Kostanjada – Stoliv Chestnut Festival

Stalls serve dishes built around the chestnut in every form, paired with tastings of local wine. It is a proper village fešta: neighbours cooking, woodsmoke and roasting chestnuts in the air, and the still November bay as a backdrop – the Boka at its most local, long after the summer crowds have gone.

The festival also looks upward: hikes lead to the chestnut forest of Gornji Stoliv, the old upper village on the slopes of Vrmac, where the groves grow. The walk climbs from the shore through the trees to stone houses with wide views back over the bay, and the harvest that fills the stalls below comes from these very slopes. A side event called "Noć u šumi kostanja" – Night in the Chestnut Forest – extends the celebration into the trees themselves.

The chestnut is no arbitrary mascot: the groves above Stoliv have fed and marked this community for generations, and the festival is the village's way of honouring a harvest that predates tourism entirely. Eating roasted chestnuts by the water here connects you to the bay's older, agricultural life.

Entry is free. Stoliv sits on the coastal road between Kotor and the Verige strait, an easy stop by car or the local bus. Come hungry, bring walking shoes for the Gornji Stoliv hike, and treat Kostanjada as one of the best reasons to visit the bay in the off-season.