Questioning which Peaks of the Balkans lodging to e book? Confused about how the reserving course of works, or what the guesthouses are like?
You then’re in the fitting place!
I’m simply again from climbing the Peaks of the Balkans path myself, and one main spotlight was staying at family-run guesthouses and inns in distant mountain villages alongside the best way.
These lodging could also be easy, however they’re heat, welcoming, and provide a real style of native tradition—from selfmade meals to the possibility to swap tales with fellow hikers.
On this information, I’ll break down precisely how Peaks of the Balkans lodging works, what to anticipate, and my suggestions for the perfect guesthouses and inns alongside the path, so you may e book with confidence.
Fast details:
Size: 192 km (119 mi), often 10 days
Issue: Reasonable to strenuous
Allow: Required — apply a minimum of 2 weeks forward
Greatest time: June–September
Security: Set up an eSIM in your telephone & take into account a World Rescue membership
Lodging: A mixture of guesthouses, small inns, and tenting
How Peaks Of The Balkans Lodging Works
Alongside the Peaks of the Balkans hike, you’ll largely keep in small, family-run guesthouses, with a number of domestically run inns in bigger cities.
Included meals
These guesthouses often provide full-board choices, serving beneficiant home-cooked meals with soup, bread, a lot of contemporary and stewed greens, native cheese, and meats. At no level was I hungry, as helpings alongside the path are beneficiant.
Whereas breakfast and dinner are eaten at your guesthouse, you’ll be given elements like bread, tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, chilly cuts, and generally fruit or selfmade cookies to pack a picnic lunch after breakfast.
Rooms, showers & WiFi
Rooms are typically personal however easy. Outdoors of Tirana and Shkodër, I didn’t encounter air-con, however all rooms had beds, blankets, and shops.
Most rooms had personal bogs, with shared bogs frequent in additional distant areas like Çerem and Doberdol.
In my expertise, all guesthouses had showers and sizzling water, although WiFi could be hit-or-miss, even after they technically have it. If you wish to keep related, it’s really helpful to put in an eSIM. The European eSIM from Airalo labored properly for me.
If you happen to’d somewhat camp, there are a number of primary campgrounds and grassy spots close to guesthouses the place you may pitch your tent. Simply be ready for minimal amenities, and all the time ask permission for those who’re wild tenting close to a village. Do not wild camp in nationwide parks.
Reserving lodging
Most hikers pre-book lodging, both instantly, by way of an area information, or with a trekking firm, since many guesthouses don’t use on-line reserving platforms and even have web sites. Having an area firm deal with your lodging is often the best possibility.
Personally, I traveled with Wilderness Balkans, which took care of lodging bookings. This made getting ready for my Peaks of the Balkans trek rather a lot simpler and fewer aggravating!
Prices
On common, count on to pay about 45€ per individual, per night time, based mostly on double occupancy in a room. This contains your meals.
Funds
Most guesthouses on the Peaks of the Balkans path solely settle for money, often in Euros or the native forex (like Albanian Lek, although Albania additionally accepts Euros).
ATMs are extraordinarily restricted as soon as you allow main cities like Shkodër or Plav, so plan to deliver sufficient money on your total trek, together with further for snacks, drinks, and suggestions. Personally, I introduced €150 for these extras and it was sufficient.
Peaks Of The Balkans Lodging By Location
Now let’s go over some really helpful guesthouses to e book alongside the path. These are the locations I stayed throughout my trek, and so they have been very comfy:
Resort Tradita (Shkodër, Albania)
Spotlight: The normal meals and decor
WiFi: Sure
Air Conditioning: Sure
Non-public Lavatory: Sure
Resort Tradita is ready in a fantastically preserved 400-year-old home adorned with Albanian people artwork and conventional touches. You’ll get a little bit of cultural immersion with fashionable touches, as rooms have air-con, WiFi, and a rain bathe with nice water stress.
Whereas that is extra of a resort than a guesthouse, dinner right here is served family-style, with native specialties like dolmas, contemporary cheese, Albanian bruschetta, and native trout. You may eat outdoors of their massive open courtyard, or dine indoors to see the meals being remodeled an open hearth.
They’re additionally well-known for his or her scrumptious included breakfast.
When it comes to location, you’re a couple of 10-minute stroll to Shkodër’s metropolis middle.
Click on right here to e book Resort Tradita.
Resort Ikona (Shkodër, Albania)
- Spotlight: Fashionable comforts within the coronary heart of town
- WiFi: Sure
- Air Conditioning: Sure
- Non-public Lavatory: Sure
For one thing extra fashionable and centrally situated in Shkodër, Resort Ikona presents clear, fashionable rooms with comfy beds, personal bogs, air-con, and WiFi.
