Hotel Pelikan Virpazar

The Hotel Pelikan is part of Virpazar’s tradition, the boat ride across Lake Skadar, national cuisine and overall tourist activity in this area. The cordial welcome and hospitality that “old Montenegrins” are renowned for unfailingly await guests as the Pelikan takes great care to cherish good, old values. Accompanied by their children, Zorka and Toman, the owners, welcome their guests like close

friends or relatives and have been doing so since 1960 to the present day in exactly the same way. It was in 1960 that the Pelikan took its first tourist steps, organizing ten-people motorboat tours across Lake Skadar. From year to year, further development meant a more diverse choice of facilities, greater comfort, increasingly traditional interior and cuisine, more acquaintances and friends for the Zec family, and more emotions in the visitors’ book. The hotel and the fleet of boats alike have their own history, pervadedby a special atmosphere and the charm of the odžaklija(the authentic fireplace room typical of the traditional Montenegrin household), a two-personboat,Toman’s hats, grape brandy, sponge cake and sweet basil. Part of the Pelikan’s history are lengthy video tapes featuring films of this hotel, sometimes just appearing briefly as part of the set, and sometimes playing the main role. Many film and television crews focused their cameras right here. The Pelican was and still is a stopping placefor artists, diplomats, politicians and chance travellers alike. Quote: “But, although I was born and spent my childhood in Cetinje, I have always, in those early days even, felt some kind of anxiety. Whenever I could, I would walk up to Kabao or ramble away to Belveder where I would long watch the ample panorama of the lake, which at dawn and dusk was infused with luxuriant colours, shadows, reflections...”
Milo Milunović, painter
»Pobjeda«, 4 January 1979

Dozens of photographs displayed on the walls of the restaurant and in old photo albums tell a story of nature, beauty, friendship, arrivals, departures and unfailing returns. The story of the Pelikan. Various guests, familiar and unfamiliar but friends of the Pelikan in any case, have expressed their feelings in the unique visitors’ book, weighing 60 kilos, full of memories and records. In its own specific way, the Pelikan acts as a chronicler of the ups and downs of tourist activity in this area.