Active travel in Perast

What there is to see

Our Lady of the Rocks (Gospa od Škrpjela) is an artificial islet of 0.38 hectares, built up over centuries after seamen found an icon of the Madonna and Child on 22 July 1452 and laid a rock in the bay after each safe voyage. Its church was renovated in 1722 and holds a 15th-century icon by Lovro Dobričević and a Carrara marble altar by the Genovese sculptor Antonio Capelano. Sveti Đorđe island carries a Benedictine monastery from the 12th century and the old nobility graveyard; French forces held it until British and Sicilian ships took it on 14 October 1813. On the mainland, the church of St Nicholas dates from 1616, its 55-metre bell tower from 1691; the adjoining museum holds 68 paintings by Perast Baroque artist Tripo Kokolja. Bujović Palace, built in 1694 for Venetian captain Vicko Bujović, now houses the Perast Museum among the town's 16 to 19 palaces.

Walking and riding here

Perast itself is a single waterfront street below St Elijah's hill, so time here is spent on foot, at the pace of a small town of about 349 people. There are no marked trails or cycle routes attributable to the town, and the surrounding mountains that rise to nearly 1,500 metres sit within the wider inscribed Kotor region rather than Perast proper. Walking the full waterfront past the palaces, St Nicholas and the two churches takes well under an hour; the main bus station is 400 metres south of the old town, with a Riva stop directly in front of the walls. For guided walking or cycling that links Perast into the broader Bay of Kotor, and for how it fits a longer itinerary, [3E TO CONFIRM: which 3E walking or cycling routes pass through or near Perast, with distances and grades]. Boats to the islets leave from the waterfront.

Getting there and moving around

Perast lies 9 miles from Kotor, about a 19-minute drive along the coastal road on the E80/E65 corridor. The Blue Line bus from Kotor costs €2.00 and takes 35 minutes, running roughly hourly; it uses the station 400 metres south of the old town, with a Riva stop at the walls. Tivat Airport (TIV) is 21 km from the town centre, a drive of about 28 minutes over 13.4 miles. Dubrovnik Airport (DBV) is 56 km away, roughly 1 hour 12 minutes by road, and Podgorica Airport (TGD) is 101 km distant. There is no vehicle entry fee, as Perast is an open town. Access to the islets is by boat from the waterfront. Within Perast, movement is on foot along the waterfront street; the compact layout means most sites sit within a few hundred metres of each other.

Fees, seasons and when to come

Perast has no town entrance fee. The only site charges are the boat islet and the museums. Entry to Our Lady of the Rocks church and museum is around €1. The Perast Town Museum in Bujović Palace charges a standard individual ticket of around €8, with reduced rates for children and groups; its published visiting hours begin from 15 April. A combined ticket covering the Roman Mosaics at Risan and the Perast City Museum costs €12.00. For exact 2026 opening hours, boat departure times and current island fees, check the official Muzeji Kotor schedule before travelling. The Fašinada custom falls each year at sunset on 22 July, when residents take boats out and throw rocks into the sea to widen Our Lady of the Rocks; it is the town's fixed date if you want to see the tradition that built the islet.

Marcin Konsek · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

History and the maritime wealth

Perast's fabric records a single golden century. Under the Republic of Venice in the 1700s it ran four active shipyards and a fleet of around one hundred ships, and held 1,643 residents. That wealth paid for the palaces along the waterfront, the church of St Nicholas begun in 1616 and its bell tower commissioned by Andrija Zmajević in 1691. Bujović Palace, dated 1694 on three stone tablets and built by brothers Ivan and Vicko Bujović, is the clearest surviving statement of that captains' money. Decline was fast: Perast was the last city of Venice to lower the Venetian flag, in 1797, then passed through Austrian, Russian and French hands before returning to Austrian rule in the 19th century. The population dropped to 430 by 1910 and to about 349 today, which is why the 18th-century town survives largely unbuilt-over rather than expanded.