Lustica Bay's marina fills as Montenegro's tax edge nears its end

A marina built for owners who used to skip Montenegro

Lustica Bay Marina, on the Lustica peninsula across the Bay of Kotor from the old town, currently runs 115 berths for yachts up to 45 metres, according to the marina's own berthing page, with a further 28 berths in a later construction phase. The development sits on 1,700 acres and 3.5 miles of coastline, of which 90 percent is permanently preserved rather than built on, and the marina village wraps around the five-star Chedi Lustica Bay hotel, a second hotel under the Angsana brand, five private beaches and a three-mile coastal path. Dock operations run on VHF channel 68, with 24-hour manned security and multilingual staff, standard for a marina competing for the same clientele as Porto Montenegro across the bay.

MegayachtNews reported on 9 August 2026 that American owners and charter guests, historically a smaller share of Montenegro's clientele than Europeans and Russians, are now arriving in growing numbers, drawn partly by a Boka Bay setting that is far less crowded than the Adriatic's other big draw. Yotters reported on 7 August that charter rates for yachts over 20 metres on the Adriatic climbed 26 percent this year while the fleet chasing that demand stayed flat, and that Croatia's own largest marina cannot take a yacht past 70 metres - a squeeze that leaves Montenegro's newer capacity, and Porto Montenegro's berths up to 250 metres just around the headland, as the obvious overflow.

The tax math that actually built this coast

Montenegro sits outside the EU's customs and VAT territory, and that single fact is the whole draw. Charter time spent in Montenegrin waters carries 0 percent VAT, against the 12 to 24 percent an owner pays across most of the EU Mediterranean. Fuel bought at three marinas - Porto Montenegro, D-Marin Portonovi and Marina Bar - is sold VAT- and excise-free to anyone who books through a registered local agent with 24 hours' notice, a saving industry guides put at 40 to 60 percent against European pump prices. Bringing a yacht into the country costs a flat 1.7 percent import duty on its customs value, and once she is in, Montenegro charges no annual property tax on the vessel itself.

The bigger structural advantage is time. A non-EU flagged yacht cruising inside the EU is capped at 18 months under Temporary Admission before she must leave EU waters or face import VAT on the full value of the boat. Montenegro, outside that customs area, imposes no such clock: a foreign-flagged yacht can lie there indefinitely. The catch is that the advantage does not travel - cross from Montenegro into Croatia and the yacht owes Croatian VAT for every day spent in Croatian waters, so a mixed Adriatic itinerary has to be costed leg by leg, not treated as one tax zone.

A closing window: EU accession by 2028

None of this is permanent. Podgorica is aiming to close its EU accession negotiating chapters by the end of 2026 and has set a target of full membership, including Schengen, around 2028. Alignment with EU VAT and excise rules at that point would end the duty-free fuel and the customs flexibility that are, by most trade accounts, the country's main economic draw for yacht owners today - the same advantages this piece has just totalled up.

The nearer-term change is already law. Montenegro drops visa-free entry for Russian nationals, alongside citizens of Belarus, China, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, from 1 November 2026, aligning its visa policy with the EU's as part of the accession process, according to reporting by The Moscow Times and other outlets in late July 2026. Local media covering the announcement counted roughly 14,000 of Montenegro's 21,000 registered Russian residents already leaving the country once the plan became public - a fast-moving change to the clientele that filled Montenegro's marinas for the past decade, and one reason the industry is actively courting Americans to replace it.

The golf course, and what else is coming

Lustica Bay's other big draw is a Gary Player Design championship golf course, a par-72 layout of 6,519 metres across 86 hectares, with holes set between 130 and 310 metres above sea level so that, the developer says, every hole has a sea view. Player and Lustica Bay and Andermatt Swiss Alps chief executive Raphael Krucker marked the start of construction on 21 August 2024; Player called the site 'extraordinary' and said that if he were to have a house on any golf course in the world, this would be his place. Three holes, a driving range, a golf academy and a Trackman simulator have been open since spring 2025, the course opens fully to the public from 1 April 2026, a second phase of nine holes is due before the end of 2026, and the full 18 holes are not expected before 2028 or 2029.

The marina has room to grow alongside it: Lustica Bay's own materials point toward roughly 176 total berths once later phases complete, though no date is published for that expansion, and the 45-metre length cap is not moving. Anything larger has to go around the headland to Porto Montenegro, which the Port of Montenegro authority takes to 250 metres, or to D-Marin Portonovi a short hop further north.

What it will actually cost you

Porto Montenegro's own published guidance for annual berth contracts runs roughly EUR 950 to EUR 1,550-plus per metre of LOA a year, so a 20-metre berth costs in the region of EUR 19,000 to EUR 31,000 annually depending on pontoon location; daily transit starts around EUR 55 in low season, priced on the yacht's footprint rather than a flat length rate. Lustica Bay keeps its 2026 berth rates on request rather than published, and the most recent public reference point industry guides could cite was about EUR 70 a night for a 12-metre yacht in 2024 - a gap that is itself worth knowing before an owner calls expecting a rate card.

Below the berth fee sit smaller, genuinely published charges: Montenegro's yacht vignette runs from about EUR 70 for seven days or EUR 300 for a year on a 10-metre private motor yacht, up to roughly EUR 4,000 a year for a 20-metre commercial yacht, plus a separate sojourn tax of EUR 60 to EUR 120 a year depending on length. Set against the VAT and fuel savings above, those are rounding errors - but they are also the only Montenegro yacht costs an owner can actually look up before he calls the marina.