Canoeing and kayaking holiday in Montenegro, Lake Skadar
Flights, airport transfers and meals at restaurants excluded.
Description of Canoeing and kayaking holiday in Montenegro, Lake Skadar
Canoeing or kayaking at Montenegro’s massive Lake Skadar, one of Europe’s wildest wonders, is an experience not to be missed. You’ll find yourself paddling across a vast and stunning lake, some 370 square kms in size, with not a soul in sight except, perhaps, a few local fishermen in traditional wooden boats. The scenery is dramatic and beautiful with the lake ringed by karst mountains and host to an incredible array of bird and plant-life, including the rare Dalmatian pelican. It’s not for nothing that this cross-border lake (a third is in Albania) became a protected Ramsar Wetland of International Importance back in 1996.
Paddle past carpets of waterlilies as you travel up reed-lined water channels and across open, mirrored waters to reach remote 14th century island monasteries, still inhabited today, and the ruins of Ottoman fortresses. You’ll visit pristine freshwater beaches reached only by boat, sleep in tents next to the shore, swim in some of the cleanest waters Europe has to offer, and eat at secret hidden-away fishing villages where your lunch has been caught that very morning. You will learn more about the lake's incredibly diverse flora and fauna and learn some new skills (such as gathering herbs/plants, fishing and birdwatching as well as paddling!).
After a day to acclimatise after your arrival, you’ll spend five full days kayaking, covering some 65km, with a day at the end to recover before you return home. The week is suitable for almost all levels of fitness and a must-do for nature enthusiasts, families or anyone who wants to try a new way of travelling and enjoy the outdoors with a qualified instructor.
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Flights, airport transfers and meals at restaurants excluded.
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Reviews
7 Reviews of Canoeing and kayaking holiday in Montenegro, Lake Skadar
Reviewed on 15 Jul 2019 by Coral Morgan
I really enjoyed paddling though beautiful scenery and swimming in the warm lake. Read full reviewReviewed on 25 Jun 2019 by Kirstin Shirling
Being outdoors, meeting local people, and seeing a new country in an ecologically sustainable way was memorable. Read full reviewReviewed on 23 Jul 2018 by Angela Mclean
Kayaking back to camp by starlight after a fish dinner at a remote hamlet beside the deepest part of the lake. Read full reviewReviewed on 12 Jul 2015 by Philippa Throssell
It was amazing to be so busy and active and yet be so refreshed. Read full reviewReviewed on 08 Oct 2014 by Kay Audoire
The kayaking was amazing, the lake is so quiet and often ( nearly always) you are the only people out there! The scenery is stunning, it's quite amazing. Read full reviewReviewed on 23 Jun 2014 by Liz Cush
The whole trip was amazing, stunning scenery and lovely villa. We loved the hikes, out in the countryside seeing the local landscapes and the amazing insects.... Ben and Emma have immersed themselves in the local community, employing local people and the lunch at Tanya's (a local villager, where we stopped off on a hike) was amazing. Read full reviewResponsible Travel
Planet
We want our holidays to be high impact in experience but low impact on the environment! Once you’re at the villa, transport will be mostly on foot, kayak or bike, with car transfers provided to starting points for excursions or restaurants if needed.Lake Skadar is a National Park and a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance and your visit and National Park fees will help sustain sensitive tourism and protection for this area. As such, our tour guides will encourage you to behave in an eco-friendly manner at all times by supporting the Leave No Trace principles –travelling where possible along marked water channels, disposing of waste properly, leaving what you find (unless it’s other people’s rubbish!), respecting wildlife and being considerate of other visitors and the local community.
We are committed to local conservation projects and have contributed actively as well as financially to local initiatives, most notably a CZIP (Montenegrin RSPB) project to help repair and maintain nesting rafts for the local, endangered Dalmatian Pelican colony. As the leading sustainable tour operator in the country, it is up to us to lead by example, protecting the National Parks from over-development and ensuring their beauty can be enjoyed by the next generation.
We are also working with German eco-tourism NGO GIZ and the World Bank funded 'Albania and Montenegro Lake Skadar Joint Eco-systems Project' to identify formal ways for our customers to volunteer and directly benefit the environment during their stay.
People
We have built strong links with local communities at Lake Skadar and support their maintenance of threatened traditions – from bee-keeping, fishing and carp-smoking to the making of wine, cheese, olive-oil and flavoured brandies. By visiting home-producers and buying their wares, you will build pride, contribute to the local economy and encourage the development of eco-tourism in an area where tourism needs examples of how to develop sustainably. You’ll meet local people like Hassan Muratovic and his wife Nada at remote Murici beach and learn about their ethnic Albanian culture and traditional way of fishing.English isn’t widely spoken round the lake, but your guides will be able to translate to make each interaction create a valuable cultural exchange between you and your host community. Your visit really counts in a remote, beautiful and unknown Balkan destination which is still suffering from decades of impoverishment caused by urban migration and the 1990s Yugoslavian war.
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