When we first started discussing the idea of full-time travel, we learned a lot about how long we are legally allowed to stay in certain parts of the world without applying for a work visa.
When it comes to Europe, there is a mutual pact between most European countries that allows for passport-free travel between borders.
In other words, people are allowed to pass between countries in the same way that we are allowed to pass between states in America. It is completely hassle-free and there is no customs process involved.
However, there is a catch for non-EU citizens.
This passport-free zone is known as the “Schengen Area”, and anyone without an EU passport is only allowed to stay in this area for a maximum of 90 days within a 180 day period.
This has been a hurdle that we have had to plan around this year while making our decisions on where to go and for how long.
Luckily, there is a fabulous workaround (for now) because there are a handful of European countries that are not part of the Schengen area yet!
They will be at some point, but for now, their applications are either pending or not submitted yet.
Right now, this list includes the UK (since Brexit), Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, and a few others.
We have used this to our advantage this year, because any amount of days spent in these countries goes towards resetting the 90 Schengen days.
We’ve visited almost every non-Schengen European country this year, and we added another to the list when we took a day trip from Dubrovnik to Montenegro!
We had done a fair amount of research on Montenegro during our planning last year, and we were extremely intrigued by its mountainous landscape and shockingly cheap prices!
Montenegro is a very new country, officially gaining sovereignty in 2006.
As part of Yugoslavia for nearly a century, this region of the Balkans has a complicated history.
Even to this day, many people in Montenegro would have preferred to stay in the SFR instead of gaining sovereignty, and we can probably assume many of these individuals are in support of Russia rather than Ukraine in the current war.
However, most of the younger generation is excited at the idea of a free society and a new start for their country!
Along with being so new, Montenegro is also a very small country. The total population as of this year is around 630,000. Since I know there are a lot of Wisconsinites reading this, here is a comparison that will put that in perspective.
That is roughly the same population as the city of Milwaukee!
Montenegro is a little over 5,000 square miles, which is about the size of Connecticut.
However, what it lacks in size, it absolutely makes up for in awe-inspiring scenery!
We drove all the way around the Bay of Kotor, which is connected to the Adriatic Sea.
Just like the coastline of the Adriatic, the water in this bay is crystal clear. The mountainous landscape that surrounds the water encloses the setting in such a perfect way, especially for pictures and video!
We also visited the ancient city of Kotor, which was a continuation of our medieval marathon that we have been on since arriving in the Balkans!
There are many of these walled fortress towns peppered throughout the region, but Dubrovnik and Kotor were by far our top 2!
Kotor is protected by a wall that was also accompanied with a moat, which was actually a natural mountain stream feeding right into the bay.
The architecture within the city walls is very Venetian in style because of the influence they had over the area, which was once known as “Venetian Albania”.
It felt as though Venice was lifted right off the Italian coast and placed into this beautiful basin in the mountains.
Kotor is not all that easy to get to, which might make it a hard place to travel from. If not for this one inconvenience, we would have loved to stay in Kotor for a few days!
There is also a hiking path up the mountain that overlooks the old town and the water, which we decided to skip because of our limited time.
We have to leave ourselves at least a few reasons to come back, right?
Our last stop on our exploration of Montenegro was the coastal town of Budva.
This place absolutely fascinated me, but not for the reasons you might think!
They have a medieval old town district as well, and it is very charming!
But, after spending time in possibly the best two old towns in the continent over the previous 48 hours, we were a little “old town’d out” 😂
The thing about Budva that really captured my attention was the development on the beachfront.
We had heard that many Russian oligarchs have made Budva their playground in the past few decades because of the favorable tax implications.
We saw many yachts in the marina, and almost all of the new buildings going up were either casinos, luxury hotels, or both!
Many gambling enthusiasts go to Monte Carlo if they are in Europe, but don’t sleep on Budva as the up-and-coming haven for the high rollers!
We could tell that this development was only just getting started, and it will be fascinating to see what Budva looks like in 20 years.
Even though it was just for a day, we were extremely happy to have the chance to explore Montenegro after spending so much time reading up on it!
It almost became our home for the month of February, which probably would have been a little too long considering the quaintness and size of the country.
However, we would absolutely love to return if we are ever back in the area!
We have a very busy weekend of filming ahead of us, so I am going to save our next newsletter for next week instead of releasing it this upcoming Friday.
We visited country #15 last week, and it blew every expectation we had out of the water! It was perhaps the most surprised we have been by a country all year!
I am going to need more time to do it justice ☺️
See you all next week, and have a wonderful weekend! 👋
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