Montenegro
Glacial lakes, deep canyons and peaks that still feel undiscovered.
Montenegro packs one of Europe's most concentrated mountain landscapes into a small area. Within a few hours of travel lie the fjord-like Bay of Kotor on the Adriatic, the high plateaus of Durmitor with glacial walls above the Tara canyon, and the Prokletije massif in the east on the Albanian and Kosovan borders. The rivers cut deep: the Tara carves the deepest canyon in Europe. Mountain huts are rare here, but the katuns, stone shepherds' huts on the high ground, are still in use, and the landscape around them is one of the last great wildernesses on the continent. The Peaks of the Balkans links the three countries in a 192-kilometre loop of ten stages through the Prokletije, the Accursed Mountains: limestone peaks reaching almost 2,700 metres, glacial cirques, shepherd paths and stone villages where time runs differently. The route has existed since 2012 and, with border formalities arranged per pass, can be walked in either direction, from June to October.
