Lake Skadar · With kids

The park's own exhibition on the causeway between Podgorica and Virpazar, included in the €5 park ticket. It is the easiest way to explain what all the birds are before anyone gets into a boat.

The park rents doubles at €5 an hour or €20 a day, from Virpazar and from the Vranjina visitor centre, so one adult can paddle with a child through the reed channels away from boat traffic.

The national tourism board calls Murići the best beach on the lake; it is on the southern shore about an hour from Virpazar, with warmer, calmer water than the sea. Dodoši and Karuč are the smaller alternatives.

Twelve minutes from Sutomore, about nine services a day, €1.40 second class — and it puts you in the middle of the village rather than in a car park on the edge of it.

There are five ornithological stations around the lake and roughly 280 recorded species, including the Dalmatian pelican. A short stop at one of them works far better for younger children than three hours afloat, and autumn and winter are the stronger bird seasons.