Drelaj, the Rugova village with a lake to its name

Drelaj is one of those names you first notice on a walking map and only later realise is also a village. It sits high in Rugova, inside the national park, and if I had to pick one corner of the Peja mountains for a whole day without the car, it would be this.

A small village inside the park

Drelaj is part of Peja municipality, Pejë to Albanian speakers and Peć in Serbian. Law 04/L-086 of 2012 created Bjeshkët e Nemuna National Park, 62,488 hectares spread over five municipalities, which British maps usually label the Accursed Mountains, and the village falls inside it. ASK counted 210 people here in 2024, against 74 in 2011, the same kind of rise you see in other Rugova villages.

You get there along the Rugova Canyon road, in daylight, because the FCDO advises against night driving in Kosovo.

Drelaj lake and Liqenat lake

My source for the lakes is pejatourism.org, a local tourism site with no named owner, so I treat it as secondary. It describes Rugova’s two lakes above 1,800 m. The larger is Liqenat, at about 1,860 m, roughly 40 by 60 m and up to 7 m deep. The smaller is Drelaj, at about 1,800 m, filled by rain and snow, and the website recommends seeing it in spring, when it holds most water. If that suits your dates, I cover the whole season in Kosovo in spring.

The walk starts in the Kuqishtë area, at about 1,680 m, and in around two hours of easy climbing you reach the lakes. On the way you pass pine woods and, in season, bilberries and blackberries. For the rest of Kosovo’s water, from reservoirs to mountain tarns, see my page on Kosovo’s lakes.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Rugova before prices climb.

Climbing next to the village

What few visitors know is that Drelaj has rock. Peja’s tourism website describes two sectors. The first is in the village itself, on the path to Pepaj, with routes of 10 to 30 m graded 6 to 7b+. The second, about 20 minutes’ walk towards Koshutan in the gorge known as Gerla e Koshutanit, goes up to 7c+ on routes of 10 to 20 m.

If you climb, I think it beats the canyon sectors in high August, because you are higher up and there are fewer people. If you do not, watching from below has its own appeal.

Before you go

You are in high mountains inside a national park. The FCDO warns of old landmines in the border areas between Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro and asks you to keep to main routes; the lakes path is not one of those areas, but I would not improvise shortcuts. No official source lists services or shops, so take water and food, and remember that your GHIC is not valid in Kosovo, so travel insurance that covers mountain walking is worth having. To sleep nearby, see guesthouses in Rugova.

If you would rather have a local show you round, book a guided tour in Rugova and choose by the reviews.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Rugova before prices climb.