Things to Do in Sutjeska National Park

You'll smell Sutjeska National Park before you see it - pine resin drifts down from Maglić's shadow in the morning, mixing with the damp earth of Europe's last primeval forest. The Perucica beech trees creak like old floorboards, and somewhere in that 1,400-hectare tangle you'll hear the dull roar of Skakavac waterfall long before the 75-metre ribbon comes into view. Even in July the air carries a bite when you cross the wooden bridge at Tjentiste; locals say it's the mountain's way of reminding you this isn't the Mediterranean coast. Dawn starts with a copper glow on Volujak's ridge, then the valley fills with birdsong so loud it drowns out the Drina's rush. By dusk you're tasting wood-smoke from the barbecue grills outside the park huts, and if you're lucky someone's passing around rakija that burns sweet then savage, the way these peaks do.

Food inside Sutjeska National Park is whatever you carry plus whatever the huts grill. At Tjentiste the roadside Vrelo café serves skillet-caught trout that arrives head-on and sizzling with garlic you can smell from the deck chairs. Up the valley, Hotel Mladost does a hearty pasulj bean soup that tastes of smoke because they cook it in the same outdoor cauldron used for pig roast Sundays. For a splurge, the managers at Gornje Bare will slaughter a lamb if you preorder; you eat it with fingers while sitting on stumps, wiping grease on meadow grass. Bring cash - none of the mountain huts take cards and the nearest ATM is back in Foca next to the mosque.

Late May gives you wild peonies under snow-dusted peaks and river levels high enough for decent rafting, but you'll likely share the trails only with Serbian school groups. July turns the valley into a giant barbecue scented with pine smoke, though afternoon thunder often rolls in to drum on tin roofs. September is the local favourite: blueberries ripen on the lower slopes, mornings are crisp enough to see your breath, and the beeches start their slow burn into copper and rust. Winter locks the high trails and most huts shut, but if you snowshoe in you'll have the memorial plaza echoing under fresh powder all to yourself.