Budva International Carnival

The festivities begin before the parade itself with the "Abrum" — musical processions that travel through the coastal villages of Petrovac, Pržno, Sveti Stefan and Rafailovići, announcing the carnival the old way, from square to square. By the time the main days arrive, the whole riviera knows the party is coming.

The climax is the grand parade through the walled Old Town, where locals offer treats to passers-by as masked groups move through the stone lanes. Music stages inside the walls keep the celebration going, and the closing children's carnival brings together more than forty groups of young masqueraders.

The timing carries its own meaning: this is the riviera's rite of passage from winter to summer, the week the shutters open, the terraces return and the town remembers what it is for. Joining the carnival is joining that turning of the year.

Everything is free. Late April and early May are a lovely, uncrowded window on the riviera — mild days, an awakening sea, easy room in the hotels — and carnival week is the moment Budva shakes off winter in full costume.