 <p>I loaded this exact file onto my WAMP server locally and everything worked perfectly fine: You might want to change this at the bottom of the page: src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery.js" There is nothing wrong with your code and the HTML5 shiv and respond.js has nothing to do with your menu not working...</p> <p>You might however want to use Google Chrome and use the inspect element to make sure your reference points are correct.</p> <p>Hover doesn't work out of the box in BS3, you can use a custom javascript to get that working... I use it here: <a href="http://thisamericanjourney.com/" rel="nofollow">http://thisamericanjourney.com/</a> hover over the about menu item: //This allows the user to hover over the menu without clicking on it</p> <pre><code> $(function() { $('ul.nav li.dropdown').hover(function() { $('.dropdown-menu', this).fadeIn('fast'); }, function() { $('.dropdown-menu', this).fadeOut('fast'); }); }); </code></pre>