Kotor holiday apartment: Kotor

The location of the apartment is nice. As the property details say it is in the back of the old town of Kotor, within the medieval walls but away from the loud music that is played in many squares every evening.

However the building where the apartment is housed is very decrepit. The stairway to the apartment is is bad shape and has weeds growing all over it and trash everywhere on the stairs and the landings.

The rental agency that the owner uses are very good. They are very helpful, respond to requests instantly and made it very easy for us to get to the apartment.

The workmanship in and around the apartment is very poor. The light over the front door is just a bulb with wires hanging out everywhere. When we arrived to the apartment we were told that there had recently been painting done. As a result of this the painting/pictures in the apartment were all lying under the coffee table. The couch in the living room had had something spilt on are large portion of it and it was pretty grotty (didn't look like any attempt had been made to clean it, it looked like it was allowed to dry as was). There is no TV (however the details don't say there is a TV, so it's not a misrepresentation).

The bedroom with the double bed had no sheet put on it, only a mattress cover. The shower had a hole in the elevated base which meant that the bathroom flooded when we had a shower (to their credit the rental agency had that fixed as soon as we raised it with them). The kettle in the 'kitchen' (basically a bench) had so much white calcium residue in it, it was not something you want to boil with.

For most of the day the apartment is quite dark and the lights are only OK (not halogens). The air conditioning unit, while good, will not cool the bedrooms, only the living room.

If you are a young family of 4 (or a group of 4) it makes for a very economical, no frills lodging option. However it is not the kind of apartment you want to spend any time other than sleeping in.

If I went again (as a young couple) I would probably rent an apartment (probably smaller but better appointed maybe with a balcony) overlooking the water on the road the rings the Bay of Kotor, either to the left or right of the old town. Overall I was unimpressed with the apartment, however it was pretty cheap so I guess you get what you pay for.

I did appreciate that the owner had put together a small scrapbook of recommended restaurants and beaches and had a number of guide books for use