At Undiscovered Montenegro, responsible tourism has been the backbone of our business since we started up in 2008. As the first tour operator in the country dedicated 100% to ‘sustainable travel’, our focus has always been creating small group adventures over longer stays, offering activities which are low impact on the environment – like hiking and kayaking – but high impact in experience and cultural connection!

Montenegro’s stunning national parks are fragile and endangered treasures in a country which is developing faster than it can legislate to protect its natural assets. Together with you, our guests, we are able to pioneer a better way of doing tourism, boosting rural economies through ‘slow travel’, spending days not hours in a single destination, and encouraging local people towards more sustainable tourism practices which are low or no carbon, support nature and tradition and celebrate locally-made food and products such as wine and honey. As such, we are proud to be the founder member of the Responsible Travel movement in Montenegro, as well as members of Adventure Travel Trade Association and National Geographic’s Western Balkans Geotourism project.

Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency: In January 2020, we joined leaders in our industry in signing a declaration of a climate emergency and committing to five actions to work towards carbon neutral tourism. Scroll down to read more about Tourism Declares and our climate actions.

Our Responsible Business Pledge: Undiscovered Montenegro is committed to operating high quality adventures which minimise the environmental and social impacts of our guests, while actively supporting local conservation, tradition, culture and people. It is up to us to lead by example, demonstrating that a responsible travel model makes good business sense, creates better experiences for tourists and locals and offers a sustainable future for tourism in national parks across the Balkans.

Book to Give Back – every booking sparks a donation to our chosen local environmental and community causes!


OUR ACTIONS

Supporting pelican conservation
The rare Dalmatian Pelican is the emblem of Lake Skadar National Park, where we began our business, but it is a bird in peril. We donate a proportion of our company profits each year to help its vulnerable colony flourish, which means every tour booked with us helps the pelicans. Our funds have already helped the Skadar Lake Dalmatian Pelican Conservation Project to conduct essential repairs to artificial nesting rafts ahead of the 2018 and 2019 breeding seasons and complete a project to replace old solar units for video monitoring. Read more here.

 

 

Save Skadar Lake campaign
As part of the Save Skadar Lake campaign, we helped publicise and promote a petition and social media campaign to fight the construction of two large luxury resorts in an untouched area of Skadar Lake National Park. As a result of this campaign, in December 2019, the Bern Convention, Europe’s nature watchdog opened a case file to ensure that instead of building, the site concerned is conserved as a top level nature protection zone. For now, the diggers are halted and Lake Skadar, a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance and candidate ‘Emerald’ site for Europe, is protected for its wildlife and future generations. Read more here.

 

 

Climate emergency
In January 2020 we signed an industry-wide declaration of a climate emergency, TourismDeclares, and committed to five positive actions: (1) Develop a ‘Climate Emergency Plan’, (2) Share commitment and progress publicly, (3) Cut carbon emissions, (4) Work together with our industry, and (5) Advocate for change. Some of this we had already been doing – proactively encouraging train travel and offering low or no carbon activities like hiking and kayaking, longer stays, locally-sourced food and reducing carbon emissions at our accommodation with LED lights, fans instead of AC, harvested rainwater and providing a zero-mile breakfast basket. Recognising that most will still fly, we decided in late 2019 to include a carbon offset per person in all our holidays (our donations are based on the emissions produced flying UK to Montenegro – roughly £4.50 per person). This means we can support some great carbon-cutting projects through ClimateCare, global experts in this field. We also encourage our guests to go one step further and make their trip carbon positive with a further donation.

 

Local area clean-ups
Each year we arrange & support regular clean-ups in our local area, Virpazar – we even campaigned for and succeeded in getting the first ever waste bins and collection services for some of our local villages back in 2016! In 2019, together with friends, we decided to spread our desire for a clean Montenegro nationwide, co-founding OcistiME! (CleanME!), a movement to inspire citizen and government action. Through social media like Facebook, we report on and celebrate the citizen heroes arranging clean-ups and we’ve also launched a petition to ban single use plastic bags in Montenegro and do more – please sign it!

Our petition – http://bit.ly/plasticbagbanMNE

 

Filtered water bottles
We have always been committed to minimising the negative environmental impact of our guests, who often buy bottled water as a safe drinking source, so when we heard about LifeStraw’s refillable water bottles with a filter inside, we had to order some to try. This portable bottle removes 99.99% of waterborne bacteria and parasites, even from a puddle – an essential for any traveller and now on our list of what to bring for guests and part of our kit for tour guides. In fact, we are such fans of LifeStraw’s products, which can revolutionise lives in places without safe drinking water, that our founder Ben arranged to bring two of their larger filters by kayak to the nuns and monks of two remote island monasteries on Lake Skadar. Read more about LifeStraw water bottles here.

