A FAST-growing holiday destination in Europe is home to amazing wines – which you can find surrounding a beautiful campsite.
Montenegro is often overlooked as a place to go on holiday in favour of its southern neighbour Croatia.
However, demand for the destination is rising, according to new research.
Camping website Pitchup found bookings for campsites and glamping parks are up 217 per cent this year.
And while most tourists might visit and stay in the capital of Podgorica, just outside the city is a beautiful campsite surrounded by vineyards.
Purple Eye is around 20 minutes from the capital, named for its nearby lake.
While you can also get fresh coffee and breakfast served onsite, the biggest perk is being able to enjoy tasting of the wines from the vineyard, as well as ‘rakja’, the local grappa.
Otherwise everything from bike riding and horse riding can be booked, as well as canoes to go boating on the lake.
And according go previous guests, the highlight is the family who run the vineyard, who offer home-cooked meals and tours of the grounds.
One person wrote: “This is one of the most peaceful and welcoming places we have ever stayed.
” The family are all so friendly and keen to make your stay as enjoyable as possible.
“We had a delicious home cooked meal and tasted the wine.”
Another agreed: “Just perfect, very idyllic place and camping in vineyard. Feels like Tuscany.”
It isn’t expensive either, with pitches for as little as £12 a night.
But if you want to explore the capital Podgorica, it was named a trending destination last year by Skyscanner.
A spokesperson from Skyscanner told Sun Online Travel: “We saw a significant upsurge in 2023 with a 381 per cent increase in searches to the capital since April 2022.”
Flight times are less than a holiday hotspots in Greece and Italy, taking less then three hours from the UK.
But being less popular than its nearby rivals, you can expect much cheaper prices.
A night out won’t cost you much, with bottles of beer as little as £1 while street food is just a few pounds etc.
Visit in the summer months between May and July and you might get highs of 32c.
The Sun’s Chief Political Correspondent Jack Elsom recently visited the country.
With sun-drenched beaches backed by magnificent mountains and tumbling waterfalls, seemingly everywhere you turn, no picture can quite convey how breathtaking this country is.
Which makes it all the more surprising that Montenegro isn’t more popular among British holidaymakers.
The small Balkan state was part of Yugoslavia until its dissolution in the 1990s when it merged with Serbia. But then a breakaway referendum in 2006 saw it become its own nation.
This was the sum of my knowledge of Montenegro as I boarded an easyJet flight from Luton to Tivat, ready for a classic southern Europe experience — good food, good weather and good beaches.
And those who just want a good old-fashioned knees-up need not panic.
For that is where Budva comes in. The coastal town is the closest the country has to an Ibiza-style party scene, with packed bars and a vibrant nightlife, where people can party until the early hours of the morning.
Earlier this year, easyJet launched a new direct service from Bristol to the town of Tivat in Montenegro.
The Sun recently visited Montenegro – here’s what we thought.
