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The bare summit ridge of Cika leading to the peak, the Ionian coast curving away far belowAI image

Vlorë and Karaburun · hike

Maja e Çikës

The crown of the Ceraunians from the Llogara Pass: eight hours of ridge with the whole Ionian coast below one shoulder.

August: ok. The same, and the haze steals the view by mid-morning.

The year · August is underlined

Maja e Çikës: viability by month
RegionJFMAMJJASOND
Maja e Çikës

The walk

Distance14.4 km
Ascent1442 m
Time8 h
TrackGPX in preparation

Çika is the highest point of the Ceraunians at 2,045 m, and it stands close enough to the sea that the summit looks straight down onto the Ionian. The route starts at the Llogara Pass on the SH8, which does a third of the climbing for you: 14.4 km round trip with 1,442 m of ascent, measured at eight hours, graded T2.

The warning that matters comes from the measured route itself: in cloud and fog, orientation on the connecting ridge and the summit ascent is difficult, because the path is not clearly visible everywhere and only sporadically marked. Early on, an old marking branches left and leads astray; the way is straight uphill on the faint newer points. Carry a GPS track and check the ridge forecast, not the beach one.

The month logic here is upside down from the coast below. July and August are the Riviera's peak and the ridge's haziest, least rewarding weeks; May and September-October give the clear air the whole walk exists for, with a warm sea at the bottom for afterwards in the autumn slot.

Nearby

The SH8 switchbacks descending from the Llogara pass through pines to the coast far belowAI imageLlogara PassThe SH8 climbing through black pine and dropping in switchbacks to the Riviera. The best road in the country, and open all year.A needle-covered path through the Balkan pines above the Llogara pass, the Ionian in a gap between the trunksAI imageThe Llogara pass trailsPine forest and a 1,000 m drop to the sea, on paths that are at their best in the two shoulder seasons and at their worst in the two months everyone drives over the pass.The old stone village of Dhermi stacked on the slope, the Ionian far below and far outAI imageDhërmiA stone village high on the slope with its beaches down a steep road below it, and the Riviera's festival week in early June.