Budva

Budva claims to be one of the oldest settlements on the Adriatic coast. Legend says Cadmus, the exiled founder of Thebes, took refuge here; the written record begins in the 5th century BC, an Illyrian site gained a Greek trading post in the 6th century BC, and Rome took the area in the 2nd century BC. Saracens sacked the town in 841, and through the early Middle Ages it passed between Doclean, Serbian and Zetan rulers; around 1200 it became the seat of a Catholic diocese that lasted until 1828.

Venice ruled the town, as Budua, from 1420 to 1797 and gave it its walls, built against the Ottomans, who held it only briefly in 1572–73. Venetian was the language of most of its people until the early 19th century. Austria followed Venice, with short Montenegrin-Russian and French interludes during the Napoleonic wars, and held Budva from 1814 to 1918, building Fort Kosmač on the hills above. The town then joined Yugoslavia, was annexed by Italy in 1941 and freed on 22 November 1944.

On 15 April 1979 an earthquake devastated much of the old town; rebuilding took until 1987, and the buildings were restored to their original form. Tourism had already pushed the town out onto the Budva field, and after Montenegrin independence in 2006 Budva became the country's main tourist destination. Since 2022 it has been a centre for Ukrainian, Russian and Turkish newcomers, and its population has risen sharply.

Budva's reputation is as a beach and party town rather than a place for sightseeing — unlike Kotor or Dubrovnik. It is known regionally as the nightlife capital of the eastern Adriatic: discotheques appeared in the 1980s, open-air clubs spread along the promenade in the 1990s, and the old town and seafront are now full of bars. Jaz Beach became a concert venue with a Rolling Stones show in 2007 that drew around 35,000 people, twice the population of the town, and Madonna played there in 2008.

The cultural calendar runs alongside the clubs. Theatre City, founded in 1987, fills the old town every July and August, and the carnival, held since 2003, opens the season in spring; Budva and Kotor hosted the World Carnival City Congress in 2009. The memorial home of the writer and politician Stefan Mitrov Ljubiša, a native of the town, and the town museum keep local history in view. Budva was home to Zeta Film, Montenegro's main film company in the Yugoslav era, and the 1964 film The Long Ships was shot here — its large cracked prop bell still stands outside the walls.

Sport is local and loyal: the volleyball and handball clubs play at the Mediterranean sports centre, KK Mogren is the basketball team, and VK Budva competes in water polo, a common sport all along this coast.

The town had about 17,500 inhabitants at the 2023 census, and the wider municipality includes Bečići, Sveti Stefan and Petrovac. Tourism is the economy: in 2013 Budva alone accounted for almost half of Montenegro's tourist visits and overnight stays. Hotels, apartments, restaurants and boat trips employ much of the town, and luxury yachts fill the marina beside the old town in summer.

That success has had a cost. Since the late 1980s demand for property, fuelled in large part by Russian capital, has turned almost every empty plot on the Budva field and the hills around it into building sites, producing high-rise blocks, narrow streets, and chronic shortages of parking. The word "Budvanizacija" — Budvanization — is used in the region for this kind of chaotic, unplanned growth. Local politics has been turbulent, and several mayors since independence have been arrested; Nikola Jovanović took office in 2025.

The year has two speeds: crowded, loud summers when the promenade is busy until late, and quiet winters when residents have the old town largely to themselves.

Budva eats like the rest of the Montenegrin coast — Mediterranean, with a strong Italian influence and plenty of seafood. Grilled or fried squid, octopus salad, prawns, mussels, tuna and black risotto made with cuttlefish are the standard dishes in the restaurants of the old town and along the promenade.

From the mountains inland come njeguški pršut, the smoked ham of the village of Njeguši on Mount Lovćen and a classic of the Montenegrin breakfast table, and njeguški sir, a cheese kept in oil. Montenegrin wines, above all the red Vranac, and rakija, the fruit brandy, are poured everywhere.

Much of the town's eating is shaped by the season: beach bars and terraces along the promenade in summer, and in the old town's narrow lanes restaurants and cafés that stay busy from lunch until late in the evening. Along the promenade, fast-food stands sell barbecue, gyros, pancakes, slices of pizza and ice cream.