April-May 2024
Once upon a time, a long-long time ago, I fell upon a series of travel blog posts about… yes, Albania. Albania? – thought I, how unusual. All I knew back then about Albania was an unfortunate portrait of a horrible mafia gang from the movie “Taken”. “Good luck” and so on. Those posts blew my mind away though – I had never had a slightest idea how beautiful Albania was! So, since 2018 this country has been on our personal radar – I was determined to go there at some point putting it far above any other destination in the Balkans. Then more and more photos and travel stories started creeping in into our Instagram feed – it was the sign that the moment had come.
So, the longest trip within one country we have ever made after the cycling trip to Iceland, took place in Albania. And if you are ready, I’m ready to tell you all about it.
Disclaimer! We are travel bloggers, not travel guides – we merely tell about our own experience, observations and impressions that might be different from yours.
Why Albania?
Apart from the reasons I mentioned in the intro, there were some more considerations:
- Diversity. Albania is an extremely diverse country, where you can find both mountains covered with snow and turquoise water with paradise beaches.
- Size. We love exploring the whole country (or a whole region) so Albania looked perfect in terms of size for a three-week tour. And it actually was!
- Food. Delicious. One of our goals was eating a lot of delicious meals and this was checked, checked and checked.
- Budget. For our income it was quite a budget friendly destination, considering that we stayed every day in Airbnbs our guesthouses and ate exclusively in restaurants and caféterias.
Some figures:
Dates: 24 April – 13 May (19 days)
Weather: Between 13-26 degrees, but we also had quite a share of rainy days.
Budget: 146€ per day for two, incuding car rental, accommodation and food.
Car rental: KIA Stoic (but that’s a whole different story, see below…) at RentPoint
Car troubles: 4 (see below 🙄)
Amount of byreks devoured: beyond any reasonability.
Itinerary
I can safely say that we covered everything we could in Albania – there will be a separate post about Tirana, North, Center and South, as well as our most favorite places and experiences, but in this article I’ll give a general scheme of our itinerary. As I said, we had some tiny troubles with transport so if our itinerary looks a bit shaky in the beginning – that’s alright, ignore it.
Days 1-2
Tirana. City centre, Bunk’Art 2, Blloku, Pyramid of Tirana, etc.
Day 3
Tirana-Vlora. Lost day – scooter negotiation. Leaving to Berat in the late afternoon.
Day 5
Lost day. Stuck with a scooter broken waiting for evacuation. Back to Tirana to rent a car.
Day 6
Cape Rodonit. Beach and some light hiking. Arriving to Shkoder.
Day 8
Theth. Mountains, wet hiking and a lot of rain.
Day 9
Lake Komani & Valbona; driving all down to Kukës.
Day 10
Long driving day from Kukës and via Northern Makedonia to Lake Ohrid.
Day 12
Lake Prespa, another car trouble (see below), driving to Korce.
Day 13
Korce and Voskopojë. Driving to Nemërçkë.
Day 14
Pont Kadiut, Langarica Canyon, Antigonea Park.
Day 16
Blue Eye. Butrint National Park. Ksamil.
Day 17
Ksamil. Himare. Qeparo
Beach, cocktails and beach again.
Day 18
Himare. Dhermi. Peninsula of Karaburun. Last night in Vlore.
Day 19
Last day. Archaeological Museum of Apolonia.
Return of the car. Departure.
Our MOST favorite accommodation & food experience:
This will be a painful thing to write as it makes me immediately nostalgic and hungry, but let’s see.
Another disclaimer: I will talk about other cool experiences in separate articles about each part of the country, but here I just want to fix the bests.
Also, finding a tasteful accommodation appeared to be a much more difficult task than finding a good place for lunch, so believe me – these are the rare pearls (with their own weak points like absence of reading lights and weird golden toilets too…)
Vila Lule in Tirana
I had a big flashback to the communist past of my country, but not in a bad way.
Villa Darla in Berat
Welcoming hosts, cozy room, many authentic artifacts, beautiful terrasse, extremely clean.
Guesthouse 1805 in Gjirokastra
Staying in an old Ottoman manor in Gjirokastra is an absolute must in the city, so that’s what we did. The upper floor of the house is for guests, the bottom floor belongs to the owners (?), who are also kind and welcoming people. Although not a single word of English either. 😀
Helga’s Guesthouse on Lake Ohrid
Probably, our BEST accommodation in Albania – the room is gorgeous, the view on the lake is amazing and we were fed like never before – I was actually quite worried for my life at some point.
Restaurants:
- Shkoder Lake – Real Te Hilmia. the fish meals to die for.
- Teth – Villa GJECAJ Guesthouse and Restaurant. a perfect warm mountain style locally sourced food – exactly what we needed by a cold and rainy day in Theth.
- Gjirokaster – Taverna Kuka. So good, we came there twice.
- Tirana – Era. Albanian food at its best. Probably a notch more expensive than in regular restaurants outside the capital, but we are also into aesthetic presentation, so it was worth
- Vlore – Brooklyn Pizza. Yyes, don’t laugh, but with all Italian influences and tourism, Albanians make AMAZING pizzas. And this one in Vlore was a-maz-ing. We ate there three times – I mean truffle pizza from a stone oven for 8€? You’ll never see such thing in France (or in Italy for that matter
) - Byrek + Dahl from any bakery. Our everyday breakfast before our bodies cried for help.
