Montenegro

Most travel writing calls the Bay of Kotor the southernmost fjord in Europe. Strictly speaking, it isn't a fjord but a ria, the geological term for a flooded river canyon, and the difference matters because rias have softer water and gentler depths than fjords. What the Bay of Kotor is, is one of the most photogenic harbours in the Mediterranean: a series of inland bays connected by short straits, walled in by limestone mountains over 1,700 metres high, and listed by UNESCO since 1979.

A Montenegrin charter starts in Tivat at Porto Montenegro, the superyacht marina built on the site of a former Yugoslav naval base after Montenegro's independence in 2006, and the reason the country re-entered the global charter market when it did. From there, you cross to Perast, the small baroque town in the inner bay, and to the two tiny islands just off it: Sveti Đorđe, the natural one, and Our Lady of the Rocks, the artificial one, built up over centuries by sailors dropping a stone after each safe return. Under Kotor's old town, the city walls climb up the mountain to the San Giovanni fortress, with the bay laid out below; the climb is the standard charter sunset. Sveti Stefan, the rocky island village fifteen miles south, is the most photographed half-mile of coast in the country.

The season runs May to October, and the wind is gentle and the water is glass for most of the summer. A Montenegro charter is rarely just a Montenegro charter. Most clients pair it with a few days in southern Croatia, and a week between Dubrovnik and Tivat covers both countries comfortably.