Guide
The best driving roads in the Balkans
The Balkans hold some of Europe’s last quiet driving. Limestone canyons, Adriatic corniches and switchback passes through the Dinaric mountains, most of them empty and barely known beyond the region. These are the finest we have mapped, from the Tara and Piva canyons of Montenegro to Croatia’s Učka pass and the karst roads of Pag, each one taken from real road geometry and fact-checked.
Vršič Pass13 mi · 31 min · 36 hairpinsView the roadbook ›
Summit
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1
1,626 msummit
Vršič Pass
Slovenia’s finest, and a gem most drivers never find. The Vršič Pass tops out at 1,611 m, the highest in the country, on a relentless stack of fifty numbered hairpins, many of them still cobbled with the original setts laid by Russian prisoners in the First World War. That cobbled surface is the signature: it forces you to slow, to feel the history under the tyres, to take the Julian Alps at their own pace. Between Kranjska Gora and the emerald Soča valley, it is spectacular and demanding in equal measure. Mind the cobbles in the wet, give way to the cyclists and coaches, and savour one of Europe’s most characterful climbs.
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2
940 msummitKotor Serpentine
Sea-level hairpin wall climbing high above the Bay of Kotor.
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3
1,923 msummitMangart Saddle Road
An engineering obsession, and Slovenia’s highest road. Branching off the Predel pass, the Mangart road claws toward the saddle below Mangart peak at about 2,055 m, gaining close to 1,000 m in under twelve kilometres through five tunnels cut raw into the rock and a relentless stack of serpentines. It is a dead-end built purely to get drivers high into the Julian Alps, and it delivers a view worth every hairpin. Mind the narrow rock tunnels, the tight bends and the altitude weather. The Balkans hide dozens of roads like this, high and empty and barely known, and Mangart is the one to start with.
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4
1,726 msummitBiokovo Road
Croatia’s highest road, and its most vertiginous. The Biokovska cesta climbs from the park gate above Makarska to the summit of Sveti Jure at around 1,762 m, a single narrow asphalt lane threaded through roughly twenty-seven switchbacks, the Adriatic dropping away below almost the entire way up. Halfway, the glass Biokovo Skywalk juts out over the void. This is the Dalmatian coast seen from directly above, the islands laid out on a blue sea a mile beneath your wheels. It is single-track and serious, so mind the oncoming cars and the sheer edges, and time it for a clear day when the whole Adriatic opens up.
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5
1,698 msummitTheth Alpine Road
The road that opened the Albanian Alps. For years Theth was reachable only by a rough track; now the SH21 climbs from lowland Koplik through wild karst to the 1,691 m Thorë Pass and drops into the glacier-carved bowl of Theth, ringed by vertical rock walls. It is fifty-six kilometres of genuine frontier driving, narrow and winding with real gorge exposure, into one of the last corners of Europe to get a paved road at all. This is the Balkans' great adventure drive: remote, raw and improving year on year. Go while it still feels like a discovery, and mind the drops on the descent.
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6
1,694 msummitBeklemeto Pass
History and hairpins on the same tarmac. Road 35 climbs from Troyan up the Osam valley in a long series of tight bends at around 11 per cent to the Beklemeto saddle at 1,525 m, following the line of the ancient Roman Via Traiana across the Balkan range. At the top a concrete Arch of Freedom monument marks the watershed, with broad views and a ski resort. Bulgaria’s mountains are among the most underrated driving country in Europe, empty and green and cheap, and Beklemeto is their most dramatic pass. Drive it up from Troyan for the full stack of thirty-odd bends, and enjoy having the road to yourself.
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7
1,597 msummitGaličica Pass
The road between two lakes, and one of the Balkans' great secrets. The Galičica pass climbs from the fishing village of Trpejca on Lake Ohrid through twenty hairpins up the limestone spine of the national park, eases across a high karst plateau to the Livada pass at 1,599 m where both Lake Ohrid and Lake Prespa lie spread out below at once, then drops to Prespa on the far side. That twin-lake summit view is unlike anything else in Europe. North Macedonia barely registers on the driving map, which is exactly its appeal: paved, narrow, empty roads through spectacular country. Go before the rest of the world notices.
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8
1,567 msummitTrešnjevik Pass
Deep Montenegro, the country beyond the tourist trail. The M-9 climbs from the Lim valley at Andrijevica through dense forest and open alpine terrain to the Trešnjevik saddle, where the jagged three-peak silhouette of the Komovi range unfolds on the northern side, some of the most striking mountains in the Balkans. The road is fully paved but narrow throughout, with sustained climbing and little traffic. This is the quiet interior that Durmitor’s crowds never reach, a reminder that Montenegro packs more great driving per square mile than almost anywhere in Europe. Take it slowly, stop for the Komovi view, and enjoy the solitude.
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9
1,459 msummitTara Canyon to Žabljak
The gateway drive to Durmitor, and a piece of engineering theatre in its own right. The M-6 climbs from the Đurđevića Tara bridge, a graceful concrete arch that carries the road 172 m above the Tara river, one of the deepest canyons in Europe, up through forest and highland toward Žabljak. It is the gentler, more touristed approach to Montenegro’s great national park, the warm-up act before Sedlo, but the bridge and the canyon make it a destination of its own. Mind the summer coach traffic and the livestock on the verges, stop for the canyon view, and let it set the tone for the wild country ahead.
