I did a solo 4-day peak of the Balkan hike over the weekend and had a brilliant time. I wanted to share my experiences in case it helps anyone else as I found it a bit confusing when researching.
My route was Theth -> Valbona -> Cerem -> Vusanje -> Theth
Day 1 - Bus journey Skoder to Theth, stayed at Guest House Rrashkadoli
All buses leave at 6.30-7AM. This means you should get to Theth around 9.30. It'd be possible to do the Theth to Valbona hike the first day if you'd like to but instead I rested. I'd really recommend the guesthouse I stayed at (Guest House Rrashkadoli). They have private rooms and 1 dorm room with 5 beds. Breakfast is included and there is an a la carte menu for dinner / lunch.
Day 2 - Theth to Valbone, stayed at Guesthouse Mehmeti
After a hearty breakfast I started on the trail early. It took a few hours to the 'summit' but was more difficult than I expected, although I've not hiked since September last year. This day is really busy with significantly more people on the trail than the other 3 days. The views from the top are spectacular but it was really crowed with people as those from Theth and Valbona both hit it at the same time. My guesthouse in Valbona was nice but an extra few KMs from the trailhead along a fairly flat asphalt road. You could potentially organise a pick up from the guesthouse but it wasn't cheap. The good thing for this trip was you're staying on trail to hike to Cerem so you're not going off route.
Day 3 - Valbona to Cerem, stayed at Guesthouse Kujtim Gocaj Çerem
Day 3 begins with a choice, either to take the high route to Cerem or the low route on the asphalt road. I picked the low route as I was hiking alone and couldn't find a .kml of the upper route and was also told a part of the route is the same as what I would hike the next day to Vusanje. The first part was down the main road however there was not too many cars and still had decent views of the surrounding peaks. Second half was up the access road to Cerem which is not great surfact but also only 3 cars passed in a couple of hours. I stayed the night in Guesthouse Mehmeti, which had really friendly hosts. They were not on Booking so had to message them on Facebook.
Day 4 - Çerem to Vusanje, stayed at Guesthouse Lola
I was a little concerned about this day as it's not on the main Peaks of the Balkans route but it was really well marked. I downloaded the Wikloc kml file on Maps.me just in case. The hike was a relatively easy one, up through the forests and across the border into Montengero. Beautiful valley views when entering Montengero before descending down into Valbone. I stayed at Guesthouse Lola which was nice, but 2km off trail down into the valley.
Day 5 - Vusanje to Theth, stayed at Guest House Rrashkadoli
The longest day of the hike but my favourite. So many beautiful meadows and not too steep a climb but did cover 22km+ this day. Great views from the top at Peja pass. Careful when descending into Theth at the beginning as it is steep, with mostly gravel and it was windy but spectacular day of hiking.
Notes:
- Trails are really well marked overall but was happy to have a Maps.me version just in case
- I booked my border permits with zbulo.org - I left it late (decided on Wednesday, left on Saturday) but they were sorted. I messaged a couple of the other border permit people and they didn't get back to me
- Bottled water wasn't avaiable after Valbone but had no problems drinking the mountain tap water
- Little snow at the beginning of June. Lucky with 4 sunny days however was told by an Estonian group that the year before there was heavy snow at the same time so be careful
- The villages of Valbona and Theth are really spread out, check the location of where you book your guesthouse against the trail head unless you want to walk an extra few KMs away from the trail potentially up hill
- The Valbona to Theth day was by far the busiest, on the other days I saw 10-15 people a day
All in all it was an awesome hike - felt very safe but also had plenty of moments of solitude as well. The hospitality and friendliness of the people along the way was awesome. If anyone has any doubts happy to answer any questions but overall very much recommended.