Our Lady of the Rocks: Island Visits from Perast

Boats from the Perast waterfront

Local boats depart from Perast’s waterfront promenade for the island, with a crossing of a few minutes and later collection. Arrange the return meeting place and the time ashore before setting out. This local journey is useful when Perast itself is the starting point of your day. It is separate from the Kotor departures in the excursion selection, so allow for the road journey if you choose one of those.

Rather than working backwards from a supposed last sailing, agree your return directly for the chosen crossing. If you have a separate onward excursion, keep the two arrangements together in your plan. Use the arrival guide for reaching Perast and the boat tour comparison for outings that spend more time travelling through the bay.

Short Kotor trips or a longer bay excursion

The two-hour Kotor, Perast and island outing includes a licensed skipper who also guides, audio material and written local information, drinking water and onboard Wi-Fi. Child-size life jackets are available on request. Its instructions bring you to the waterside near the park in Kotor, with arrival before departure. That is your boarding area, even though Perast and the island are the places you are visiting.

The ninety-minute Perast and island outing starts at Park Slobode in Kotor. Bottled water, fuel, insurance and Wi-Fi are included. Speedboat collection elsewhere in Kotor Bay is available on request, so arrange that specifically if it is important to your journey. It is an excursion pickup arrangement, rather than a public ferry connection or an airport transfer.

The four-hour wider bay outing leaves from Kotor and expressly includes the Our Lady of the Rocks island fee for the 2026 season. It also includes use of snorkelling equipment. That island-fee inclusion concerns the stop on the island; it should not be expanded into a promise of a church or museum guided tour. For water activities, read the swimming and snorkelling guide and allow for conditions and the crew’s arrangements.

The wider outing is named for the Blue Cave area. The access rule announced on 25 May 2026 and reaffirmed on 14 June prohibits motorised vessels entering that area. Choose it as a bay excursion without expecting the speedboat to enter the cave or a guaranteed swim inside. The island visit and the cave-area arrangements are separate parts of that longer day.

Church access, island museum and opening times

Ask for the components of the selected crossing or excursion: boat transport, island landing, church access and the island museum. Compare the total for the visit you want, rather than applying one boat offer’s price to every arrival. A listed island fee should be read as that fee, while church or museum access needs its own inclusion.

Use current local opening information for the interior visit. Boat operating hours are not church opening hours, and a landing slot is not an interior reservation. If seeing the church or museum is central to your day, settle those details with the chosen service before setting your return time. Keep the town museum in Perast separate: it occupies the Bujović Palace on the mainland and has its own collection and visiting calendar.

Sveti Đorđe from the water

St George is the neighbouring island seen on the boat approach. The local itineraries described here pass it for a water-based panorama and reserve their island landing for Our Lady of the Rocks. Enjoy it as a separate view in the bay rather than adding a second landing to your schedule. This distinction also helps when choosing photos and understanding which church island an excursion actually visits.

The legend and Fašinada

The local tradition recalls the finding of a Marian image in 1452. That is the legend associated with the island, while Fašinada is the annual tradition on 22 July: decorated boats bring stones and cast them into the water around Our Lady of the Rocks. Read more about the connection in the history of Perast. For attending a future celebration, use its current programme for timing and participation arrangements.