Balkans on a Time Budget
You no longer need a whole 18 days to join in on our Balkans Tour that goes all the
way from Dubrovnik to Istanbul in 2024!
We’ve broken it into 2 terrific tours within a tour for our AVID riders to enjoy.
You can now opt to join us for just 6 days from Dubrovnik to Ohrid (the tougher section), or 11 days from Ohrid to Istanbul.
Lake Ohrid in North Macedonia is the ideal place to start or end your ride (or
have as a rest day if you are joining us for the duration). The airport is well
serviced by the major airlines and the town itself sits in a beautiful location on the Lake itself.
New 6-day tour in the Balkans!
For the 'time poor' of you let me give you a taster of our 6 day tour.
Arriving at the airport in Dubrovnik the nearby Cavtat makes
an ideal seaside start to our journey.
If you are not TOO time poor do try to arrive a few days before to acclimatise,
swim a little and take a trip to the spectacular world heritage town of
Dubrovnik.
To summarise:
- we ride south out of Croatia into Montenegro
- hit the forested hills after a seaside lunch and marvel at Kotor Bay
- climb the Serpentine
- descend into the Capital of Podgorica,
- ride the beautiful Cvenji valley
- cross the mountains of Northern Albania and
- finish with a spectacular ride through the hills across the border into North Macedonia and south to the stunning Lake Ohrid.
It’s a tough ride over 6 days but one well worth the challenge.
Cycling Day One
We ride down (or rather up a bit 😉)
to the southernmost border crossing of Croatia leaving the European Union to
enter Montenegro on a welcome downhill to lunch in Herceg Novi.
Cycling Day Two
The world famous Serpentine climb: 81k today with a whopping 1,682 metres of climbing fairly front-loaded.
This is a Spectacular ride from Dubrovnik into the Black mountains of Montenegro taking in the world famous Serpentine climb with its unbeatable view of Kotor Bay followed by a dynamite downhill into its not-so-famous capital city of Podgorica ;)
Cycling Day Three
An easier day at 70k with 650m of climbing. From Podgorica we head along the Cijevna River valley across the border into Albania at the recently opened crossing and go along the east side of Lake Skadar to Shkoder. Our accommodation is slightly further west of the town and there's an almighty kick of a climb for 500 metres but the view from our hotel is well worth the effort. This bicycle retired at the top of the climb!
Cycling Day Four
This is our toughest day in the saddle with 150 kilometres to cover and 3000 metres of climbing. We travel east across the north of Albania to Kukes on a fairly remote ride. You'll need to dig deep.
Cycling Day Five
We go directly south from Kukes on a 90 kilometre day that involves 2,276 metres of climbing into Maquellare, a tiny town that sits close to the North Maedonian border.
Cycling Day Six
The final day's ride of 78k and 908m of climbing takes us across the border into North Macedonia and all the way to Ohrid along the valley following the Debar Lake river and Crn Drim into Struga where you can jump in the water with the kids on this natural 'lazy river' to celebrate your achievement!
When you waken up the morning after your last day in the saddle take a walk up the hill behind the Old Town walls in Ohrid to enjoy your morning coffee and croissant overlooking the splendid Lake Ohrid.
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