Introducing Herceg Novi

It’s easy to drive straight through Herceg Novi without noticing anything worth stopping for, especially if you’ve just come from Croatia with visions of Dubrovnik dazzling your brain. However, just below the uninspiring roadside frontage hides an appealing Stari Grad (Old Town) with sunny squares and a lively atmosphere. The water’s cleaner here near the mouth of the bay, so the pebbly beaches and concrete swimming terraces are popular. The town sprawls along the coast, absorbing former villages on either side, such as Igalo, which was once a health spa famed for its mineral-bearing mud.

Novi means ‘new’ and Herceg Novi is indeed one of the newer towns on the bay, but at 630-plus years it’s no spring chicken. The Herceg (pronounced ‘her·tseg’) part refers to Herceg (Duke) Stjepan Vukčić of Hercegovina fame who fortified the town in the 15th century; the most dramatic of the remaining fortifications are a little younger.