KOTOR Montenegro: Avoid Kotor Tourists, Stay in a Small Town!

When deciding to visit or live in Kotor, we think it’s better to stay in a small seaside town rather than where all the cruise ship tourists arrive. We are living in Bijela, Montenegro a small seaside town between Kotor and Herceg Novi. It is a quiet family oriented town. Today we explain the reasons we chose to stay here in an AirBnB, as we also go grocery shopping as the stores are all closed on Sundays.
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Good morning from sunny Bijela, Montenegro.. what a great morning it’s warm! In this video today we’re going to talk a little bit about why we chose Bijela as opposed to the other places in this area for our Airbnb and we’re also going to do – because it’s Saturday, grocery shopping because all the stores are closed on Sunday. When you talk about staying in the Bay of Kotor area, there’s sort of three main cities and then there are a number of smaller towns.. the three main ones of course Kotor, Tivat and Herceg Novi.. so why did we decide to stay in Bijela? Well the primary reason came down to cost.. to budget.. so when we look to book a longer term Airbnb this is about the only area where we could find something within our budget.. we managed to book this Airbnb which we show in one of our previous videos for just under $30 USD a day, which for this area, which is a hugely popular area is a really good value. So the second reason why we chose Bijela is because if you’re in the Kotor Bay, actually in the city of Kotor it is crazy busy with cruise ships… and I can tell you that the moment the cruise ships show up, sometimes three or four at a time, the population of Kotor skyrockets.. it’s noisy, it’s busy, and that’s just not what we’re looking for… we enjoy the smaller places right Sarah? That’s right, it’s nice to be able to sit on your balcony without hordes of tourists going by. That’s right, so when the tourists come on cruise ships and do daily outings, excursions, this kind of stuff they don’t come to Bijela… this is more of a place where families come, bring their kids, there’s not a lot of loud music and partying like we can here coming from Tivat a little bit at night on the other side of the bay.. the other thing is you’re more likely to get local pricing on stuff.. in the more tourist areas, prices are always elevated for everything that you are buying. So what do we think so far of Bijela.. well I’ll give you my thoughts. It’s quiet, it’s walkable, there’s not a lot going on… for me that’s a bit of a benefit.. there are some drawbacks to that, we haven’t met one person who speaks English outside of some people in the hospitality business… the weather’s nice, there’s a nice walking promenade, it’s got a low chill vibe about it. Sarah what are your thoughts about Bijela? So it’s a nice sleepy little place so far, I expect it’ll get busier as we get uh deeper Into Summer and more of the tourist accommodation fills up here.. but I think uh like Jay says, I think it’s a lot of local families that come um not so much the party scene.. uh the one drawback is that because we’re not in a city it’s a bit of a walk to shop, we’re kind of situated right between Bijela and Bousici, so we need to walk one direction or the other to get to a supermarket and it’s about a 20-minute walk, which is fine but it’s getting hotter so we’re shopping earlier and earlier in the morning. That’s right last evening we walked into Bousici along the promenade, sat by the water.. great pricing, it was a good vibe, it’s interesting that they’re playing North American pop music when nobody there seems to speak English but uh I guess they like that kind of music. Today is absolutely gorgeous, I’m not sure what the temperature is… going to get to, I think it’s supposed to get to around the 30 to 32° mark… we try to do our shopping early as Sarah said and spend some time indoors where it’s a little bit cooler and then later in the afternoon we can sit outside or come out. So with grocery stores being closed on Sundays, we need to stock up on some extra food.. it’s a bit of a challenge because we have a very small fridge, not much of a freezer uh in our place but uh we’ll sort it out with some creative meal planning. For a small town there’s actually pretty good options for shopping wouldn’t you say Sarah? Yes there’s uh there’s at least four decent supermarkets.. one is larger than the others, they have a good selection um