Montenegro

Becici

Location: Yugoslavia (6km from Budva)
Village type: Tents
Year opened: 1953
Year closed: 1953

For the record: It was the 4th village of the Club. After Alcudia in 1950, Baratti in 1951, Corfu in 52, 1953 was marked by the opening of Montenegro in a country still called Yugoslavia.

The opening of the village was announced after a long period of suspense on December 30, 1952. Montenegro was better known to some GMs and GOs as Becici, or Betchit-chi.

This so-called Polynesian-style village consisted of a few tents. The site was located in a completely wild, remote, and incredibly beautiful area, its only drawback being its steep terrain. Down by the beach were the entertainment area with a bar and dance floor, the restaurant, and the storeroom. Further up, after crossing a road, were the tents, sanitary facilities, and offices.
Henri Winter, Robert Baudin, and Jean Feignoux managed, with some difficulty, to set up the facilities before the village opened on May 23, 1953.

The expected success, however, did not materialize. There are several explanations for this: a very (too) long journey with 20 hours by train to Venice followed by 30 hours at sea on board an overloaded Yugoslavian boat, without comfort and with multiple stops, the terrain or configuration of the village poorly adapted, the lack of beach equipment, a prolonged breakdown of the water ski boat with the difficulty of obtaining spare parts, health problems, the lack of excursion buses from mid-August.

That is why, because of all these difficulties encountered and reported by the GMs over the course of the season, Club Med discreetly decided not to renew the Yugoslav experience the following year.

This was only a temporary setback because in the early 1960s, two villages built, for almost four decades, a part of the history of Club Med: Pakostane on the one hand and Sveti Marko on the other.

Village chief Montenegro 1953: Tony HATOT