As somebody who’s choosy about their pillows, I additionally appreciated the closet filled with blanket and pillow choices.
Onsite, they characteristic a classy rooftop restaurant and bar that serves yummy meals and an expansive checklist of cocktails.
Within the morning, a scrumptious breakfast buffet of juices, eggs, meats, fruit, and extra is included. You can even have individually-made espresso drinks.
Whenever you need to discover, you’re simply steps away from the principle pedestrian avenue in Shkodër, Rruga Kole Idromeno, which is filled with eating places, bars, cafes, and retailers.
Click on right here to e book Resort Ikona.
Neo Kulla Hikers Hive (Valbona, Albania)
- Spotlight: Epic mountain views from the in-room balconies and out of doors patio
- WiFi: Sure
- Air Conditioning: No
- Non-public Lavatory: Sure
Neo Kulla Hikers Hive is a clear and comfy guesthouse in Valbona with spectacular mountain views from its balconies and patio. The dinner is plentiful and scrumptious, that includes native drinks like Albanian wine and tea made with marjoram.
Their breakfast was on the smaller facet, although you’ll get bread, cheese, and meat.
Rooms are easy however cozy, and the beds are very comfy with shops close to the headboard for charging your gadgets.
Click on right here to e book Neo Kulla Hikers Hive.
Vita Guesthouse (Çerem, Albania)
- Spotlight: The selfmade scrumptious & plentiful meals
- WiFi: Sure
- Air Conditioning: No
- Non-public Lavatory: No (shared solely along with your ground)
Vita Guesthouse is a family-run lodging with such heat hospitality, it feels extra like a homestay. It options personal rooms with shared ground bogs in the principle home in addition to three small A-frame cabins outdoors.
It’s easy, clear, and surrounded by attractive mountain surroundings.
The meals right here was a few of the better of the journey. You may inform the household places a whole lot of effort into making actually scrumptious and satisfying home-cooked meals that includes dishes like Albanian white bean soup, bread, contemporary salad, grilled peppers, eggplant, contemporary tomatoes with olive oil, cheese, olives—and that’s only for starters!
For breakfast, they not solely had eggs, fruit, meats, bread, and jam but in addition hearty bowls of scrumptious porridge.
Click on right here to e book Vita Guesthouse.
Leonardi Guesthouse (Doberdol, Albania)
- Spotlight: The distant location surrounded by mountains in a valley and the social vibes that made it straightforward to satisfy different trekkers
- WiFi: Sure
- Air Conditioning: No
- Non-public Lavatory: No (shared with everybody on the property)
Positioned in Doberdol, one of the crucial distant villages within the Balkans, Leonardi Guesthouse sits at 5,780 ft and presents a mixture of A-frame cabins, dorms, and tenting spots.
If you happen to’re searching for the enjoyable hostels alongside the path, it is a nice choose. It’s a really social place, the place hikers from everywhere in the world collect to commerce tales over a drink within the yard, the place there are a great deal of seating areas.
As is frequent at Peaks of the Balkans lodging, meals is plentiful. If you happen to drink alcohol, notice that it’s a bit costlier right here than elsewhere (~€5 vs ~2.50€).
The largest draw back of this lodging is that 4 bogs are shared amongst all friends, to allow them to get fairly disagreeable. However, as of now, there aren’t any lodging in Doberdol with personal bogs.
On the plus facet, for those who stand up to pee in the midst of the night time, you’ll be rewarded with some epic stargazing in your option to the toilet!
Constructing on this, it could be useful to have a headlamp for this lodging, although you also needs to be effective with simply your telephone flashlight.
A headlamp can also be useful for nighttime studying while not having to stand up to show the sunshine off.
Click on right here to e book Leonardi Guesthouse.
Gacaferi Guesthouse (Deçan, Kosovo)
- Spotlight: This guesthouse had the perfect meals of any on this checklist, plus it was very social with folks mingling in the lounge, eating room, and on the out of doors patio with mountain views
- WiFi: Sure
- Air Conditioning: No
- Non-public Lavatory: Sure
Gacaferi is the family-run guesthouse of my Balkans trekking information, Adriatik, and so they actually go above and past to make the keep memorable.
Meals are plentiful, with contemporary salads, bread, cheese, and hearty mains cooked by Adriatik’s household.
There’s a comfy frequent room and out of doors deck with panoramic mountain views the place hikers socialize over drinks. At sundown, the view of the Accursed Mountains turning shades of pink and orange is unforgettable.
Click on right here to e book Gacaferi Guesthouse.