much wider selection of product products than uh there was in the markets in Albania as we’ve mentioned in previous videos.. you can get pretty much anything we’ve looked for so far with maybe the exception of tortilla chips. Yeah I actually think I saw tortilla chips.. we’ll have to have a look.. there’s also a nice produce stand, there’s a couple of fish markets here and uh one thing thing we’re going to do today is we’re going to go to there’s kind of a store that highlights a lot of Russian products… so uh Sarah was thinking about buying some stuff there, what were you uh what were you thinking about buying there? I noticed they had a pretty good selection of Russian frozen dumplings, so we’ll check that out. Yeah that sounds pretty sweet, I don’t know if we’ll be able to film in any of these places.. I’ve already noticed on two stores signs about no filming, no cameras, so we’ll see if not we will show you afterwards what we bought and what it cost. So the benefit of being in Bijela is that we also have access to Kotor, to Herceg Novi, to Tivat by bus.. it’s not a long way to go we can see some of the tourist highlights without being stuck living amongst all the tourists, which of course we are tourists as well; however, that doesn’t mean we want to hang out with all of them. Here’s an interesting thing in the park here.. there’s a giant bunny! yeah I don’t recall seeing that before but you’d think you would notice it.. but who knows. One of the neat things about traveling and visiting different countries beyond being immersed in different cultures, is that there’s just so much stimulus you know.. signs that you can’t read stuff, really unfamiliar stores that you can’t really tell what it is, uh it’s really a good exercise for your brain, you’re always kind of in an active mode of looking and seeing new things and observing what’s going on it’s kind of fun eh? yeah it is. Yeah I you know you get that feeling when you’re on a vacation in a foreign country but uh to have it for an extended period of time is really cool, it will be interesting to see you know at some point when we return to Canada maybe to visit some friends and family how we feel about the differences when we return one thing I’m already dreading about that is transportation you know, everything here is just you walk you know at home you get into some neighborhoods and you can’t really walk to much. There’s two beautiful bakeries up here, they’re busy this morning. So I think there’s a about maybe 5,000 people that live here, obviously when the tourists come that would expand a fair bit.. there’s lots of hotels and beach loungers, but uh it’s a small place compared to Saranda, it’s pretty quiet.. there’s not nearly the same number of cafes and bars, especially along the waterfront.. there’s just not enough people here to support that many businesses. So Sarah’s found this really nice market.. Sarah loves produce markets, she has a love affair with them… I think actually she loves produce markets more than she loves me. Beautiful! Some kind of melons.. I like melons!! Oh we even got some free mandarins.. so that’s the kind of stuff that happens here.. so we bought some kind of melon, what is that melon? I think it’s maybe a Cavala melon or something similar, I don’t know what the hell that is.. some potatoes, and then she threw in a couple of free fruits.. what did she throw in the bag? Two apricots. Nice that’s a pretty good thing! We’ll cover the price of that later on the end of the video.. so normally we buy eggs at that market too, but with the heat today we’re going to buy them a little closer to home.. be a little more strategic. Definitely as mentioned before the produce selection here is not really as good as in Albania, it’s not to say that it’s not good, it’s just not as you know – there’s less places to buy it and less things available.. meat on the other hand, it blows Albania out of the water.. the selection of meats here are unbelievable. It’s hot! This is the kind of stuff I like to see, check this out! We’ll have to check that place out one day. All right so we’re just walking with our melons and potatoes down to the old HDL Market, we’re going to get some stuff there.. what are we thinking? uh I think fajita ingredients, we need some eggs.. uh we’ll have a look around for what else they’ve got.. yeah we’re thinking fajitas cuz they have tortillas, that’ll be nice! Lots of bikes here. So we’re heading to the HDL Market to do some