Kotor old town is lovely , steeped in history with great views over the harbour . All the squares and alleyway are packed with bars, shops , restaurants, icecream parlours which are unreal and lovely gift shops and a mini bazaar. You can walk around the walls of the town or just outside you book all kinds of tours on and off the water. It can be very busy when the cruise ships are in and i would imagine in high season too as its quite compact. Very pretty with great views.

You will want to spend some time wandering the old city, the narrow streets and the open plazas. You will find a lot of places to eat and drink, and you will find a lot of souvenir stands that sell the same junk. And you will find a lot of tourists as this city has been discovered. Worth the trouble. Lovely.

My Uncle & I visited Kotor for the first time in June 2024. We had visited Dubrovnik and the Old Town there just a few days prior to arriving in Kotor, as we were on a cruise holiday. On the day we were here, there were 4 cruise ships in the harbour, including ours! The Kotor Old Town is a smaller version of Dubrovnik's Old town: full of eateries and souvenir shops, but Kotor has walls that run up the mountains behind the Old Town, which look a bit like the Great Wall of China! We didn't have time to walk up those walls on the mountains but it looked very challenging. Kotor seems to be a magnet for tourists nowadays, which is good for the local economy.

No doubt about it, Kotor Old Town is beautiful, but much like Dubrovnik it's a victim of its own success. Cruise ships deposit people in the Old Town and it becomes overcrowded. Already a knock on effect on prices of food and drink. Get there soon before it's one long queue!