Canyons and Žabljak Privately: The North Without a Coach

The north of Montenegro is worth seeing, but the coach version wears you out. Up at half past five, collecting tourists all along the coast, forty people on board and twenty minutes at each stop.

The private version of the same route fixes exactly those three things: the guide picks you up at your hotel, the car is yours, and how long you stand at the bridge and the lake is decided on the spot. You pay for the whole group rather than per person: private tours cost from €90. One thing to know before you book: the company runs its private tours, like its coach ones, only with Russian-speaking guides. If Russian is no use to you, the honest alternative is to drive north yourself in a hire car.

The Morača canyon

The first serious stretch. The road runs along a shelf cut into a vertical cliff, with the opposite wall thirty to fifty metres away. The sky stays a narrow strip overhead. This is not a viewpoint — you drive through the canyon, which is exactly why it helps to have someone at the wheel who does this road every week.

On the way is the 13th-century Morača monastery. The church is dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin, and frescoes of the Virgin and Christ survive inside, along with eleven scenes from the life of the prophet Elijah. There is a spring and a shop selling icons and brojanice, the woven Serbian-Montenegrin prayer bracelets.

Off the road, deep in forest, lies Lake Biograd — a glacial lake in one of the few surviving primeval forests in Europe. On a private tour you and the guide decide whether to go there or spend the time elsewhere. On the coach that choice is made for you.

The Tara canyon and Đurđevića bridge

The Tara canyon is the deepest in Europe: up to 1,300 metres deep and about 80 kilometres long; it is often called second only to the Grand Canyon. Durmitor National Park was founded in 1952 and added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1980. The Tara basin has been a biosphere reserve since 1977.

Đurđevića bridge crosses it: five arches, a main span of 116 metres, more than 150 metres above the river. In 1942 the partisans blew up the end arch to halt Italian troops, with help from Lazar Jauković, the engineer who had built the bridge. Three months later, in August 1942, he was captured and shot on the bridge itself. The bridge was rebuilt in 1946.

In autumn 2026 the bridge is closed for reconstruction until 26 October, though it is expected to reopen earlier. Check before you go how this affects the programme.

Ziplines run across the canyon here, paid separately: €10–30, with lines from 350 metres to a kilometre, and a season from mid-April to September. On a coach tour there is often no time for them; on a private one there is.

Žabljak and the Black Lake

Žabljak is considered the highest town in the Balkans, at 1,456 metres. From there it is three kilometres to the Black Lake: two glacial basins joined by a channel, ringed by pine forest.

A path runs around the lake in about an hour. On a coach tour you either race it or skip it, because the timetable will not allow it. That hour is probably the single strongest argument for going privately — it is what people come here for.

What it costs

There is no fixed price per person: the tour is private. As a rough guide, allow from €90 for the whole group. The form shows the guides available on your chosen date and what each charges, and you pick. The amount depends on the guide, the number of people and the vehicle.

Paid separately:

• €5 — national park entry
• from €15 — lunch, optional
• the zipline, optional

The request goes to your chosen guide; once confirmed, a booking link and voucher arrive by email. The exact amount is quoted by the guide who runs the tour.

What you must bring

Warm clothes. It can be twenty-eight degrees on the coast and twelve in Žabljak. That is not an exaggeration, just the usual gap between the sea and mountains a kilometre and a half up.

Comfortable shoes — the Black Lake has a trail, not a promenade. A scarf or sarong to cover shoulders and knees at the monastery. Water, a hat, a camera.

When to go

May to October. The Žabljak road stays open in winter, but by then it is ski season: Lake Biograd and several viewpoints are closed, and the trip loses half its point.

Go on a clear day: in cloud the Tara canyon barely reads, and it is the reason for the whole exercise. With a private guide the date is easier to move. With a coach it is not.

Nearby

The same route as a coach tour with a fixed price is the Tara and Morača canyons.

To travel along the Tara rather than look down at it, there is rafting and the Piva canyon.

All destinations are on the things to do page, and the whole section is under tours in Montenegro.

Prices checked in September 2026.