Geographic · The Balkans
The Most Beautiful Places in the Balkans
10 places · every one real, mapped, and worth the trip
The Balkan Peninsula runs from the Julian Alps to the Aegean, and its nature is just as varied: terraced waterfall lakes, island sea caves, monasteries on rock pinnacles, deep gorges, and one of Europe's great river deltas. This is our editors' pick of the most beautiful natural places across Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, and Romania.
It isn't a strict ranking. Each is a real, mapped place with an honest note on how to reach it and the season that shows it best — from the green, waterfall-full days of spring to the warm island summers of the south.
-
Plitvice Lakes Waterfall lakes
Lika, central Croatia
Croatia's UNESCO chain of sixteen terraced turquoise lakes linked by tumbling waterfalls and boardwalks through the forest.
-
Krka National Park
Šibenik-Knin County, Dalmatia, Croatia
Croatia's river park of wide travertine waterfalls, gentler and warmer than Plitvice and close to the Dalmatian coast.
-
Lake Bled The island lake
Upper Carniola, Slovenia
Slovenia's postcard alpine lake with a church on a tiny island and a cliff-top castle under the Julian Alps.
-
Blue Cave of Biševo
Biševo island, off Vis, Dalmatia, Croatia
A sea cave off the Croatian island of Biševo that glows an electric blue when midday light enters through an underwater opening.
-
Kornati Islands
Šibenik-Knin / Zadar County, Adriatic Sea, Croatia
A bare, dazzling Croatian archipelago of nearly ninety islands and reefs, a sailor's maze in the clear Adriatic.
-
Meteora Monasteries in the air
Thessaly, central Greece
Greek monasteries perched on towering sandstone pinnacles rising sheer from the Thessalian plain.
-
Vikos Gorge
Zagori, Pindus Mountains, Epirus, Greece
One of the world's deepest gorges for its width, cut through the Pindus mountains of northern Greece above stone villages.
-
Samaria Gorge
White Mountains, Chania, Crete, Greece
A long, dramatic gorge on Crete descending through cliffs and pines to the Libyan Sea, one of Europe's great gorge hikes.
-
Făgăraș Mountains & the Transfăgărășan Mountain road
Southern Carpathians, central Romania
A spectacular Romanian mountain highway switchbacking over the Făgăraș range past glacial lakes and cliffs.
-
The Danube Delta
Where the Danube meets the Black Sea, eastern Romania
Europe's largest and best-preserved river delta, a Romanian maze of reed channels and lakes teeming with birds.
Timing shifts with latitude here: spring (roughly April–June) fills the Croatian and Romanian waterfalls and greens the forests, while summer (June–September) is the season for the Adriatic and Aegean islands and the high mountain road. Each guide notes the season and how to reach it.
Added