The outermost gulf is the gulf of Tivat ( Teodo ), and a small naval port. On the seaward side, there is the gulf of Herceg Novi ( Castelnuovo ), which guards the main entrance to Boka. The inner gulfs are the gulf of Risan to the northwest and the gulf of Kotor to the southeast.

On the landward side, the long walls running from the fortified old town of Kotor to the castle of Saint John, far above, formed a striking feature in the landscape; and the heights of the Krivošije ( Krivoscie ), a group of barren plateaux in Mount Orjen , were crowned by small forts.

There are many interesting places on the shores of the Boka Kotorska. Herceg Novi has an Orthodox convent of St. Sava nearby (monastiry Savina ), standing amid beautiful gardens. It was founded in the 16th century , and contains many fine specimens of 17th century silversmith work. There is a Benedictine monastery on a small island opposite to Perast ( Perasto ), eight miles east of Herceg Novi. Perast itself was for a time an independent state in the 14th century .

The Bay of Kotor lies within the Mediterranean subtropical belt . While summers are hot and sunny, autumn, winter and spring are rainy seasons. It is the climate type of the Mediterranean but modifications exist in the vast region. A peculiarity of the littoral Dinarids is the precipitation regime as at the Bay of Kotor, Mt. Orjen receives Europe's' most heavy precipitation. Like the monsoon rain is seasonally distributed, thus November thunderstorms sometimes pour 2000 l of water in several days, while August is frequently completely dry leading to forest fires . With a maximum discharge of 200 m³/sec water one of the biggest karst springs , the Sopot spring, is a remarkable indicator of this seasonality. Most of the time it is inactive but after heavy rain a remarkable waterfall appears 20 m above the Bay of Kotor .