Sveti Stefan

Before heading back to Kotor Bay we continued a short drive south of Budva and made a stop on the road above the island of Sveti Stefan. This is a picturesque island connected to the shore by a narrow causeway.

From the 15th century this tiny island housed a simple fishing community. In the 1950´s the last residents of the village were evicted, they were given land somewhere else and involuntarily moved and Sveti Stefan was transformed into a luxury town-hotel. It remained the most exclusive resort on the Montenegro's coast until the 1990's, when it fell into decline during the breakup of the former Yugoslav federation.

After the liberation of Montenegro and after someone thought it was a way to make big money the island was sold to arabs. Sveti Stefan will now be turned into luxury accomodation and casinos and off limit to most of us. At the moment the hole island is being renovated and is closed off with guards at the end of the causeway. It looks more like a ghost town than anything else.