14-05-2025
My hardcore weekend at the new hotel for exercise-obsessed millennials
For decades Europe's holiday hotspots have battled it out to win the favour of the superfit set. The Dolomites and French Alps have their world-famous trails. The Spanish islands offer sunshine and thigh-burning hills for cycling. Switzerland and Slovenia have their serene lakes and scenery.
This spring a new contender has come out fighting. Montenegro has everything fitness lovers like me are looking for. There are five national parks to explore, a jigsaw of glacial lakes, Mamil-approved hills, forest trails and, as of this month, a crown jewel: a luxurious new fitness hotel. Welcome to Siro Boka Place.
Made up of mountain ranges, stunning fjords, dense pine forests and pristine coastline, this Balkan country the size of Cornwall, Devon and Somerset combined is on the cusp of a tourism boom. New flights from Luton and Bristol, as well as a sprinkling of luxury coastal resorts, mean that tourists are being wooed away from nearby Croatia in favour of the more understated vibe of Montenegro, which is also rich in medieval ruins, crowd-free nature and immaculate beaches.
Siro, overlooking the Bay of Kotor on Montenegro's southwestern coast, is a ten-minute drive from Tivat airport. Everything at the hotel is geared towards people who don't want to stop moving even when they are on holiday. It's a Disneyland for exercise lovers, from the enormous 1,600 sq m gym with top-of-the-range equipment and floor-to-ceiling views of the Lovcen mountains to the infrared saunas in the changing rooms and temperature-regulated mattresses in the 96 rooms and 144 residences.
It's the second hotel from Siro, following the opening of its first site in Dubai last year, and in targeting fitness and wellness tourism, the company is tapping into an industry that is on track to be worth £1 trillion by 2028, according to Statista. Driving this surge are exercise-obsessed millennials such as me (I'm 31) and my boyfriend, Chris (37), for whom fitness and health are a priority even when we're travelling. For us, a weekend like this one in Montenegro is nothing short of a dream — one that comes true as soon as we walk through the hotel's front door.
Rather than the traditional welcome desk, the lobby at Siro is more like the entrance to a very swanky gym. There's a small sports shop that stocks the hotel's own whey protein powder, supplements, branded exercise towels and foam rollers for stretching. Behind that is a desk with an iPad and trays of protein balls made by the restaurant, tanks of water flavoured with fresh fruit, and a vending machine that stocks healthy snacks such as salads and poke bowls. Then there's the Refuel Bar, which whizzes up protein shakes with names such as 'gut instinct' and 'recovery nut' (shakes from £8.50), which you can drink on the tiered seating that overlooks the lobby. 'It reminds me of a Roman amphitheatre, not a hotel,' Chris says.
The idea, our hostess tells us as we check in, is that there is always something to do. As well as the gym, there are HIIT and strength classes throughout the day, including a class dedicated to Hyrox training, the cult fitness competition that combines running with interval training. There's also yoga, boxing, sound-healing, reformer Pilates, a weekly running club and, on the third floor, a 25m swimming pool with a retractable roof, due to open in June.
The exercising carries on in the rooms, all of which are soundproof, with blackout blinds and sensory alarm clocks that wake you with light rather than sound — people like me are nerdy about sleep. Mounted on the wall is a cabinet with a yoga mat, a meditation cushion and stretch bands, as well as an essential laundry bag to send off dirty washing, although at the rate we get through gym clothes, I consider asking reception whether there are plans to open a do-it-yourself launderette. Even the free minibar has had a detox: inside the fridge are canned mocktails and the hotel's own line of juices.
The agenda of our first day includes a gym class, which we'll follow with a 5k run and a strength session. But first it's time to meet Radovan Ivanovic, Siro's on-site nutritionist, for a 'biohacking consultation', aka a body scan that will tell me how fit (or unfit) I am, offered free to guests at check-in.
On the surface, getting on the scales at the start of a holiday feels as cruel as standing on them after a buffet. 'But it's all about helping you achieve any goals you might have during your stay,' Ivanovic says. Some guests ask him to draw up a meal plan to help them to reach their target. 'You can even take this to the chef downstairs and he'll adapt some of the meals,' he says. Or you can choose, as I do, to have your microbiome tested in a local lab to find out how healthy your gut is. The bill is charged to the room and the results returned within the week.
