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Swimming is the simplest reason to visit a lake, and the Balkans have plenty of water to do it in: clear glacial lakes high in the mountains, warm reservoirs and lowland lakes with sandy shores, and large lakes with beaches and town waterfronts. Water quality and temperature vary a lot, and mountain lakes stay cold well into summer.
The lakes listed here are the ones where swimming is recorded. Always check local conditions before getting in, as some lakes have supervised beaches while others have no facilities at all, and a few are protected areas where swimming is restricted.
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Highlights
Photo: kallerna · CC BY-SA 4.0Albania (Southeastern Albania) · North Macedonia (Southwestern Region)
Lake Ohrid lies in a mountain basin on the border between North Macedonia and Albania, with the towns of Ohrid and Struga on the Macedonian shore and Pogradec on the Albanian one. It is among the oldest lakes in the…
10 lakes
Photo: kallerna · CC BY-SA 4.0Albania (Southeastern Albania) · North Macedonia (Southwestern Region)
Tectonic · natural
Photo: Македонец · CC BY-SA 3.0Greece (Central Macedonia) · North Macedonia (Southeastern Region)
Karst, Tectonic · natural
Photo: Ishai Bar (Headrock) · Public domainNorth Macedonia · Polog
Reservoir · artificial
Photo: Whitepixels · CC0Bosnia and Herzegovina · Central Bosnia
Dam-regulated, Karst · natural, regulated
Photo: Dnik · CC BY-SA 3.0Croatia · Dalmatia
Karst · natural
Photo: Dreizung · CC BY-SA 3.0Croatia · Central Croatia
Reservoir · artificial
Photo: Ant83 at Serbian Wikipedia · Public domainSerbia · Eastern Serbia
Dam-regulated, Fluvial (oxbow) · natural, regulated
Photo: BuhaM · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Bujar I Gashi · CC BY-SA 3.0Places
Beach
A small pebble beach in Kaneo, the old fishing quarter of Ohrid, below the cliff with the Church of St John at Kaneo. In summer it is one of the favourite places in town for a swim, with clear water…
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