The Ladder of Kotor: Montenegro

Switchbacks. When I think back to hiking the ladder of Kotor, I think about switchbacks. For this is a hike which is very steep, and on the edge of a mountain. And how do you get to the top of something majestically vertical? A path of at least 50+ switchbacks; short pathways with turns every few meters.

It’s July, and the heat is so intense in the daytimes, sometimes reaching 38 degrees Celsius, that we decide to get up at 3am to start the hike to the top of the ladder. We are staying at Old Town Hostel in Kotor which is in the heart of the old town (the name does give it away) and is a beautifully preserved building built in the 13th century.

From the hostel, we walked through the old town, with only cats for company at this early hour. Near to the Church of St. Mary Collegiate, is a path which comes up on google maps as “Começo da Trilha para a Fortaleza de Kotor” which roughly translates to “Start of the trail to Kotor fortress”. This is the path you need to take if you are visiting the city walls. However, if you wish to hike the ladder of Kotor, you continue past this path and cross the Scurda bridge. After the bridge, turn right and continue walking. You will see a sharp upwards footpath, and if it’s light enough, the switchbacks will be clear above you. On google maps I believe it does come up as “Start of the Ladder of Kotor”.

There’s quite a gentle walk uphill for about one kilometre and then the hard work starts. You keep on hiking, and the path gets generally steeper, with more and more switchbacks. There are several places you can stop for breath and look at the ever improving view of the bay of Kotor below you. About one third of the way up, you can get to the old city walls if you come off the route to the ladder of Kotor. This is an option if you find the walk too strenuous or feel that the view is good enough from there. If the weather is bad, this is a good turn back point as the path is pretty much made of loose rocks and can be very hard to walk on when raining or wet.

The view of the trail from google maps is shown above. Hopefully you can appreciate just how many switchbacks there are! I didn’t count, but it was certainly one of the steepest paths we’ve ever climbed.

Near to the city walls there was a person selling water whom we bought some off - we hadn’t appreciated how much we would get through due to the heat. At 5am on our walk it was already 28 degrees Celsius.

To get to the top of the ladder, where it meets up with the main road on the far right hand side of the map above, was only 15km, but felt a lot longer and took us around four hours in 30 degree heat. The hike was very steep and there were some sections towards the end where it was more like rock climbing than hiking. This hike is one of my favourites from Montenegro and the view across the bay made the hard work worthwhile.

However - a warning to those set to embark on this hike - plenty of water, sturdy shoes and even sturdier lungs are required!