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Mamula Island by Banyan Tree puts your room inside a stone fort at the mouth of the Bay of Kotor, with open Adriatic on every side.
Hotel, Herceg Novi. Meridian Dispatch.
No. The hotel opens for a season that runs from May to October and stays closed through the winter months. Plan a stay, or a meal or spa visit, inside that window, and arrange the crossing with the hotel.
By boat or by air. Guests can request a direct boat transfer from the airport's water terminal, or a private helicopter from Tivat or Dubrovnik airport. Other boat transfers run from select points in Boka Bay.
Yes, for the food and the spa. During its May to October season the hotel welcomes visitors to its restaurants and spa as well as staying guests, so call ahead to arrange the crossing.
An internment camp, where 2,332 people from the Bay of Kotor, eastern Herzegovina and southern Dalmatia were held over eighteen months. An exhibition by the hotel's front door records the island's past.
The hotel is the fort itself: a restored 19th-century battery on a small island at the entrance to the Bay of Kotor. Sea surrounds it on every side, with far views of open water and wild coast, and the fort's protective walls wrap around an open-air courtyard at its centre.
Built in 1853 under the Austrian general Lazar Mamula, the battery guarded the entrance to the bay, which is now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the Second World War it was an internment camp, and a Historical and Memorial Gallery at the hotel entrance now tells the island's story.
A seven-year restoration turned the battery into a hotel, its stone walls now holding 32 rooms and suites. Floor-to-ceiling windows look out over the sea or towards the mountains of the bay.
Arriving guests check in from 3pm, and check-out is by noon. Sky Suites come with a fortress view or a sea view.
Days centre on the Pool Deck in the middle of the fort, which has three outdoor pools. For the sea itself, there is a pebble beach, and small sets of sun loungers sit in secluded coves around the island.
The Sun Deck is the outdoor terrace restaurant, built out over the rocks. The Banyan Tree Spa occupies the historic fortress tower, and Pinea, a speakeasy bar, is the place for an aperitif or a nightcap.
If you fly into Dubrovnik or Tivat, a private helicopter can bring you straight to the island instead of a car and a boat. Lap swimmers get the long rectangular pool, just over 25 metres, beside two round pools of 7 metres across.
The gym, tucked into the fort's corridors, is open around the clock, and an in-house trainer is available if you want one.
The town
Seven kilometres of seafront promenade run below Herceg Novi, so you can swim off its rocks and platforms before breakfast and still catch a morning boat across the mouth of the bay.
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