High Scardus Trail

Albania - Kosovo - North Macedonia

Year Length Trails
2016 - 2021
259 + 378 km
17 main + 30 side
“The trail has opened minds and borders, it is a tribute to the vision and energy of cooperating governments, municipalities, and local tourism stakeholders.”
Bill Clinton | WTTC
Tourism of Tomorrow Awards 2014

An award-winning 1 92 km long cross-border route that links rural
communities in Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro and preserves their natural, cultural and
spiritual heritage. Winner of the World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) Tourism of
Tomorrow award.

Our Contributions

  • 2016-2019: Endrit Shima was engaged by GIZ SEDRA as national expert of Albania for the project.
  • 2020-2021: Ricardo Fahrig assessed the complete trail for a report and action plan in 2020 and implementation of changes in 2021.
  • 2020: Ina Havaraj trained in conjunction with a tour leader of Zbulo! Discover Albania local guides in Diber.
  • 2020: Sokol, Endrit and Ricardo trained hosts from Albania and Kosovo.

Trails

Identification, assessment and selection of 189 km of trails in Albania. ● Assessment of the complete route, including Kosovo and North Macedonia, for a report and action plan in 2020.

Signalizations

Marking and signposting of the selected routes according to the latest standards.
● Cleaning and ground work of trails near Peshkopi.

Map

Creation of six topographic maps inclusive of descriptions of the main trails.

Training

● Trained 12 hosts in 8 communities of Albania and 17 from Kosovo on gastronomy, hospitality and COVID measures. ● Training 10 local guides from Albania's Diber region. ● Trained 15 guides in trail marking and signalization work.

Marketing

● Creation and management of highscardustrail.com
Hosted 2 mountain biking FAM trips for the press. Hosted the Rother guidebook authors who included the HST in their Albania edition.
● Hosted ZDF (German TV station) film crew.

  • Zbulo! Discover Albania

Resources

Maps and Guides

Mountainbiking the High Scardus Trail

Less time at hand, watch only the trailer (71s)

Recent Projects