Durmitor National Park | All You Need To Know Before You Go

Untouched nature, pristine wilderness, mountains thousands of meters high, deep gorges and rugged plateaus with colourful wildflowers: this is the Durmitor National Park in Montenegro. The park is a popular destination for most travelers to Montenegro and not without reason.

It is simply indescribably beautiful here. We’ll now tell you what you shouldn’t miss here and what you should know before your trip through Durmitor National Park.

Durmitor National Park | Things To Do

Durmitor National Park is full of wonderful and pristine nature and a real landscape highlight in Montenegro. Nevertheless, the question naturally arises as to what exactly you can do here. We will now reveal the most beautiful highlights and activities in Durmitor National Park.

The panoramic road

One activity you should definitely do in Durmitor National Park is to drive along the panoramic route. This is divided into a northern and a southern part. This allows you to drive a beautiful circular route through the entire park and enjoy the beauty of nature.

The entire route, also known as the Durmitor Ring (Durmitorski Prsten), is 76 km long and somewhat confusingly signposted. The Durmitor Ring is located on the Panoramic Route 2, marked with a brown sign with the inscription Panoramics Road 2 (Durmitor Ring).

However, the southern and much busier part is also on Panoramic Route 1 (The Crown of Montenegro). This can be a little confusing if you want to do the round trip and the names of the signs suddenly change.

You can follow the entire route through Durmitor National Park here on Google Maps.

The northern panoramic route

The northern part of the route is less busy than the southern part. However, the road is also in a much worse condition in places. Here you drive through dense forests and along narrow winding roads.

The highlights here are the viewpoints of the Tara Canyon (Google Maps) and the Sušica Canyon (Google Maps) and, of course, the untouched nature.

On our drive along the northern panoramic route, we only encountered a few other vehicles, so we really felt like we were in the middle of the wilderness.

The southern scenic route

The southern route is much busier, especially for motorcycles, which probably find the northern route too bumpy. You will immediately notice that it is busier here. You often have to give way to avoid oncoming traffic. The landscape here is very different to the northern section. There are no forests here, but rather wide plains and you really notice that you are in the mountains.

The biggest highlights include the 2400-metre-high Prutaš mountain, which is also a great hike, and the Sedlo Pass, the highest mountain pass in Montenegro at 1908m.

Road trip through the Durmitor National Park

If you don’t have much time and don’t want to do any hiking on the way, you can complete the round trip in less than a day. However, we recommend at least 2 days. Then you will have enough time to hike, make stops along the way and, provided you have a campervan or motorhome, you can also spend the night along the panoramic route.

Incidentally, you can combine the northern section directly with the southern route. However, we would recommend making a detour to the Piva reservoir (see next section) in between.

It is best to take the northern route from Zabljak to Pluzine, relax there at the Piva reservoir and then take the southern route back to Zabljak. From there you can easily continue your road trip through Montenegro.

You can download a detailed map of the panoramic route here.

The Piva Lake

The largest reservoir in Montenegro is located to the east of the national park. The Piva Reservoir is 33 km long and up to 188 m deep and is located in the small village of Pluzine. The place is not at all touristy and cannot be compared with the lively Zabljak. Nevertheless, you can have a great time here and, rather untypically for the mountainous north of Montenegro, go swimming in the lake.

We found the place and the lake totally relaxed and enjoyed lying by the water in swimming trunks as a change from hiking in the mountains.

From the panoramic route, you drive along winding roads and through many tunnels several hundred meters down to the lake and always have beautiful views of the water. Unfortunately, you can only stop rarely.

There are also several very dark tunnels to pass through on the way down. Once you reach sea level, you can turn right and follow the larger part of the reservoir, which looks more like a river here, to the Bosnian border.

If you turn left, you will cross the lake on an old bridge and arrive in the small village of Pluzine. There are a few hotels, two supermarkets and a petrol station here. Not much, but just enough to have everything you need.

But the best thing here is the small bathing area right on the lake. There is a meadow, a pebble beach and a boat landing stage. You should definitely book a boat trip across the lake here.

The Black Lake

Black Lake (Crno Jezero) is probably the most visited lake in Durmitor National Park. The glacial lake is located at an altitude of 1400 m not far from the town of Zabljak and is very easy to reach. From the paid parking lot (€3), you can walk to the lake in around 10 minutes along a paved path.

There is a large restaurant there and this is also the starting point of the circular trail, which leads around the lake in 3.5 km. This means you can walk around the lake in approx. 1-1.5 hours and have a much quieter walk on the other side of the lake.

But even if you prefer a longer hike, this is the right place for you. Countless hikes to the surrounding mountains start here. You can also hire rustic rowing boats here and take a leisurely trip across the lake.