grocery shopping not sure if we can film in there I guess we’re about to find out… smells like a lot of fresh meat in here..it’s beautiful, shop is huge.. That size? These ones are better for fajitas. right tortillas.. get some eggs.. On the hunt for some salsa, it’s going to be near the chips I think it’s not going to be down here with the toilet paper… they got about a billion types of pasta here… peanut butter.. caned tuna.. cleaning supplies.. all sorts of stuff here… chocolate bars, they have a whole wall of chocolate bars here… don’t think we need any chocolate bars.. we’re doing all the aisles here.. snack aisles.. chips, snacks, cooler here all your liquor in the store here, frozen veg, peirogi, pastries.. frozen stuff, oh there’s a produce section.. here there’s a lot of nuts… Meat counter here is something else… beautiful, so we’re not sure what we’re going to get here, we’re looking for some beef we can use to make fajitas with… is there beef over in that cooler on the wall? no I didn’t see any no… all all sorts of kind of sausage… prosciutto, salamis.. meats, what have we got here.. it’s like he’s putting cevapi or qofta into a dish there… this place is busy as heck and I can guarantee you it’s because it’s not open tomorrow.. this one here we’re getting some meat here.. Canada. Canada. Canada.. Bravo! Bravo! So we got a hunk of meat here… Hvala! Hvala! All right all right so we got some meat they just cut a hunk off the end of it that’s pretty fun.. uh salsa we’re going have to go to City Market maybe to City Market eh okay, what else we got here.. do we need some cheese? holy smokes look at this cheese here… that’s amazing… And this stuff here is all like packaged meat.. okay we’re good.. oh sorry! okay! Are we good for here Sarah? Okay perfect we’re good so that’s that for Hypermarket… what do you think of the Hypermarket as a grocery store? It’s got a pretty good selection uh we got most of what we needed, we need to go to another market now to find salsa which we saw the other day.. but overall very good selection.. pretty good yeah, that’s a really modern grocery store.. it’s really good can’t complain about that place.. so now we’re loaded up with groceries and Sarah thinks she needs to somehow go into a freaking stationary store.. I’m not sure what that’s all about.. what are you looking for? Jigsaw puzzles! I don’t think they have what you’re looking for there sweetheart.. oh no here oh maybe that’s for kids, maybe that’s for you actually! There’s this kids jigsaws.. oh no, there’s there’s thousand pieces up here!! See guys this is what happens when you go out with your wives.. you go out to get some groceries and you come home with a freaking jigsaw puzzle… Make sure it’s going to fit on the table, like the table we have is not very big. It’s worse than shoes shopping! Now we’re buying two puzzles!!! go for food, get jigsaw puzzles… Are you happy with that purchase Sarah? Yes don’t judge me! Don’t judge me! You jackass! She’s got puzzles, I got nothing! So apparently we’re going to a Russian Market, is it just over here.. we got to hit City Market for Salsa.. is is that farther? City Market oh we got a ways to go here.. it is hot as hell… So this is a City Market, we need salsa… you can’t film in here they got signs on the doors, so we’ll just wait outside.. you got money left after your puzzle purchase? No comment. Puzzles she likes doing puzzles.. puzzles.. crosswords what else.. word games.. mattress karate.. all right, so that’s City Market done for some salsa.. we’re loaded up! These stores are ridiculously busy on Saturday because they’re not open on Sunday, I don’t know.. you have so many other stores open on Sunday, why they don’t just open them? I don’t know, doesn’t make sense, the gambling parlors are open, the bakeries are open, why have everyone crowd in for one day especially when you’re talking essentials like groceries.. all right so we’re at the place that has Russian dumplings.. just waiting to cross the road, the road’s busy here.. and as usual you have really impatient drivers, motorcyclist trying to pass everyone …they’re actually not going anywhere, there’s a giant lineup at the border so it doesn’t matter how fast you drive you don’t get there any faster.. anyway we’ll see if we can film in here.. we just leave our bags outside.. Is it okay to leave them here? Hi! Hi! How are you? good.. you’re good! Uh is it okay if I film for YouTube? No. Okay. All right so no filming