Prokletije National Park Travel Guide, Tours & Hotels

Best time: Late June–early October
Ideal for: Hikers, climbers, wild landscapes
Time needed: 2–4 days
Getting there: ~3h by car from Podgorica via Andrijevica and Plav
Region: Elsewhere in Montenegro
Highest point: Zla Kolata, 2,534 m

Ideal for

Hiking

Climbing

Photography

Wild nature

O nama Prokletije National Park

Alpine valleys, glacial springs and the country’s highest summits on the Albanian border. Grebaje and Ropojana are the two great valleys, and the Peaks of the Balkans trail runs through.

Prokletije — the Accursed Mountains — is the most alpine landscape in Montenegro and the least developed of its national parks, declared only in 2009. The range straddles the Albanian and Kosovan borders and contains the country’s highest ground, Zla Kolata at 2,534 m. Two valleys carry almost all the visitors: Grebaje, a short drive from Gusinje, ringed by near-vertical limestone walls that draw climbers, and Ropojana, which runs north toward the border past the Oko Skakavice spring, where water rises cold and startlingly clear. The base towns are Plav and Gusinje, both quiet, both with a strong Bosniak and Albanian cultural presence. The cross-border Peaks of the Balkans trail passes through, and infrastructure is genuinely limited — this is a place for people who want mountains rather than facilities.

Istaknuto

Grebaje valley walls

Ropojana valley and Oko Skakavice spring

Zla Kolata, Montenegro’s highest peak

Peaks of the Balkans long-distance trail

Where it is

Grebaje and Ropojana

Grebaje is the postcard valley: a flat meadow floor with a couple of small guesthouses, closed in by grey walls that rise more than a thousand metres and attract serious rock climbers. Ropojana is longer and emptier, running north from Gusinje toward the Albanian frontier past the Oko Skakavice — the “eye” — a spring pool fed from beneath the mountain. Both are drivable to their trailheads, which makes them unusually accessible entry points into otherwise demanding terrain.

Plav, Gusinje and the trail

Plav sits on its own glacial lake below the range and, with Gusinje, forms the cultural gateway to the park — a corner of Montenegro with its own food, dialects and a long emigration history. The Peaks of the Balkans, a roughly 190 km circuit linking Montenegro, Albania and Kosovo, passes through here and has done more than anything to bring walkers back. Border-crossing permits are required for some sections and are arranged locally.