Montenegro keeps packing an outsized amount of variety into a small country, and a new round-up of the most scenic places to stay there makes the point neatly. Across 11 hotels, you can sleep in an Austro-Hungarian fortress, a former royal summer mansion, a converted barracks and a 17th-century sea captain's palace — often for less than you'd pay in neighbouring Croatia.

The showstopper is Mamula Island by Banyan Tree, a 19th-century fortress at the mouth of Kotor Bay that reopened as a 32-room hotel in 2023. Original stonework, vaulted arches and frescoes were preserved, and there's a pool in the central courtyard, a spa in the main tower and dinner served along the parapets. Doubles run from around £655. Down the bay, the Aman Sveti Stefan has finally welcomed guests back after five years of closure and a legal fight. The 15th-century fortified island, joined to the mainland by a causeway, operates summer-only, with island cottages from about £2,570 a night. The mainland Villa Miločer — a 1930s mansion built for the Serbian royal family, sitting above a pink-sand beach — opens year-round from roughly £905.

Budget options hold their own on scenery. Hotel Conte in Perast lines the waterfront opposite two famous islets, with doubles from £86 and a shuttle boat to the island church. Palazzo Radomiri in nearby Dobrota is a Baroque sea captain's palace with a stone swimming pier, kayaks and a candlelit garden restaurant, also from £86. Inland, the Gradska in Cetinje, once a duke's house and later the Bulgarian embassy, offers nine plush rooms on the main square from £70, with the Njegoš Mausoleum viewpoint at 1,657m a short drive away.

Nature lovers get two strong bases. In the north, Chalet Kolašin (suites from £124) suits hikers and skiers heading for Biogradska Gora National Park and its old-growth forest ringed lake, while Hotel Soa in Žabljak (doubles from £133) puts you at the gate of Durmitor National Park and the UNESCO-listed Tara Canyon, Europe's deepest gorge. Softer adventures await at Cermeniza near Lake Skadar, a family-run eco resort and winery with 13 stone villas from £100 — kayak past water lilies, watch for Dalmatian pelicans, then taste wine in the cellar.

The newest additions cluster around Tivat and the Luštica peninsula: the Regent Porto Montenegro overlooks a 450-berth super-yacht marina (doubles from £130), SIRO Boka Place next door focuses on fitness and recovery programmes from £125 a night, and Centrale Luštica Bay by Angsana — a boutique conversion of a Yugoslav military barracks with 27 rooms on a leafy piazza — opened in early 2026 from around £150.

Who is this for? Pretty much anyone priced out of the Amalfi Coast but craving the same Adriatic drama: couples after romance, families wanting lakes and mountains, and wellness travellers who'd like their gym to have a bay view. Many of these hotels sit within an hour or two of each other, so a single trip can realistically combine a fortress night, a lake retreat and a mountain chalet.