Ulcinj, Velika Plaža and Ada Bojana
Wedding band missing after a kite lesson on Velika Plaža
On Velika Plaža the summer maestral blows in from the sea almost every day.
Velika Plaža is a sand beach about 13 km long, so a search begins by cutting it down to the stretch your kite school uses. After that, what matters is whether the band slipped off during the practice on the sand or once you were out in the shallow water. Both can be searched.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewellery recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in Ulcinj, on Velika Plaža or at Ada Bojana with a metal detectorist who can search there.
Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the beach, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
While the kite gear is still being packed away
Feel inside the harness, the gloves and any sleeve or pocket the ring could have slid into, then empty the kit bag onto a bare patch of sand. Ask the instructor where on the water your group spent the lesson. Before you leave the beach, save your location on your phone and photograph the place where your group set up, with the sea behind it.
The area has three parts. In Ulcinj itself there is Mala Plaža under the Old Town, with pebble and rock swimming spots near it and the bay of Valdanos up the coast. Then comes the long sand of Velika Plaža, and at its far end Ada Bojana, where the river meets the sea.
Places we cover in Ulcinj, Velika Plaža and Ada Bojana
- Ulcinj
- Ulcinj Old Town (Stari grad)
- Mala Plaža
- The small harbour below the Old Town
- Liman II
- Borova šuma (the Pine Forest)
- The Ratislav peninsula
- Ženska plaža (the Women's Beach)
- Valdanos
- Stari Ulcinj beach
- Štoj
- Velika Plaža (Long Beach)
- Porta Milena
- The kitesurfing beaches on Velika Plaža
- The Ulcinj salt pans
- Ada Bojana
- The Bojana river
- Boat trips from Ulcinj
From the Old Town walls to the mouth of the Bojana
The town, its rocky swimming spots and Valdanos lie at one end; the long sand beach and the river island lie at the other.
Velika Plaža
Velika Plaža, also called Long Beach, curves gently from the bay of Porta Milena down to the mouth of the Bojana. The sand is fine and whitish grey, and the bottom of the shallows is the same sand. Several kite schools teach along it, so the school you were with tells a detectorist which stretch to start on. Inland lie the Ulcinj salt pans, where a path from the old salt works building at the end of Solanski put follows a channel out to open water and the flamingos.
Ada Bojana
Ada Bojana is a triangular island at the mouth of the Bojana, washed by the river on two sides and by the sea on the third. It has a sandy beach and fish restaurants, and its wind draws surfers and kitesurfers.
Mala Plaža, the Old Town and Liman II
Mala Plaža is Ulcinj's town beach, fine sand on the shore and in the water, with a shallow bottom that runs a long way out. Restaurants and cafés line the back of it. At one end, under the Old Town walls that seem to rise straight from the sea, is the town's small harbour with its landing stage. Liman II is a small pebble bay not far from the Old Town, with clear water.
Borova šuma and the Women's Beach
From Mala Plaža a promenade runs east through Borova šuma, the pine forest. Its beach, near the Women's Beach on the Ratislav peninsula, is rocky in places, concrete in others and sandy gravel elsewhere. Ženska plaža, the Women's Beach, lies in a bay in the pines, rocky and partly concrete, with stairs down to the water, a cave, and a sulphur spring rising in the shallows.
Valdanos
Valdanos is a narrow, horseshoe-shaped bay north-west of Ulcinj, between Mavrijan and Mendra, reached by the main road from the town. The beach is rounded pebbles of very different sizes. The bay is sheltered from southerly and northerly winds, and meadows of posidonia seagrass grow in it. Close by, Stari Ulcinj beach looks out to the small rocky islet of the same name.
How the case is handled
Your first contact stays your contact
Your case stays with whoever answers your first WhatsApp message. They brief the detectorist themselves and bring the result back to you.
The pin leads
On a beach this long, a detectorist starts from your pin. The name of the beach or school you were at, and the photos from the day, go to them with it.
