Montenegro

Montenegro compresses an implausible amount of drama into a country you can drive across in a morning. The Bay of Kotor is the showstopper: a fjord-like gulf where medieval walled towns cling between black mountains and still water, and where climbing the fortress steps at dawn earns you one of Europe's great views. The coast keeps performing. Sveti Stefan, a fifteenth-century island village turned legendary resort, poses on every photographer's list. Budva's beaches fill with summer energy while quieter coves hide in plain sight. Then, an hour inland, the register changes completely: the Tara Canyon, Europe's deepest, carves through Durmitor's peaks, with rafting below and black lakes above. Montenegro delivers Adriatic glamour and mountain wilderness in the same day, at prices its neighbours abandoned years ago.