In the second half of June 2023 I walked the Peaks of the Balkans, a ~200km long trail through the mountains of Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro. I walked a self guided extended version which added Theth to Valbona, and a side trip to Gjeravica Peak, and skipped some of the longer road walking sections. Here is what I learnt from the experience…

The Peaks of the Balkans is no longer the well kept secret it was when I first heard about it five years ago. Other than on the Theth to Valbona section (which attracted hundreds of people as the most popular day walk in Albania), I rarely saw more than half a dozen people a day on the trail itself, but the guesthouses I stayed at were usually full, and there are typically at least 2-3 guesthouses at the end of each section. It is probably possible to walk without making reservations at guesthouses, but I wouldn’t count on it.

The Peaks of the Balkans can be walked independently (for which the Peaks of the Balkans app is super useful), self guided (The Natural Adventure can organise the logistics, and provide trip notes and GPS files) or part of a guided group (operators include The Natural Adventure, Balkan Natural Adventure, UTracks, Trek Balkan, and Balkan Mountain Adventure Company). Based on my experience I’d say it was about 50:50 independent / self guided and guided groups. Groups tended to be 6-12 people with 1-2 local guides. It was mostly Europeans (mainly Germans) walking the Peaks of the Balkans. I don’t remember meeting any Americans or Australians, and most locals hadn’t even heard of New Zealand!

There is an official Peaks of the Balkans route, but many people, like me, do variations, parts of it, or tackle it in a different order or direction. In my twelve hiking days there was a French independent group who I saw for five days running, and a few other people I saw for a couple of days, but otherwise I saw different people around the circuit on the track and at the guesthouses.

Guesthouses provide dinner, breakfast, and lunch (usually self made from food provided), and have bedding, so you could easily carry everything you need for the trip. I walked it after three weeks of other travel and hiking in the Balkans so had my luggage transferred from guesthouse to guesthouse, which worked amazingly well given the road distances between some of the locations. The guesthouses owners rarely speak any English, but their children do! In Doberdol the guesthouse was practically run by a sassy eleven year old girl.

Accommodation is bunk rooms and twin rooms. I walked with my partner and had a twin room in every place stayed, and about two thirds of them had an ensuite bathroom. Rooms can vary in size from barely big enough to fit the beds, to quite expansive. They are usually double glazed but often lack any curtains, so an eye mask was useful hiking in June when it got light at 4.30am…

In terms of food expect to eat a lot of bread, cheese, and meat, plus tomatoes and cucumber for salad. Dinner is usually a combo of all of the above plus soup, breakfast is the same plus eggs sometimes, and lunch the same. Don’t expect breakfast cereal, pasta, or desserts very often. The food is generally tasty and filling, but a fortnight of it was my limit.

On a couple of sections there were places where you could get a drink and maybe snacks mid-section but in general you’ll need to carry enough food to get you to the next guesthouse. Compared with the Alps there are relatively few facilities. Compared with New Zealand there are loads!

A popular way to keep drinks cool is to immerse them in running water.

The track is mostly straightforward to walk, with no real drop offs or technical sections, but does usually involve thousands of metres of ascent and descent each day, so decent fitness is required. There were no river crossings of any merit, and barely any bridges, quite different to hiking in New Zealand.

The track is reasonably well marked with red and white stripes or circles on stones and trees, but I’d strongly recommend that a GPS app is used, and the route mapped. There are a lot of trails so it would be easy to get off track in places.

There are quite a few sign posts, many of which have seen better days, but almost none of them included the key places along the Peaks of the Balkans trail…

There was more 4WD road walking than I’d have liked, but transfers are possible in places (talk to the guesthouses) to save time and tedium. I’d particularly recommend between Rragam and Valbona (after crossing over from Theth), from Treskavica Settlement to Plav, Plav to South West, and Vusanje to Ropojane Lake. They cost between €20 and €40.

There was very little mobile reception along the route, but most guesthouses had surprisingly decent wifi.

In mid June there was snow across the track between Valbona and Cerem via the Presllopi Pass which required a little scrambling, and much more snow on the way to and from Gjeravica peak, which needed to be carefully traversed.

There were also five thunderstorms in my twelve days on the trail, two while safely at accommodation in the evenings, and three while on the track which were pretty scary. It’s best not to be on the tops during a storm given the lightning risk, but these thunderstorms came through at 9am, 12 noon, and 2pm, prime hiking time…

June is the best time for wildflowers, which were quite stunning throughout the hike.

These are working mountains. It wasn’t unusual to come across cows, horses (some of which galloped toward me!), and sheep. The later came with two huge white sheep dog, which were thankfully calm once I’d engaged with the shepherd.

In terms of wildlife there were a number of gecko, surprisingly few birds, a few insects, lots of butterflies, more slugs and snails than I’d like, and this edible dormouse which I scared the life out of me when I found it in my food bag nibbling on my cheese.