The ring, described
The metal, the width, any stone or engraving, and the size if you know it. Those details go to the detectorist along with the pin.
Costs before anything is arranged
We explain the costs before any search is booked. If you are leaving Ulcinj soon, give us the date in your first message.
What the ground is like from Valdanos to Ada
Pebbles and rock around the town, then sand all the way to the river.
Rock and pebbles, then sand
Valdanos and Liman II are pebble beaches, and the swimming spots by the pine forest are a mix of rock, concrete and gravelly sand, so a photo of the exact rock or step you used helps a great deal there. Velika Plaža and Mala Plaža are fine sand on the shore and under the water, and the beach at Ada is sand too.
The afternoon maestral
The summer maestral comes in from the west and south-west and is at its strongest in the early afternoon. It is the wind the kitesurfers ride on Velika Plaža and at Ada. If the loss happened in the sea, say roughly what time it was and how far from the shore you were standing.
A shore that moves at Ada
The beach at Ada Bojana is reshaped from one year to the next. A pin dropped on the day of the loss is worth far more than a description based on an older map or a previous holiday.
Questions about Ulcinj, Velika Plaža and Ada Bojana
My wedding band came off at some point during a kite lesson on Velika Plaža.
Lessons here begin on the sand and only then move into the sea, so the first thing to settle is which of the two you were doing when you last felt the ring. Off this beach the sea stays shallow for hundreds of metres, with no coral or other obstacles, which makes the depth you were standing in worth knowing. Name the stretch of beach the school works from, pin the patch of sand where the group practised, and say whether the water reached your knees or your waist.
Can an Oura ring be looked for in the shallow water at Mala Plaža, where we were paddling with the children?
Yes. Mala Plaža is the town beach, with very fine sand on the shore and in the water, and a shallow bottom that reaches well out. Pin your towels and the stretch of shore where the children played, and tell us what colour the ring is.
A necklace went missing on the beach at Ada Bojana. We have photos from an earlier holiday there too. Do they help?
Less than you might expect. The shore at Ada is shaped a little differently every year, with new inlets, so a picture from an earlier summer can show a beach that has since changed. The photos from this stay are the ones to send. It also matters which shore you were on: the sea side of the island or the bank of one of the two river arms.
A phone went over the side on a boat trip from Ulcinj.
Start with where you boarded and where the boat went. A phone dropped at the landing stage in the small harbour under the Old Town, or while the boat lay off a beach, gives a detectorist a place to begin. If it went over mid-crossing, well away from any beach, that is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
My watch came off on the pebbles at Valdanos.
Valdanos is a narrow bay shaped like a horseshoe, and its beach is rounded pebbles of very different sizes rather than sand. Pin where you sat and where you went into the sea, and say whether you last had the watch on the pebbles or in the water.
Somewhere between the pine forest path and the rocks where we swam at Borova šuma, a bracelet went missing.
The promenade runs through the pines from Mala Plaža, and the swimming places near the Women's Beach on the Ratislav peninsula are a mix of rock, concrete and sandy gravel. Tell us which spot you swam from and what it was underfoot, where you joined the path, and whether you stopped anywhere along the way.
An engagement ring slipped off while I was swimming at Liman II.
Liman II sits in a small bay not far from the Old Town, with a pebble beach and clear water. Send a pin and a photo that shows the part of the bay you were in, and say whether the ring came off at the water's edge or farther out.
We stayed in Štoj and lost a chain somewhere between the house and Velika Plaža.
Štoj is an area of large, modern houses with a lot of visitor accommodation, and building has joined it to the town and to Velika Plaža. Check the house and the car first. Then tell us which part of Velika Plaža you used, since that is where a detectorist would begin.
Ulcinj, Velika Plaža and Ada Bojana
Write to us from the beach or from home
Velika Plaža, a town beach or Ada, it all starts the same way.
Send a WhatsApp message saying which beach it was and what went missing, with a pin if you have one. For a loss during a kite lesson, the name of the school and the hour help.