Ever considered hiking the Peaks of the Balkans (POTB)? Read what our past guest Simon and his hiking group YOLO thought. In July 2024, they embarked on our week-long Montenegro to Albania hiking adventure, which includes a snippet of the POTB trail. Here’s how they got on.
British hiker Simon Crowther first laid eyes on the Balkans in 1997 when he was deployed in Bosnia and Herzegovina under NATO following the Bosnian War. Even then, in the aftermath of the devastation, he was in awe of the astounding natural splendor in the Balkans and vowed to come back. ‘I saw a heck of a lot of the country and it really blew me away just how stunningly beautiful it was,’ he says.
20 years later, he started holidaying with his family in Croatia, combining relaxing on the beach with mini road trips to Bosnia and Montenegro. The more he saw, the more he wanted to see (yep, we get that). And last year, he convinced his hiking group – YOLO – to pay a visit.
YOLO (great name btw, guys) is a Northwest England-based walking group born from a men’s boxing club. It’s been going for almost 15 years and now has around 200 members, both male and female, of all ages and backgrounds.
Throughout the year, the group gets together for hikes in Snowdonia, the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District, and they also organise an annual overseas expedition. Past trips include Basecamp Everest in Nepal, Mount Tucolin in Morocco, and Spain’s Sierra Nevada.
Why the Balkans?
‘It was a bit of a competition between me and Kevin [one of the YOLO founders]. Kevin wanted to go around Mont Blanc. There’s a hike around the foothills… and I thought that was a bit pedestrian, a bit boring. I wanted to go somewhere a bit more off the beaten track,’ says Simon.
‘These places [in the Balkans] are so wild and so unsurpassed. You know, these are places where there are still wolves, there are still bears, there are still golden eagles. and it really is just amazing. You just don’t get that anywhere else in Europe because it’s so overdeveloped – even in so-called “wild places.”’
‘…these are places where there are still wolves, there are still bears, there are still golden eagles.‘
DIY or guided expedition?
Having won the vote, Simon started planning the group’s next big adventure. Being ex-military, he’s no stranger to a map and compass. ‘I usually plan and lead a lot of routes myself and I like doing that. I like exploring, I like map and compass work, I like going to places where I’ve never been, in the middle of nowhere, finding my own way and navigating.’
But others thought it would be good to have somebody with more local knowledge at the helm. Enter: Dino and Pavlin, two of UB’s awesome adventure guides.
‘Undiscovered Balkans set up a fantastic package for us. We went to Montenegro, did a couple of walks around there, and then we did a two-day trek from Montenegro to Albania. We hiked over the mountain passes, dropped down into Theth, and then from Theth up over another mountain pass to Valbona, and then back down to Skodër, which is the town in Albania on the edge of Lake Shkodra.’
‘Dino was our guide in Montenegro and Pav was our guide in Albania. They both absolutely love the outdoors. So they’re very, very into ecotourism,’ says Simon. ‘They’ll talk about geology, they’ll talk about how things were made, they’ll talk about where they’re from, but they’ll also talk about the history and culture. And that was fascinating. I love that sort of stuff.’
And actually, there was something nice about letting somebody else take the reins, he says. ‘There’s probably a core of four or five us who do a lot of the navigation stuff. And it was really nice to be able to switch off and just enjoy the moment and just enjoy having no responsibility. I didn’t have to worry about people, I didn’t have to worry about where we were going.’
Other than Dino and Pav leading the hikes, what else did you enjoy about having local guides?
‘You learn about traditions, you learn about culture, you learn about what people really think about things, you learn about the places you wouldn’t have found otherwise,’ says Simon.
‘So for example, Pav took us to Mrizi i Zanave, a sustainable farm [in Albania] which is actually located on one of Enver Hoxha’s ex-concentration camps… It’s one of the pioneers of the slow food movement, where everything is grown on site and made on site. And that was just amazing. We would have never found that if it wasn’t for a local guide. And that was some of the best food I’ve ever had anywhere in the world!’
‘We would have never found that if it wasn’t for a local guide. And that was some of the best food I’ve ever had anywhere in the world!’
‘I’ve been to Montenegro before, never been to Albania. And it blew me away. You know, it blew everybody away.’
‘What I found was some of the most hospitable people I’ve ever met who are genuinely welcoming, who loved their country, who wanted to show you things, it was not at all “rough and ready,” where people really wanted to make it better. And it’s stunningly beautiful at the same time.’
So, where to next?
Simon clearly has the Balkans travel bug and wants to explore more of the region. Next on his list is Slovenia.
We’re so thrilled to have had you and the group, Simon. We hope to see you back soon for another Balkan adventure!
Watch YOLO’s hiking trip on their YouTube channel and book our Montenegro to Albania cross-border hiking holiday for yourself.
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