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10
1,432 msummitCetinje to Lovćen
History climbing into cloud. The R-25 leaves the old royal capital of Cetinje and winds up into Lovćen National Park toward the mountaintop mausoleum of Njegoš, Montenegro’s poet-prince, perched near the summit of the black mountain that gives the country its name. It gains height fast through limestone and beech forest, narrow and steep with tight passing places. This is a short drive heavy with meaning, the road to the spiritual heart of Montenegro, with the Bay of Kotor and half the Adriatic laid out from the top. Mind the narrow bends and the drops, and climb the mausoleum steps at the end for the view that explains the whole country.
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11
1,322 msummitPavličevo Sedlo Road
Small, quiet and perfectly Slovenian. Regional road 428 climbs out of the Savinja valley over the Pavličevo sedlo at about 1,339 m, a peaceful pass on the Austrian frontier beneath the Kamnik-Savinja Alps, passing the mouth of the famous Logar valley with its 2,000 m walls on the way up. It is only four miles of proper climbing but they are lovely ones, narrow tarmac through alpine meadow with the frontier peaks all around. This is the Slovenia most visitors miss, the green northern valleys where the roads are empty and the scenery is Austrian-grand. Pair it with a walk into the Logar valley and make an afternoon of it.
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12
1,288 msummitSoriška Planina Road
The quiet sibling to Vršič, and all the better for the peace. Road 909 carries you over the Soriška Planina pass at roughly 1,277 m, Slovenia’s second-highest Alpine pass road, from the painters' village of Zgornja Sorica up through a sequence of sharp curves in meadow and forest, opening to wide views toward Triglav and the Bohinj mountains. Where Vršič draws the crowds and the coaches, Soriška draws almost no one, which makes its flowing bends a genuine pleasure. This is the reward for going one valley further than everyone else. Drive it as a loop with Vršič and you have the two best passes in the Julian Alps in a single day.
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13
1,286 msummitShipka Pass
A road soaked in Bulgarian history. The E85 climbs from Gabrovo through the beech and oak of the Bulgarka nature park to the Shipka summit at 1,185 m, site of the 1877 battle that helped free Bulgaria from Ottoman rule, with a spur climbing to the extraordinary flying-saucer wreck of the Buzludzha monument nearby. The driving is gentler than the Balkan norm, long forested curves rather than white-knuckle hairpins, opening onto wide views over the Fore-Balkans and the rose-growing Kazanlak valley. It is the classic introduction to Bulgaria’s underrated mountains: easy, scenic and thick with the past. Take the Buzludzha spur while you are up there.
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14
1,168 msummitPredel Pass
A dramatic Julian Alps border crossing beside emerald Lake Predil and the ruins of Fort Predel.
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15
1,157 msummitRugova Gorge Road
A spectacular canyon drive through one of the Balkans' most dramatic gorges, where granite walls rise 600 m above the river and the road burrows through hand-cut tunnels beneath soaring peaks.
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16
1,070 msummitMorača Canyon Road
Montenegro’s great north road plunges through a perpendicular river gorge to the capital.
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17
1,035 msummitLlogara Pass
Albania’s most dramatic coastal mountain road: a winding climb through Ceraunian pine forest to 1,043 m, then a breathtaking descent with the whole Albanian Riviera laid out below.
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18
966 msummitUčka Poklon Road
The old hairpin road over the Učka massif via Poklon pass, the mountain wall separating Istria from the Kvarner coast, bypassed by the A8 tunnel.
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19
918 msummitGorski Kotar Road
Croatia’s alpine secret: a winding mountain road through bear and lynx country, often likened to Switzerland.
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20
913 msummitSolčava Panoramic Road
Eight kilometres along the ridges above Solčava, highland farm to highland farm, the Logar, Matkov and Robanov valleys laid out below.
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21
893 msummitKokra Valley Road
A sinuous valley road threading the Kokra gorge to an idyllic alpine village beneath the Kamnik-Savinja peaks.
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22
888 msummitPlitvice Pogledalo Pass
The D52 crosses the wooded Lika uplands between Otočac and Korenica, over Pogledalo at around 887 m and straight through Plitvice Lakes National Park.
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23
852 msummitSutjeska National Park Road
The M-20 plunges south-west from Foča into Bosnia’s oldest national park, threading a 1,200-metre-deep canyon between the Zelengora and Maglić massifs.
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24
511 msummitĐerdap Danube Gorge Road
Europe’s longest river gorge runs 100 km along the Serbian Danube from the medieval Golubac Fortress to the Iron Gate dam, the road hugging the river through forested mountains, cliffs towering 300 m where the river narrows to 150 m.
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25
495 msummitSkadar Lake Road
A serpentine lake-perimeter road winding along Skadar Lake’s southern shore near the Albanian border.
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26
412 msummitPelješac Peninsula Road
The spine of a sun-drenched wine peninsula, flanked by limestone ridges and Adriatic blue.
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27
366 msummitAdriatic Highway Velebit Coast
Cliff-carved coastal road below the Velebit slopes.
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28
331 msummitOvčar-Kablar Gorge Road
The West Morava cuts a spectacular 15 km gorge between Ovčar (985 m) and Kablar (889 m), carving three meanders so pronounced the river doubles back on itself, the road threading past a dozen monasteries, the 'Serbian Mount Athos'.
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29
319 msummitNeretva Canyon Road
The M-17 between Konjic and Jablanica carves through one of the Balkans' most spectacular river gorges, following the electric-turquoise Neretva between limestone cliffs.
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168 msummitPag Island Karst Road
Lunar karst spine road from Pag town to Novalja.
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