 

Supporting the community
When tourism involves the community, everyone benefits. Unlike many tour operators who are focused on profit for themselves, we are committed to boosting local economies where we run tours. ‘Going local’ is how we achieve this: employing and training local guides, choosing local partners for accommodation and tours who are small and often family-run, encouraging ‘slow travel’ so guests stay days, not hours, in a single destination and by taking our guests to local homes to dine, taste and buy locally-made honey, wine and other domestic produce. The benefits are not just economic but cultural too, fostering pride and value in maintaining local traditions – from bee-keeping and carp or ham-smoking, to wine-making, fishing and cottage farming. We also provide guests with a Travellers’ Code of Conduct.

 

Boosting the Lake Skadar micro tourism economy
The National Park of Lake Skadar, our base of operations, is a special place which has mostly escaped the touch of time. This includes knowledge of the internet and digital marketing among many of the people who live on its shores and hilly hinterland – what a delight for those tired of the digital age, but a barrier for local entrepreneurs keen and able to provide good services for tourists! Noticing this, we decided to create and maintain our own free-of-charge online listings portal for our local friends, the entrepreneurs behind some excellent privately-owned accommodations and boat tours for tourists. www.lake-skadar.com is included in the Lonely Planet Guide to Montenegro and we welcome local businesses who comply with legal requirements to contact us for inclusion – tours@lake-skadar.com.

 

Tara Kayak Fest
For two consecutive years now we have provided sponsorship for Kayak Fest Tara, an fun, nature-based event which aims to raise environmental awareness & protect wild rivers in Montenegro. In 2018, the festival helped bring together activists from across the region for the Montenegrin leg of the Balkan River Defence. In 2019, we helped make transportation possible for an eco-run, cleaning the Tara river by kayaker power! This inspiring gathering of music, culture and paddling is organised by our amazing guide, Gigo, who when he is less busy also runs our kayaking holidays across Lake Skadar and into Albania!

 

 

An eco-friendly Villa Miela
A lot of accommodations get called ‘eco’ in Montenegro, but without the owners knowing what this really means. Our Lake Skadar activity base, Villa Miela, is an accommodation which genuinely respects the environment. With metre-thick stone walls (the traditional Mediterranean way of keeping cool), air-conditioning isn’t needed: instead, electric fans are available for occasional use. To keep emissions down, guests are asked to turn off all electric fans/lights on leaving the room. We are off-grid for water, with our reservoir fed by mountain-spring and harvested rain water. The soaps in our guest bathrooms are handmade using locally produced olive oil, our gorgeous bed covers are handmade supporting traditional weavers, all light bulbs are energy-saving LED, we use ‘eco’ cleaning products and take all our guests’ recyclable waste to our closest recycling centre. Guests are provided with bicycles to avoid needing a car.

 

 

Zero Waste Montenegro
As a developing country, Montenegro is doing its best but still has some way to go when it comes to waste management and awareness levels on recycling and reducing disposable plastics. As such, we are proud to be sponsors of a new and much-needed campaign called Zero Waste Montenegro. Current projects include campaigning for a ban on plastic bags, raising awareness of recycling centres and bringing to market the first reusable bags made of recycled materials for Montenegrin consumers. Read more here.

Holidays

Man enjoying Multi activity holiday swimming in a crystal clear, bright blue rock pool near Lake Skadar
£200pp off!

7 Day Activity Holiday at Lake Skadar

Our original adventure loved by everyone! Kayaking, hiking & wild-swimming...
Single centre
Moderate
£50pp off!

7 Day Kayak & Bushcraft: Lake Skadar, Montenegro

Paddle closer to nature on this unique kayak & camp
Multi-centre
Moderate-Challenging
Happy family laughing as they walk through an isolated waterfall we have found on our guided tours.

7 Day Family Adventure Holiday in Montenegro

A multi-active summer adventure for families with super-active younger children!
Multi-centre
Moderate-Challenging

7 Day Birdwatching Holiday in Montenegro

Enjoy an incredible week bird-watching in Montenegro's untamed nature!
Two centre
Gentle