“HRID” Eco Mountaineering Village (Babino Polje, Montenegro)
- Spotlight: The plentiful meals and the stress-free lodging set proper on a river
- WiFi: Sure
- Air Conditioning: No
- Non-public Lavatory: Sure
“HRID” Eco Mountaineering Village options easy however comfy two-storey picket cabins with personal bogs alongside a river.
It’s a peaceable place to unwind with a chilly beverage after an extended day of climbing. Simply notice that whereas they promote sodas and non-alcoholic beers, alcohol is BYOB.
The meals is a serious spotlight. Count on a beneficiant buffet of native dishes, together with loads of vegetarian choices. They even specifically made me soy patties and vegetarian noodles since I don’t eat meat.
Count on an equally massive breakfast and loads of choices on your picnic lunch, too. In addition they served certainly one of my favourite dishes of the journey, pizza bread, and so they even gave out bananas for the picnic bag (fruit was a uncommon deal with when it got here to picnic lunches).
Click on right here to e book “HRID” Eco Mountaineering Village.
Moonlight Home (Vusanje, Montenegro)
- Spotlight: The unbelievable views from the out of doors patio and indoor restaurant and the unbelievable breakfast
- WiFi: Sure
- Air Conditioning: No
- Non-public Lavatory: Sure
Moonlight Home was in all probability probably the most fashionable lodging I stayed at alongside the Peaks of the Balkans path (outdoors of Shkodër).
It felt extra like a resort than a family-run guesthouse, providing tremendous clear personal rooms, glorious showers with nice water stress, and WiFi (although I couldn’t get it to work whereas I used to be there, however my eSIM labored).
The spotlight is the beautiful view of Prokletije Nationwide Park’s peaks from the out of doors terrace. Company can seize a drink from the dignity bar and chill out because the mountains fade into nightfall.
When it comes to meals, for dinner, it’s slightly bit completely different than the opposite guesthouses. As a substitute of simply bringing out a great deal of dishes to share, you’ll have shared starters and also you’ll select your personal primary: beef, hen, or fish.
For breakfast, the unfold is plentiful, with eggs, bread, jam, and extra. In addition they had the perfect pancakes I ate your complete journey.
Click on right here to e book Moonlight Home.
Bujtina Polia (Theth, Albania)
- Spotlight: Wonderful mountain views from the property’s wrap-around porch and attempting their very own selfmade wine and olive oil
- WiFi: Sure
- Air Conditioning: No
- Non-public Lavatory: Sure
Bujtina Polia combines clear, comfy rooms with unbelievable wraparound porch views. There are additionally picnic tables within the yard to play video games and sip drinks whereas appreciating the surroundings.
Their scrumptious restaurant is a five-minute stroll away. Right here you may strive the proprietor’s selfmade glowing wine and olive oil alongside scrumptious dishes. As a result of I’m a vegetarian, they made me a hearty bowl of pasta with a plant-based sauce.
Taking in 360-degree mountain views, it’s the right location to rejoice finishing your Peaks of the Balkans journey.
Click on right here to e book Bujtina Polia.
Bonus: Here’s a video showcasing the view from Bujtina Polia’s balcony:
Continuously Requested Questions About Peaks Of The Balkans Lodging
Now that we’ve gone over easy methods to e book guesthouses alongside the Peaks of the Balkans trek and proposals for the place to remain, let’s go over some ceaselessly requested questions.
Q) Can Peaks of the Balkans guesthouses accommodate vegetarians?
Sure! I’m a vegetarian and every guesthouse had loads of meals for me to eat throughout meal instances. Some even went out of their option to make particular dishes only for me, however even with out them, there was all the time loads of vegetable soups, contemporary and stewed greens, bread, cheese, and extra.
Q) Ought to I deliver a sleeping bag for the Peaks of the Balkans trek?
Provided that you’re tenting. In any other case, guesthouses will provide bedding.
Q) Can I drink the faucet water at Peaks of the Balkans guesthouses?
Sure, the water is protected to drink at guesthouses alongside the path.
Q) How a lot money ought to I deliver for the Peaks of the Balkans trek?
As soon as your entire lodging, meals, transfers, permits, and nationwide park charges are paid, you actually solely want cash for drinks and suggestions. Soda, beer, and wine value about 2€ to 2.50€, besides in Doberdol, the place drinks have been nearer to 4€ to five€. As I went with a information, I tipped 10€ per day.
Q) Are you able to camp alongside the Peaks of the Balkans path?
Sure, there are a lot of alternatives to camp alongside the path, each onsite at guesthouses and wild tenting (outdoors of nationwide parks).
Q) Are bank cards accepted at guesthouses alongside the Peaks of the Balkans path?
Typically, no. You’ll need to carry money to pay for lodging, drinks, and different bills.