allowed in the Russian market after we asked.. but they got a whole bunch of really neat stuff in there.. I don’t know most, what the hell half of that is.. but we’re going to come back for some smoked mackerel.. but uh we got some uh we got some Russian dumplings.. what are they called Sarah? Palmani. Palmani.. I don’t know what we’re going to do with them.. anyway okay, we got to walk home now.. nothing beats 34 degree heat walking around carrying a bunch of fruit, vegetables, meat, Russian palmani, jigsaw puzzles, we got it all. I’m going to have to have a cold shower when I get home. We’re going to try to show you the cost of all these things including the jigsaw puzzles.. that’s not a shared expense, just so you know! Oh my God, we are completely roasting carrying this crap home right now.. oh my God.. And the bag is ripping.. oh my god, oh this is hot… there is something to be said about finding the pin for your Airbnb before booking it.. we’re too cheap for that, so we’re suffering.. I know everyone who’s not retired and traveling the world it is like, "tough for you buddy"…. Can’t complain, could use the exercise.. so we’ve had to have a bit of a stop in the shade here, it’s the point where the plastic bags weigh so much, they’re like razor blades cutting into your hands! How’s it going so far? I’ll just be happy to be back at the apartment. Then she’s going to find out that her thousand piece jigsaw puzzles don’t fit on the table, she’ll be doing them on the floor! oh got to love this life.. no just hang on a second, I haven’t recuperated enough.. how far we got to go still? 100 m.. and then we got to go up a an incline that’s so steep a tour to France Rider couldn’t even go up it.. Jesus.. definitely a cold shower. And just when you thought you’re home this is the best part.. look at this hill to walk up! oh my! That struggle up the hill was real hey? I am sweaty! wow that was an early walk.. so we’ll just show you what we bought today and then afterwards we’ll give you a rundown on the prices… How excited are you to finally have some puzzles? I am very excited.. English books are few and far between here, I bought one at a used bookstore.. but for the price of the English book I got a puzzle, um I actually bought two uh that’ll keep me busy for a few days at least.. It’s a challenge to occupy myself.. our TV really isn’t working, so it’s either YouTube, books, or um Online Entertainment.. so it’s nice to have uh something to occupy my mind. That’s right and and if she can’t do them on this round table that we have cuz they’re thousand pieces, it’ll either be on the floor or.. I just had an idea, we could take one of these pictures off the wall, put a sheet on it, and then she could do the puzzle on the sheet.. what do you think? Sometimes you got to get creative. There is a desk in the bedroom.. there is a desk in the bedroom.. All right I think it’s time for a cold shower now. Oh that’s nice after a hot day out in the sun. All right so that’s way better, cool down a bit.. it’s still really hot it’s the middle of the day, Sarah’s put away the perishables, still got some stuff here on the counter including the puzzles.. we’ll just kind of show you a little bit around here our uh our apartment kind of what we do in the daytime.. uh we don’t have many friends here at all so it’s not like Saranda (Albania) where we would be out seeing people all the time.. so we just kind of tend to chill, lots of reading books, lots of Facebook, lots of YouTube.. catching up on emails.. this kind of stuff.. uh I spend a lot of time working on our YouTube channel… so just kind of hang out in this space here you know, that’s where the magic happens! And then you know in a couple of hours our patio it’ll uh it’ll start to cool down there’s starting to be a little bit of shade coming now, we have a glorious view here.. it’s just absolutely amazing.. Bay of Kotor, beautiful.. there’s not a lot left to do today ,we’ve done some laundry.. the beautiful thing is that you can bring out your laundry here, put it on the rack and it’ll dry in 30 minutes in the sunshine… Okay so we’re going to wrap it up.. we are watching the Isle of Man TT races live.. so we’ve got to go.. I hope you’ve enjoyed spending the day with us. I’m Jay ,and I’m Sarah, we’re a couple of Canadians, we’re traveling the world full-time.. if you like what we’re doing, hit the LIKE and SUBSCRIBE button down below.. and we will see you in the next one! bye-bye bye!!!