The Chedi Luštica Bay

Montenegro's coast is short and, in high summer, loud. Luštica Bay is the exception, a new marina town laid low along the water on a peninsula that a decade ago was open hillside and olive trees. The Chedi was the first hotel to open here, in the summer of 2018, and it still sets the tone. A long, pale building runs the length of the promenade, its rooms looking over the yachts to the mouth of the Bay of Kotor. The design is the work of GHM, the group behind the original Chedi in Muscat, and it carries the same idea west across the Mediterranean. The materials are calm ones, terrazzo underfoot and oak at the edges, and the lobby stays cool and dim while the light hammers down outside. The colour comes from the sea in the windows and from the hand-blown glass lamps that hang in the rooms.

The table

Five kitchens share the promenade, more than a hotel this size usually needs, and they divide up the day rather than compete for it. The Restaurant does the long Chedi breakfast, breads baked in-house and a mimosa bar for people in no hurry to leave. The Spot sits right on the marina and cooks the Adriatic, the fish and the wine both close to home. The Japanese, which opened in 2025, takes the first floor and the same water view. The Lobby Bar keeps a patisserie corner and a wall of gin, and down on the sand the Rok Beach Bar runs a pizza oven and a rock terrace for the long end of the afternoon. You could eat a week here without repeating yourself.

Why it's in VANE

Montenegro is having its moment, and much of it is happening at the marinas, Porto Montenegro in Tivat and Portonovi further out towards the sea. Luštica Bay is the youngest of them and, for now, the most relaxed, still half hillside, with a golf course and a second village going up behind. The Chedi is the reason to base yourself here rather than in the older resorts. It carries a Leading Hotels of the World membership and a place in the Michelin guide, though the case for it is simpler than either badge. It reads the light and the heat correctly, it puts a balcony and the water in front of you, and it lets the country come to you at its own pace. Old Kotor is under an hour around the bay when you want the stone and the history. Most days you will not want to leave the promenade.