The peaks of the Balkans was one of the most challenging but rewarding hikes I have done. You will ascend and descend roughly 1000 meters each day and walk for a total of 160 kilometers. Now, if that hasn’t scared you off, then this is a hike I highly recommend. The rough mountainous landscape provides impressive panoramic views of Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro, while walking through the valleys filled with beautiful wildflowers was simply breathtaking.
We did it in 10 days, although in hindsight, we wished we had spread it out a little further to 12 and had a couple of rest days.
At the time we planned this, there was still not a lot of information available, so I want to use this blog to share my experiences with this hike, including things that I wish I had known before I started.
Under things to know, I will cover getting there, hidden surprises, and optional extras that I recommend doing. Then, under what to pack, I will go into detail about what I packed for this hike, things I was missing, and things I brought that were completely unnecessary. As you will be hiking for 10 days, you want to ensure your pack is as light as possible. Lastly, I will go into detail on each day of the hike and what we experienced. Note that we started in Theth for this hike, but other common starting points are through Peja in Kosovo or Plav in Montenegro. If it’s easier for you to start at a different point, all the details are still relevant; you can just treat your starting point as day 1.