• Read our full guide to Montenegro
Back downstairs in the restaurant, Siro Table, I scan the lunch menu, which displays calories and grams of carbs, protein and fat for each dish. Usually this part of eating out makes me wince and swap to something low-calorie and boring, but everything here sounds remarkably nourishing and filling. I have a fennel, orange and prawn salad to start, and a chicken kebab with sweet potato and chimichurri to follow. At lunch you can build your own 'macro bowl' of grains, meats and veg. There's the option to add extra protein in the form of chicken, steak, prawns, tuna or salmon to any dish for as little as £2.50. 'I can eat as much protein as I want,' Chris says, eyes widening in wonder.
As for the breakfast buffet, there's no wondering what the damage is. There are protein balls, a kimchi and pickle station, a salad bar and the most extensive selection of nuts and seeds I've seen at a hotel. Hot food made to order includes spirulina omelettes (egg whites, pine nuts, cottage cheese and courgette), keto diet-friendly breakfast plates, protein porridge and pancakes made with banana and oats. (Don't panic, you can still ask for a pain au chocolat if you want.) Nothing feels measly or like rabbit food and everything is delicious — which is why, like everyone else here, whether young couples or friends in gym gear discussing activities for the day, we're using it as an opportunity to fuel the day's calorie-torching activities.
• I've found the Med's next big thing — and the beaches are beautiful
This part of Montenegro, along the coast near Kotor, has long been associated with glamour and wealth. Siro is part of Porto Montenegro, a waterfront complex of luxury shops, beach clubs and restaurants that look out onto rows and rows of superyachts moored for the winter. On our second day we've signed up for an hour of kitesurfing lessons in the bay between gym classes. 'We want to change the perception that this is somewhere you go to just pop champagne in July,' says Seth Carmichael, who relocated here from New York three years ago to open Black Mountain Outfitters, Tivat's first watersports and outdoor store (from £13; @ 'People are realising how easy it is to get out and go on an adventure here.'
It's working. Each spring the Boka Bay Trail ultramarathon takes place in the nearby Orjen mountain range, while in December Tivat hosts the Boka Marathon, now in its fourth year, which runs north along the coast to the Unesco-listed city of Kotor and back. As Carmichael describes the route, I make a mental note to check if there are still spots for this year. In 2022 huge investment in the area meant that a cable car from Kotor up to the Lovcen mountains opened, unlocking one of Montenegro's crowd-free national parks to tourists in 11 minutes (returns from £13; Siro can arrange bike hire for rides, as well as guided hikes — or, like us, you can save your legs and take a two hour e-bike tour (£130).
Sensing our depleted energy levels on our final day, the hotel offers to organise a guided tour to Kotor. This part of Montenegro has centuries' worth of culture to explore when you're not exercising. We spend an afternoon with our tour guide, Nemanja, and learn about the city's Byzantine and Venetian history before deciding that's enough rest for today. We finish with an hour's hike up to the city's fortress. At 250m above sea level it's the perfect spot for the takeaway picnic Siro has arranged (guided tour and picnic from £130).
• 17 of the best things to do in Montenegro
When we get back to the hotel we're exhausted and sore. I slowly make my way towards Siro's answer to a spa, which offers half a dozen types of sports massages, plus IV drips, assisted stretching and cupping, the suction treatment loved by the A-list (treatments from £67). I fall asleep in the Zen room, a cosy and quiet space filled with loungers. Its walls are made from Himalayan salt bricks, which, I'm told, have air-purifying qualities.
It's also around now that I start to think about a drink of the alcoholic kind. Siro is by no means a dry hotel, although we've been too busy to risk a hangover. Later this month Siro Social, a sunset bar on the top floor serving tapas and cocktails, will open. There's also an extensive list of organic wines in the downstairs restaurant.
We change out of our gym clothes and order arguably the most well-deserved glass of champagne of my life. I'm shattered but I feel stronger, healthier and fitter than when I arrived — a holiday Evans was a guest of Siro Boka Place, which has B&B doubles from £330 ( Fly to Tivat
