Best Beaches in Budva: Mogren, Jaz, Slovenska & More

The best Budva beaches split neatly by how you get to them. Two are a short walk from the Old Town - Slovenska plaza, the long, busy town strip, and Mogren, the prettier pair of cliff-backed coves. The rest need a bus or a car: Jaz for a wide, open bay with room to breathe, Becici for a full-service resort beach, and Kamenovo for clean turquoise water without the town-centre crush. Almost none of them are true sand - the Budva Riviera is a coast of fine pebble and concrete bathing platforms, and knowing that before you arrive saves disappointment.

Budva itself is the natural base for a beach-first trip: the town packs restaurants, bars, day-boat trips and a string of beaches into a small, walkable core, and Tivat airport is only about 20 km away. This guide walks the Riviera beach by beach, tells you what each is actually like underfoot, who it suits, and how to reach it - with honest notes on crowds and the summer squeeze. For the town, the Old Town walls and where to base yourself, see the full Budva guide; for where to eat after a day on the pebbles, our best restaurants in Budva guide sorts the options by price.

Slovenska plaza: the town beach

Slovenska plaza (“Slovenian beach”) is the beach most people mean when they say “Budva beach”. It runs about 1.5 km right below the resort blocks, a continuous strip of fine pebble and coarse sand lined with loungers, snack bars, inflatables and watersports. Everything is a two-minute walk from your hotel, which is exactly the point - and exactly why it fills up. In July and August it is wall-to-wall umbrellas and the water near the shore gets busy with pedalos and swimmers.

Come here for convenience, not solitude. It is genuinely handy if you want to drop your towel, swim, grab a coffee and wander back into town without a plan, and the shallow entry suits families who don’t want to travel to a beach. Loungers and umbrellas are for hire along the whole strip; prices shift year to year and by operator, so check the rate on the day rather than trusting an old blog figure. Out of peak - May, June, September - it is still open and far calmer, which is when the town beach is at its best.

Mogren: the pretty cliff coves

Just west of the Old Town, Mogren is the beach to walk to when you want scenery. It is two small pebble coves, Mogren I and Mogren II, tucked under limestone cliffs and linked to each other by a short passage cut through the rock. You reach them on a cliff-side walkway that starts near the Old Town walls and hugs the shoreline for roughly ten to fifteen minutes - a lovely approach with the sea churning against the rocks below you.

Mogren is smaller and prettier than the town strip, so it fills fast on a hot day - arrive early or late. Some visitors report a small seasonal entrance charge in peak summer with free access out of season, and loungers are rented on the beach; treat both as “confirm on the day”, not fixed prices. The walkway can close in rough weather, so if the sea is up, check before you set off. It is the best short walk-to swim in Budva when the coves aren’t overrun.

Jaz: the wide open bay

A couple of kilometres northwest of the Old Town, Jaz is the antidote to the resort strip. It is a long, open pebble beach in a broad green bay, backed by hills and a campground rather than hotel towers, which gives it far more space and a more natural feel than anything in town. There are really two stretches - a main beach of around 850 metres and a quieter section of about 450 metres beyond it - part organised with loungers, part free to spread out on.

Jaz has form as a concert ground: the Rolling Stones played here in July 2007 to a crowd of around 40,000 - Budva is often cited as the smallest town ever to host them - and Madonna followed in September 2008. The stage still goes up for big summer shows, so if you’re here in season it’s worth checking what’s on. Day to day, choose Jaz if you have wheels and want sea and space over on-tap resort comforts. There is little natural shade, so bring an umbrella if you skip the rented loungers, and note the far section has historically drawn a naturist crowd.

Becici: the resort beach

Immediately south of Budva, Becici is the Riviera’s classic full-service resort beach - a wide arc of fine pebble and sand, close to two kilometres long, backed by a solid line of hotels and beach clubs. It has a more packaged, “holiday” feel than central Budva: organised loungers in neat rows, watersports desks, snack bars and gentle, shallow entry that works for families, all under a dramatic wall of grey mountains. A seafront promenade links Becici back toward Budva, so you can stroll between the two in well under an hour.

Becici suits you if you want a comfortable beach day with everything on tap and don’t mind crowds in peak season - and it makes a good base in its own right, with plenty of mid-range and upper-range hotels right on the sand. If you’re weighing where to sleep, our guide to where to stay in Budva breaks down Becici against the Old Town and the town-beach blocks. Out of high summer it stays usable and far quieter.

Kamenovo and the coast south

Keep going south and the beaches get smaller and clearer. Kamenovo, about 5 km along the coast between Becici and Przno, is a Blue Flag pebble beach with some of the most vivid turquoise water on this stretch - a good shout when the town beaches feel crushed. It has loungers, a beach bar and, unusually for the Riviera, decent parking, so it’s an easy car trip. Just beyond, Przno is a small former fishing-village bay of mixed sand and pebble, about 350 metres long, with old-village konobas behind it; parking there is tight.

A few kilometres further, Sveti Stefan marks the end of the Budva Riviera - the famous fortified islet, now run as an Aman hotel, with pink-tinged pebble beaches either side. The islet itself is off-limits to non-guests, but Sveti Stefan Beach and King’s Beach are open to the public while Queen’s Beach is reserved for guests. Most people come for the view and a short swim rather than a full beach day. For the full rundown of Sveti Stefan and the rest of the country’s coast, see our guide to the best beaches in Montenegro.

Getting to the beaches

Only two Budva beaches are genuine walk-to options: Slovenska plaza (right in town) and Mogren (the cliff walk from the Old Town). For everything else - Jaz to the north, Becici, Kamenovo, Przno and Sveti Stefan to the south - you need transport.

• The Mediteran Express minibus shuttles along the Riviera through the day, stopping at Jaz, Becici, Przno and Sveti Stefan. Fares are low - a euro or two a hop - but confirm the price on board, as it changes seasonally.
• Taxis are the quick option for short hops. There is no Uber or Bolt in Montenegro, so you can’t summon a ride on your phone - use the rank, and either make sure the meter is running or agree the fare before you set off.
• A hire car makes the southern beaches and the day trips much easier, and it’s the only comfortable way to string several beaches together in a day. If you’re touring beyond Budva anyway, picking one up is often better value than repeated taxis; see renting a car in Montenegro for prices, deposits and the local quirks, and getting around Montenegro for the wider bus and ferry picture.

Parking near the town beaches in July and August is genuinely painful; if you’re driving, the beaches south of town with their own car parks (Kamenovo especially) are far less stressful than fighting for a space in central Budva.

Which Budva beach should you choose?

If you want to walk from the Old Town, it’s simple: Slovenska plaza for convenience and a swim between town errands, Mogren when you want the prettier coves and don’t mind that they fill up. Both are best early or out of peak.

If you have a bus pass or a car, spread out. Jaz is the pick for space, a wilder setting and a swim without hotel towers overhead; Becici is the one for a comfortable, full-service resort day with the kids; Kamenovo rewards the short drive south with the clearest water and easier parking. And when the summer crowds get to you, the honest move is to skip the town beaches at midday and time your swim for morning or late afternoon - or read up on the best time to visit Montenegro and aim for June or September, when the sea is still warm and the Riviera finally breathes. After the beach, Budva’s nightlife is a short walk away. And for how these stack up against the whole coast, see our Montenegro beaches ranked index.