Sveti Nikola Island

Sveti Nikola, the largest island in Montenegro's territorial waters just off Budva, offers a remarkable labyrinth of underwater caves, swim-throughs, and rocky reef walls draped in orange and red gorgonian sea fans. The cave systems penetrate deep into the limestone karst, creating cathedral chambers where light filters in dramatically and the walls are colonised by cup corals and encrusting sponges. Scorpionfish rest motionless against barnacled rock faces while long-snouted seahorses cling to posidonia grass fronds on the sandy shallows flanking the caves.