Our Lady of the Rocks (Gospa od Škrpjela)

How to visit without queuing for a tour

This is the rare Montenegro sight you don’t pre-book. Drive or take the cheap Kotor–Perast bus to Perast, walk the waterfront, and step onto one of the small shuttle boats that leave the moment they fill — about €5 return, five minutes across, with the boatman idling by the steps while you visit. The mistake is buying a guided “Our Lady of the Rocks” tour from Kotor for €20–35 when all you need is the bus fare and the boatman; book the tour only if you want a guide narrating Perast and the bay, not just the crossing. Entry to the church is free; the museum upstairs is about €2, paid in cash on the islet.

The other mistake is going at midday. The islet is man-made — built up over centuries on a reef where sailors dropped a rock each return — and it’s barely the size of a tennis court, so when three cruise groups land at once you photograph the church over the heads of strangers.

A half-day on the rock, not a rushed hour

Get there before 10am or after about 4pm and the church is near-empty: the painted ceiling, the wall of silver votive plaques and the small museum are the reason to go inside rather than just snap the islet from a passing boat. You’ll spend 30–45 minutes on the rock, so don’t treat it as the whole outing — build it into a Perast morning, with a coffee on the village quay and a look at the bell towers.

Treat it as a half-day and it earns the trip; rush it in an hour and it won’t. The islet alone is slight, but the boat ride from Perast, the votive-plaque interior and the Baroque village around it add up to the postcard Bay of Kotor most people picture. Pair it with the San Giovanni fortress climb earlier the same day — done before 9am, before the heat — rather than stacking it against a long Lovćen drive.