Explore the staggering beauty of Montenegro’s national parks

20.08.2024 - 14:11 / lonelyplanet.com

Aug 19, 2024 • 6 min read

Montenegro may be famed for the beauty of its Adriatic coastline dotted with stunning beaches and coves, but even more treasures await you inland. Five national parks with distinctly different landscapes preserve the impeccable unspoiled scenery and create a wonderland of outdoor adventures amidst deep river gorges and rugged mountains.

Pack up your beach towel and tear yourself away from the coast – it's time to immerse yourself in Montenegro's wild side. Here's everything you need to know about its national parks.

If you visit just one Montenegrin national park, make it this one. Looming above the Bay of Kotor, Lovcen is the black mountain that gave Montenegro its name and this national park sprawls over its slopes. For centuries, this karst massif was the very crucible of Montenegrin culture – a rocky redoubt of resistance to the Ottomans, populated by fearsome warriors, clerics and poets – and it remains the nation’s spiritual hub. The old royal capital, Cetinje, is nestled on its slopes and it makes a perfect base for exploring, though the park also can be easily accessed from the coastal hotspots of Kotor and Budva.

Allow time to investigate Cetinje’s palaces and museums before heading into the national park proper. There’s a visitor center in the hamlet of Ivanova Korita where you can gather information on Lovcen’s numerous hiking and mountain-biking tracks before you continue to the park’s most famous feature, the striking Njegoš Mausoleum, containing the tomb of the philosopher-poet Petar II Petrović-Njegoš, sitting at the top of its second-highest peak at 1657m (5436ft). Gargantuan statues by acclaimed Yugoslav-era sculptor Ivan Mestrovic compete for attention with the extraordinary views, as the craggy landscape dissolves into the distance.

Planning tip: As you loop back to your start point, be sure to stop for a snack at the village of Njegusi. As well as being the ancestral home of Montenegro’s Petrovic dynasty, this small settlement is famed throughout the region for its prosciutto, cheese and honey.

Split between Montenegro and Albania, Lake Skadar is the largest lake in the Balkans and one of the most important habitats for wetland birds in all of Europe. The entire Montenegrin side of the lake has been protected as a national park since 1983, and birdwatchers come from around the world to spot the 270 species that shelter here, including the endangered Dalmatian pelican and a globally significant population of pygmy cormorants.

Boats and kayaks can be rented from the lake’s main settlement, Virpazar, and from the national park visitor center across the causeway near Vranjina, for exploring at surface level. Birdwatching expeditions can be combined with visits to the