Today the Celebrity Ascent docked in Bar, Montenegro, and for the first time on our trip, we really weren’t sure what we were going to do.

Before leaving home, Karen had assigned each person in our group a couple of destinations to research and come up with potential activities. Despite deep dives into guidebooks, travel blogs, and TikTok videos, none of us had been able to find much to do during a day in Bar.

So, over breakfast that morning, we made some last-minute decisions, developed a rough plan, and left the ship ready for whatever adventure might await.

It quickly became obvious that Bar is not one of Montenegro’s primary cruise destinations. Most cruise ships visit Kotor, about two hours north by car and reportedly a beautiful destination. Bar, on the other hand, is home to a busy commercial and industrial port. In fact, passengers are not allowed to walk from the ship into town. We had to board shuttle buses that transported us through the working port and dropped us near the city center.

Once there, we immediately noticed how different Bar felt from our previous two stops in Croatia. Dubrovnik and Split were filled with restaurants, souvenir shops, historic attractions, and businesses catering to tourists. Bar felt much more like a working city that wasn’t particularly expecting a few thousand cruise passengers to show up.

Nonetheless, we ended up having a great day.

Our first stop was the Cathedral of St. John Vladimir, a Serbian Orthodox cathedral completed in 2016. The modern building was impressive from the outside, particularly its large golden dome, but the interior was even more spectacular. Nearly every inch of the walls and ceilings were covered with colorful, ornate religious artwork.

We spent some time admiring the architecture and paintings while also quietly observing people who had come to worship. It was interesting to see traditions that were unfamiliar to us, including worshippers honoring icons of saints by kissing them.

From the cathedral, we walked about 20 minutes to Bar’s train station. Both the station and the train itself were fairly rustic, and this definitely felt more like a local experience than anything designed for tourists.

We managed to figure out how to buy our tickets, interpret the train schedule, and board what we hoped was the correct train. About 30 minutes later, we stepped off in Virpazar, a small village on the shore of Lake Skadar.

The train station was basically a deserted building with very little around it. Fortunately, five other passengers got off with us and appeared to know where they were going.

So naturally, we followed them.

After walking down a quiet road, our route eventually took us alongside the railroad tracks for about 15 minutes. With only a few trains running each day, we weren’t particularly concerned about encountering one, although this was definitely a different type of excursion than our previous ones.

Eventually, we arrived in the small lakeside village, where we found a few restaurants, shops, and several companies offering boat tours. After stopping for lunch, we located the boat tour we had booked online that morning.

Our beautiful wooden boat carried our family along with two other families, one from Belgium and another from France, on a two-hour journey around Lake Skadar.

Lake Skadar is the largest lake in the Balkans and straddles the border between Montenegro and Albania. About two-thirds of the lake is in Montenegro, with the remainder in Albania. It’s particularly well known for its birdlife, wetlands, and enormous fields of water lilies.

The scenery was gorgeous. We cruised past mountains, wetlands, small villages, and seemingly endless stretches of lily pads while enjoying the shade of the boat’s covered seating area.

At one point, our captain stopped so everyone could go swimming. Both of the other families enthusiastically jumped in.

We enthusiastically stayed on the boat.

After spending the previous two days swimming in the warm, crystal-clear Adriatic Sea, the murkier lake water wasn’t quite as tempting. We were perfectly content to relax in the shade and enjoy the scenery.

When our tour ended, we planned to take a taxi back to Bar rather than rely on the limited train schedule. There was just one problem.

We learned that there were apparently only two taxis serving the area, and neither could accommodate all five of us.

So… back to the train station we went.

Fortunately, a local resident pointed us toward a shortcut that meant we wouldn’t have to repeat our walk along the railroad tracks. Our timing couldn’t have been better. Shortly after arriving at the station, the afternoon train pulled in, and we were soon headed back to Bar.

As if the day hadn’t already been unique enough, Montenegro had one more surprise waiting for us.

When we walked out of the Bar train station, we discovered several cows and a horse casually grazing on the grass in the middle of the traffic circle.

Definitely not something we’re accustomed to seeing in Chicago, Atlanta, or West Hartford!

After taking a few photos of our unexpected welcoming committee, we made our way back toward the city center and caught the shuttle through the industrial port to the Celebrity Ascent.

As the Celebrity Ascent departed Bar, we also learned another unique detail about the ship’s crew: many of them are from Montenegro. As we sailed away from the port, families of crew members who had traveled there to see their loved ones stood along the pier, waving and saying goodbye as the ship slowly left their country behind.

After showering and changing, we returned to a part of the ship we had recently discovered: Eden. A tropical garden themed area located at the very back of the ship. Eden features enormous triangular windows overlooking the water. We enjoyed a pre-dinner drink while watching the scenery disappear behind us as the ship sailed toward our next destination.

That evening’s entertainment was Welsh singer Shelly Ann, whose combination of funny stories and a wonderful singing voice made for another enjoyable show.

At the end of the day, we unanimously voted Bar and Lake Skadar our most unique and off-the-beaten-path adventure of the trip so far.

There may have been a little stress along the way, particularly when we weren’t sure how we were getting back to the ship, but that’s also what made the day memorable. We figured things out as we went, experienced a side of Montenegro that most cruise passengers probably don’t see, and had a lot of fun doing it.

Sometimes the days with the least planning turn into the best travel stories.

Next stop: Greece! 🇬🇷