Hiking in Durmitor National Park

There are around 50 mountains in Durmitor National Park that are over 2,000 meters high. Choosing a mountain hike is not easy, but two hikes are particularly popular and very worthwhile.

Hike on the Prutas

The hike to Prutas is probably the most popular hike in Durmitor National Park. The start of the hike is not far from the Sedlo Pass. The official parking lot for hikers is relatively small and often completely full by midday. It then becomes difficult to park and you have to switch to small parking bays some distance away. However, this is not always possible.

So it’s best to arrive very early if you want to do the hike. You will need around 4-5 hours for the 9 km. The first part of the hike leads steeply uphill, but after a while it is almost flat over a beautiful plateau.

The last section is extremely steep again and is more like a climb. However, you don’t have to tackle the last section to get the best views of the surrounding mountains.

Hike to the highest mountain in Montenegro

At 2,523 meters, Bobotov Kuk is the highest mountain in Montenegro. The starting point on the mountain is the highest pass in the country, the Sedlo Pass. You will need around 6-8 hours for the entire 11 km route. There are a few climbing sections along the way, some of which are secured with wire ropes. This hike is therefore not recommended with children or dogs.

Viewpoint Curevac

Curevac is a very popular viewpoint just outside Zabljak. From the free parking lot, a very strenuous, although quite flat, hike (30 minutes each way) leads over hill and dale to a beautiful vantage point from which you can admire the Tara Gorge in all its glory.

The path really should not be underestimated, as there is hardly any flat ground or paths. Instead, you have to constantly scramble over small rocks, stones or tree roots and be careful not to trip. We found this very strenuous, although we were of course rewarded by the fantastic view at the end.

Most of the hike is also in the sun, so remember to bring plenty of water and sun protection.

Tips for the Durmitor National Park

Entrance to the Durmitor National Park

Like all 5 Montenegrin national parks, Durmitor National Park charges a daily entrance fee. In Durmitor it is €5 per person per day. This entrance fee is only charged in the tourist core of the park. There are currently friendly rangers on the southern panoramic route at Sedlo Pass and at the parking lot of the Prutas hike.

In the northern part, there is a small ticket office roughly in the middle of the route. You can also pay the entrance ticket at the Black Lake. Bear in mind that the ticket is valid for a whole day.

Other destinations that are also within the national park, such as the Tara Gorge and the Tara Bridge or the Curevac viewpoint, do not cost an entrance fee.

It is worth buying an annual pass for stays of 3 days or more in a national park. These are currently only available to buy at the Black Lake or online.

Where to stay in Durmitor National Park?

The gateway to Durmitor National Park is the town of Zabljak. There is comparatively much going on here, with restaurants, supermarkets and many hotels. However, in our opinion, the town is not overcrowded or really touristy. Zabljak is therefore the perfect starting point for all activities in the national park.

If you want to be very quiet and without other tourists, you can also spend the night on the other side of the park in Pluzine. However, the tourist infrastructure is hardly developed here. You can find nice hotels in Pluzine here*.

How much time should I spend here?

If you have very little time and only want to drive through the park once (on the panoramic route), then you can certainly do it in one day. But we wouldn’t recommend that. It’s far too beautiful here for that.

If you want to do some hikes here, take a boat tour on Lake Piva and relax as well as visiting the black lake, then you should spend at least 2-3 days here.

Best time to visit Durmitor National Park

In winter, Durmitor National Park is a classic winter destination for skiing. Many roads (such as the Panorama Route) are then closed. The best time to visit is therefore summer, from June to September.

As most of the park lies at an altitude of over 1500m, it is never really hot here, even in midsummer. The thermometer usually does not rise above 30° C and it is therefore very pleasant to hike in the mountains even in summer.

Cell phone reception in the national park?

You have good cell phone reception in most areas of the national park. It is only difficult in the very mountainous areas, e.g. near the Sedlo Pass on the southern panoramic road. Here you may have no reception at all in places. A few kilometers further on, however, reception can be much better

Supermarkets and gas stations

There are no supermarkets or petrol stations directly in the park. Only in the two villages east of the park (Zabljak) and west of the park (Pluzine) is there a corresponding tourist infrastructure.

However, as the park is not extremely large (the total length of the panoramic road is 76 km), there is no great danger of running out of gas here.

Camping and wild camping in Durmitor National Park

This is the really good news for you. Although wild camping is not officially allowed in Montenegro (and is usually only tolerated), it is officially permitted here in the national park. So you can camp anywhere in the park with your camper or motorhome and camp wild in nature.

We took advantage of this several times and it is simply amazing to look up at the clear starry sky at night in absolute darkness.

A very friendly ranger comes to you at around 7 o’clock in the morning and charges €3 per vehicle (in addition to the €5 entrance fee for the national park).

Road trip through Montenegro

Read this article to find out how you can perfectly integrate Durmitor National Park into your itinerary through Montenegro.