royal summer residence and its trees were planted from specimens brought back from around the world.

The beach is fine pink-toned pebble on both sides of the isthmus, with clear deep water and a mountain backdrop. The islet is not open to visitors while the hotel is closed. Miločer beach immediately north was the royal family's and is now part of the same disputed lease, and Petrovac further south is the ordinary Montenegrin resort alternative.

A fifteenth-century village built with the proceeds of a raid, turned into a single hotel by Yugoslavia in the 1950s, and closed since 2021 while the operator and the state argue about whether the beaches beside the causeway are public. Montenegrin law says they are. Check the current position before travelling; it has changed more than once.