Montenegro

Montenegro packs coast, karst and high mountains into a small country, and its lakes follow the same pattern.

Lake Skadar, shared with Albania, is the largest lake in the Balkans: a national park of reed beds, water lilies and island monasteries, visited by boat from Virpazar and Rijeka Crnojevića, and known for its birds, Dalmatian pelicans among them.

In the north, the glacial lakes of Durmitor, Black Lake near Žabljak the best known, and Biogradsko jezero in one of Europe's last primeval forests are short walks from the road; Plav and the Prokletije mountains add more on the border with Albania. The mountain lakes are at their best from June to September.