VIRPAZAR AND THE SHKODRA LAKE – EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

MONTENEGRO TRAVEL GUIDE

Virpazar is a small town on the edge of the Shkodra Lake (also known as Lake Skadar). This area is a real gem of Montenegro and one I would highly recommend visiting. In general, Montenegro is such an underrated country but I predict this will soon change. In this guide, we’re going to tell you everything you need to know about Virpazar and the Shkodra Lake. Grab yourself a drink and let’s dive in!

We visited Montenegro as a family in April 2024, our boys were 4 and 14 months old at the time. We spent two weeks exploring this amazing country.

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HOW TO GET TO VIRPAZAR AND THE SHKODRA LAKE

Virpazar has a train station however public transport in Montenegro is not the best. You would also, most likely, need to take a taxi to your accommodation. Living in the city, we usually always take public transport however, in Montenegro, we hired a car to explore properly.

We searched for the best deals on RentalCars.com, on this trip we used Enterprize.

Virpazar was our second stop in our two-week itinerary. We drove here from Tivat (stopping at Budva en route). In total, the drive was about 3 hours and totally worth it.

WHERE TO STAY

I would recommend staying as close to the town of Vipazar as possible. The town is just one street but it has a couple of hotels and holiday rentals centrally.

We stayed in an Airbnb. It was less than a five-minute drive away but it wasn’t walkable due to a steep hill on a main road with no pavement.

HOW LONG TO STAY FOR

We stayed for 3 nights and this felt like plenty of time. Realistically, you could do everything in one day but we made a conscious decision that we didn’t want to be rushing on this trip. If hiking is your thing, you might want extra time here, I’ll talk more about that below.

WHERE TO EAT

The only places to eat are on the main street in Virpazar. There were a few restaurants, all with very similar menus. We ate at a few of the restaurants and none of them were amazing but eating at a ‘pirate shop’ was novel and the kids really enjoyed it.

All the restaurants are cash only so make sure to take some Euros.

There is also a small grocery store in Virpazar which has most of the essentials you might need.

WHAT TO DO IN VIRPAZAR AND THE SHKODRA LAKE

1. TAKE A BOAT TRIP

Sailing out onto the lake is a must-do when you’re in this area. Many boat tours operate on the Shkodra Lake (Lake Skadar). We used the company recommended by our Airbnb hosts and it was incredible. I’d definitely recommend you check them out. The tour we did is linked HERE.

This tour was great value for money and even included a glass of wine! We loved it so much, that I wanted to dedicate a full blog post to it.

READ ABOUT THE BEST BOAT TOUR ON LAKE SKADAR HERE!

2. SEE THE BREATHTAKING VIEW OF THE LAKE

The Pavlova Strana Viewpoint (and the drive to it) offers the best view of the lake. The drive is about 45 minutes from Virpazar, after so much fun on the boat trip, both kids were exhausted so we timed this drive for nap time.

3. HIKING

There are lots of hikes you can do from around Virpazar. So many blogs I read recommended starting at the small town of Dupalo and hiking to the waterfall and beautiful blue pool it falls into. The only problem? None of them tells you how to get to Dupalo or find the waterfall.

I’m going to be completely honest. The reason they don’t tell you is because it’s extremely difficult. Opposite the turning into Virpazar is another road which heads into the mountains. After a few minutes, there is a very small sign to Dupalo and you then follow this winding road for around 15 minutes. We eventually found the start of the trail and from there it was easy to follow these markings for the route.

Hiking Trail in Virpazar — At this sign, go left.

It was not an easy hike as we’d been led to believe. The hike ended up being a loop and took us around 3 hours to complete. We didn’t find the waterfall but we did find the bridge that was supposedly right next to it.

I’ll happily admit, I’m a city girl, and hiking isn’t really my thing. Unless you’re really into hiking, I would give this one a miss! Or book on to a guided tour such as this one LINKED HERE.