Things to do on a Rainy Day in Montenegro

Even though the sun shines an average of 250 days every year, rainy days are no exception either, especially during the wetter winter months. Locals may welcome a little precipitation, but hardly anyone loves bad weather when on vacation. Don’t let rain ruin your trip to beautiful Montenegro, and don’t make it an excuse for locking yourself up in your hotel room.

Instead, salvage those drizzly or stormy moments to make the most of your limited time in the country. Now you don’t have no more excuses to not visit a museum or art gallery, book that table at that cozy restaurant to savor the best of local Montenegrin cuisine, or treat yourself to an afternoon of wellness.

Table of Contents

Go Shopping

Escape the rain at BIG Fashion, Montenegro’s biggest shopping mall, located within a one or two hour’s drive of most coastal towns and mountain resorts and offering a wide selection of shops, stores, and boutiques to make time go faster. It also boasts a multi-screen cinema showing many films in English with Montenegrin subtitles, where you can enjoy another two hours in the dry.

Shopping in Podgorica

Go on a Wine-Tasting Tour

Should the weather not allow for meandering through Montenegro’s pictuesque vines and wine estates, this shouldn’t demoralize you from tasting its exquisite reds, whites, and roses. A guided tour of a local vinarija followed by a tasting of local wines, Njegusi Prosciutto, Montenegrin cheeses, and olives will guarantee to lift your mood instantly.

Chase down wineries with cozy indoor tasting rooms. The Crmnica wine-growing region in the Skadar Lake Valley is home to numerous estates with rustic and elegant spaces where you can taste wines while sheltering away from the gloomy and wet weather. Decipher the rich aromas of Montenegrin Chardonnay, Krstac, and Vranac wine as you search for the most suitable words to describe them.

Learn a new Skill

As the famous saying goes ‘Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning to dance in the rain’. In other words, you would want to take advantage of poor weather conditions by enrolling in a cooking? Learn how to prepare delicious homemade pasta with seafood, Balkan barbeque, or traditional Djuvec rice.

If you came to Montenegro to rest and recuperate from your household duties back home, step onto the dance floor and salvage a rainy day by learning or elevating your Salsa/Carribean Dance game. Alternatively, keep your brain sharp with a Montenegrin language lesson. Whatever you choose to do, you’ll reap the rewards of accommplishing something new and worthwhile.

Explore Montenegro’s Caves

When the outside world is somber and miserable, exploring one of Montenegro’s caves is something you can do indepedently of the weatherat any time of the year. The Lipa Cave nearby Cetinje boasts astonishing stalactites and stalagmite formations as well as mystic caverns and deep passages.

The popular guided tour is a family-friendly activitiy, suitable for children of all ages, and includes the journey with the fun tourist train from the parking lot to the entrance of the cave. The Dalovica Cave is expected soon to welcome its first visitors. One of the largest caves in this part of the world, it offers a 220-meter-long underground lake and a 18-meter-tall stalagmite.

Visit a Museum or Art Gallery

Tuck away from the harsh elements in one of Montenegro’s many fascinating museums. As one of the largest and most-visited museums in the country, Podgorica’s City Museum has become popular with locals and visitors for a reason. It showcases a meaningful modern art collection by predominantly local artists, including Petar Lubarda and Vojislav Stanic.

We’re also particularly fond of the Maritime Museum in Kotor’s Old Town, the Museum of Money (Cetinje), and the National Museum of Montenegro in Cetinje, where you can immerse yourself in the country’s rich and turbulent history. The quirky Cat Museum is also located in Kotor’s historic center and is dedicated entirely to our feline friends.

With painters, scultors, and other artists regularly finding creative inspiration in Montenegro, it is hardly surprising that some terrific galleries can be found here as well. The Montenegrin Art Gallery ‘Miodrag Dado Duric’ in the centre of Cetinje is dedicated to ‘Dado’, one of Montenegro’s most important artists, and offers one of the largest gallery spaces for 20th century and contemporary art across the country.

Try Laser Tag

A round of laser tag is an action-packed way to compete against friends or family during a downpour. Think you can beat the record score? Battle it out in the Laser Tag Arena in Podgorica. Indoor laser tag is a fun activity for children (and adults) of all ages, and the ideal idea for celebrating a milestone year in any child’s life!

Pamper Yourself with a Spa Treatment

Montenegro has a number of sumptuous, state-of-the-art spa & wellness centers, offering dreamy indoor swimming pools, revitalizing jacuzzis, relaxing Finnish saunas, and much more. The luxurious Chenot Espace Spa, within the 5-star One and Only Portonovi, is a repeat Spa award winner, and it is easy to see why.

Destressing here comes naturally: inhale the aromatic scents of pure, high-quality essential oils and personalized ‘Chenot Elixirs’ as you unwind in one of their hydromassage baths, and follow it up with a facial or mud wrap treatment. Other notable spa centers can be found in the Hotel Splendid, Regent Porto Montenegro, and Lazure Hotel. The Palmon Bay & Spa in Herceg Novi boasts a therman mineral water swimming pool, which is certainly one way to connect with Montenegro without enduring the bad weather.

Take Your Kids out to a Playroom

Indoor playgrounds (Montenegrin: igraonica) and soft play centers are incresingly popular across Montenegro, providing endless fun, games, and other activities in a safe and supervized environment. While your kids leap into action with their play buddies, you can unwind and chat with other mothers and fathers over a cup of coffee in the parents corner.

Visit a Religious Site

Dozens of centuries-old churches and over 80 well-preserved monasteries reveal Montenegro’s captivating past. To see how monks once lived in caves in total isolation, explore the impressive Ostrog Monastery, between Niksic and Podgorica. Highly revered by the locals, this popular pilgrimage site is cut into the towering rock formations, 900 meters above the fertile Bjelopavlici Valley, and well worth a visit not only for believers.

If you’re interested in sacral art and artifacts, you should consider paying a visit to the Cetinje Monastery, which offers the visitor a glimpse into another age with its treasury holding St. John the Baptist’s right hand and apparently a piece of the cross Jesus was crucified on. Kotor Cathedral is located in the heart of the historic center, boasting a meaningful reliquary with numerous relics from saints, including the head of Saint Tryphon after whom this 12th-century edifice is named.

Boka Aquarium

Reflecting the marine environment and eco system of living aquatic creatures in the Adriatic Sea, the Boka Aquarium is the only one of its sort in Montenegro, and definitely a place to bring your whole family. Located in the Kotor neighborhood of Dorbota, the aquarium transports children and adults to a magical underwater world regardless of age.

Have fun with Virtual Reality

The Level Up VR Club in Budva provides a good range of non-violent and age appropriate virtual reality games that appeal to family members of all ages. Guaranteed to make you quickly forget about the rain (and the real world outdoors), you’ll be transported into virtual worlds where you can physically move (the gaming zone extends over 85 square meters) and engage with your co-players or opponents.