Montenegro
August 12-21st 2024
Natural beauty of the Dinaric Alps features dramatic contrast between ancient forests, grassy highland plains, and alpine type cliffs. In this van tour we’ll be crossing the world famous Tara canyon, visiting the Durmitor and Bjelasica national parks, Sinjajevina, the biggest highland plateau in the Balkans (avarage altitude 1700 m), and visit several lakes of breathtaking beauty, which will be a real feast for your camera lenses. We’ll camp in places of holy silence and unspoiled nature, and see and taste the old ways of making cheese by Montenegrian mountain folk. It will be an immersive, overwhelming experience for all senses!
What? How long? How hard? How much?
Type – van / truck tour
Duration – 10 days
Approximate length – 900 km
Technical difficulty – easy
Tarmac/gravel rate – 35/65%
Price
1390 € per vehicle
Where?
Tour coverage
Expedition starts in the far north of Montenegro, in a camp near the Đurđevića Tara bridge, and takes us on a roundtrip of Ljubišnja mountain and scenic viewpoints above Tara canyon on day one, returning to the same place for another night.
Day two starts with an optional 3 hour rafting trip on the Tara river (not included in expedition price). If you don’t want to go rafting, you can enjoy the countryside around the camp and do some photo shooting of the very attractive bridge, or try a zipline ride accross the canyon (three different ziplines are available). After lunch we depart towards the Durmitor national park, visiting the most famous scenic viewpoint there before settling at a campsite near Žabljak, the headquarters of the national park.
On day three we finally leave all traces of civilization behind and head off to a three day, pure wilderness experience in the central part of the Montenegro highlands. Therefore, before leaving Žabljak we must fill up and resupply for the next three days, as there will be no chance to do so until we reach Podgorica, the capitol of Montenegro, on the fifth day in the afternoon. During a ride spanning more than 200 km we will never drop below the altitude of 1300 m (average driving altitude will be in the range 1500-1800 m), and our campsites will reach altitudes up to 1760 m (so it can be quite cold at night towards the end of September, with occasional below freezing temperatures). But it will be well worth the effort, since passing these mountain ranges will probably be the highlight of the tour, both in terms of beauty of the landscape and driving pleasure.
At the end of day six, after resupplying and refueling in Podgorica, we’ll reach a wonderful lakeside wild campsite at Rikavac lake, right next to the Albanian border. The last 15 km of access trail to the lake is really extraordinary, very similar to the most attractive trails of western Alps. Day seven takes us further towards the south side of Komovi mountains, ending on Bjelasica, probably the best mountain for exploring on wheels in Montenegro. In several places on the grassy ridges of Bjelasica it’s possible to reach above 2000 m on wheels, which is normally not possible in the rocky landscape elsewhere in Montenegro.
Then on day eight we take the ridge connection to the northern side of Komovi mountain, before shortly descending to the small town of Andrijevica for resupplying and refueling. Our trail takes us further towards Mokra mountain, a place where nature has been generous with vegetation, raising the treeline well above 1900 m! We camp by a local shepperd’s nomadic settlement at 1750 m, having a chance to experience some Montenegrian real mountain life with the animals, and taste fresh milk, cheese and other local food prepared by the shepperds.
Day nine takes us through the pictureque countryside of mountains along the border between Montenegro and Serbia, taking a wonderful deep forest campsite, before we descend towards the town of Bijelo Polje on day ten to end the tour.
Accomodation
During the tour we’ll mostly be sleeping on nice natural campsites in total wilderness, often near lakes, at altitudes between 1300 and 1800 m, so prepare warm clothing – even at mid summer at those altitudes nights can be cold. On four nights we will be in official camps. Our average time of arrival to campsite is between 17:00 and 18:00, and morning departure time is usually between 9:00 and 9:30. To make camping more comfortable, you should have folding tables and chairs, as well as cooking equipment for food (although you can also use campfire), mobile refrigerator (12 V), etc. In Žabljak there will be a possible bungalow or hotel alternative to camping – we’ll consult the participants of the tour and, if you want to break the camping routine for a day, it is possible (not included in the expedition price).
Your touring vehicle and equipment
- One fully camping equipped van/truck
- AT class tyres
Tour price coverage
Tour price covers
- our guide in his own vehicle (either a standard 4×4 or van)
- all fuel and other expenses for the guide vehicle
- personal counceling before and during the tour
- appropriate GPS data in GPX format
- national park entrance tickets
- official camp accomodation prices
- dual band handheld radios
Tour price does not cover
- individual fuel and toll costs
- individual food and drink expenses
- servicing expenses by third parties
- rafting on Tara river
- other individual expenses
What else you should know about the tour?
You with timely be supplied (one month prior to the tour) with a Google waypoint of the Kljajevića Luka camp (our starting point), as well as the phone number of your guide. Please secure that you have your travel insurance before starting the tour. We expect you to arrive with a van/truck in good technical conditon, which can endure ten days of moderate offroading. This tour does not require a high level of offroad experience and skills. There will be parts of the tour when we won’t have a chance to refuel for several days so you should have a fuel tank that can guarantee covering 250 km without visiting a petrol station. All major credit cards (Visa, Master, Maestro, etc.) work in Montenegro (either on ATM machines or for paying goods), and the official currency in Montenegro is Euro. You’re advised to have at least a small amount of cash for small expenses in the mountainous areas.
Average tour difficulty is easy. In practice, that means that we will be travelling on decent quality dirt roads, and occasionally connecting them by tarmac in order to avoid possible risky (or overgrown) connections which are not suited for vans/trucks. We will not have any deep water crossings on our route (so no snorkel is necessary). Our operational communication during the tour will be on dualband handheld VHF/UHF radios, which will be distributed to the participants at the tour start.
Tour booking form
If you have any more questions,
ask your guide!
Invoice and payment instructions will be e-mailed to you upon filling out and sending this registration form
Image gallery from the tour area