Some things to know about Albania
- It’s rapidly changing. Just like with the Fight Club rules, where the first rule is not to speak about Fight Club, the first thing to know about Albania is that it’s changing very fast. I think that when I’m writing these articles (three weeks after coming back home from Albania), much of what I have to say won’t be up to date any more. Hell, when we finished the trip, the county had already changed in comparison with its beginning.
- Trash. Although a paradise on Earth, be ready to see trash everywhere. Apparently, care for the environment hasn’t arrived yet to the local attitude, so get ready to see heartbreaking piles of trash, flying cigarette buts from cars into lakes and sea, floating plastic on these turquoise beaches. Nothing puts me more in a bad mood than seeing such disrespect to nature. Ironically, 100% of Albanian homes we visited are IMPECCABLY clean. It’s sad that the home ends the moment the door is shut.
- Driving. You will be warned by all blogs and guides that Albanian driving is somewhat…hectic. Probably if you have had some experience with driving in South-Asian countries you won’t be that much surprised by Albanian style, but for us it took some time to adjust.
- Language. Incomprehensible. English – not really spoken. In touristy zones the basics are understood but we often found ourselves communicating with google translator.
- Security. Apart from sweating from the intense driving, we had zero security troubles. At no time did we feel threatened by anything. Hollywood movies lied to us again. 🙁
- Money. In April-May 2024 the exchange rate was 1€ = 100 LEK (easy!). Apart from the obvious thing to exchange cash rather than withdrawing or paying by card (the withdrawal and convert fee can be very nasty), one can also pay directly in euros in many shops or restaurants.
- Internet. Products of the modern age, the first thing we got ourselves in Albania was the local telephone number with date. We chose the Tourist Package by One (40 GB within 21 Days for 2500 LEK) and were very happy with this option.
- People and hospitality. One thing that is often said about Albania is that Albanians are very hospitable. I have always had some trouble understanding what exactly it means (and after years of Couchsurfing I feel that there is nothing wrong about NOT being hospitable), but one thing is for sure – you are bound to get fed like it were the last day of your lives.
Car troubles
So, I said we had had some transportation misfortunes. Here it goes.
The initial plan was to rent a scooter and make a big tour of Albania by scooter like we did in Mallorca and Crete. However, we failed to read the red flags and abandon this idea when it was already clear how difficult it would get. As we have only A1 driving license, renting a big motorbike was impossible. As for 125cc – the rental shops wouldn’t rent them for further distances than the approximate surroundings of the town (Vlore in our case, but the same goes to Ksamil or Himare). The huge mistake of ours was to insist and finally convince the rental shop guy to let us take his scooter for two weeks for the whole country. Clearly, he wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea. Clearly, the scooter wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea either. It wasn’t a beautiful Yamaha we had in Greece – it was some half-broken Chinese Mustang – Harry Potter’s broomstick looked more reliable than this poor piece of plastic.
It broke down on day 1 of the trip. Who could have thought?
It took us a whole day to arrange the evacuation back to Vlore followed by the nastiest negotiation about having our money back. All through google translate and a girl working in a shoe shop nearby, whose English was slightly more advanced than zero.
So, many conclusions have been made – we need to get an A2 permit as soon as possible and from now on, the rental procedures would pass by official renting points and not some lousy beach kiosque. Although I still believe the main fault is not ours, we should have indeed read the signs.
A tiny-tiny thing: we managed to get a flat tire. Which is not that surprising considering the condition of the local roads and the distances we covered. Luckily, it was not in the middle of nowhere and this got fixed in less than 5 minutes at the first mechanic on our way in Gjirokaster. 5€ well spent, no word of any language was exchanged.
Not exactly a car trouble happened to us per se, but we were THIS 
close to getting into a very nasty accident. We were just lucky, the person driving behind – not that much. We witnessed a horrible car crash – thanks to one of thousand crazy nutters on the roads respecting no limits, no rules and no common sense. We got scared as hell – called the police, sent help and then spent the whole day shaking.
Finally, could it have been any more different? – the rental company charged us 120€ for a miniscule scratch on the bumper. It was a nasty argument in which we had no other choice than accepting their demands, but it was a kind of scratch for which no company in France would have ever charged. Ugh. At the moment we are in the middle of negotiations with our own insurance company but it’s just sad that our trip was finished on such an irritating note. A tip for you: make sure to film / photograph the car you rent in Albania to be sure to have every single millimeter documented before starting your trip.
Curious things
Evil Eye
At some point you will be bound to wonder why Albanians put stuffed toys on their houses / restaurants and FUNERAL COMPANIES. Not only toys, but also garlic, horse hooves and many other stuff – this is all supposed to help to turn the evil eye away.
Music
This is painful but as much as I loved Albanian food and hospitality, what we hated is the omnipresent music in every bar or café. And I don’t mean light lounge or instrumental music, oh no. Please, turn the volume up for Ed Sheeran and Celena Gomez remixes! The funniest thing is that even when explicitly asked to turn the music down, they would do it so reluctantly as if we were hurting their business to the extent we couldn’t understand.
Love of luxury
As I come from a post-communist country, the striving towards luxury isn’t something unknown to me – it is explained by quite clear social and historical reasons. However, in Albania it struck me a lot – everybody under fifty y.o. is bound to wear fake Versace, LV or Chanel. Hotels and cafés must be called Elite, Diamond, Crown, etc. Honestly, it makes me very sad. The same search for luxury is also reflected in the first choice of cars (Mercedes !) and in the regions more wealthy than others – in architecture decisions. It’s not rare to see a freshly built manor with a weird mix of styles (greek columns with golden windows, etc.) with goats and chickens on the porch. I have nothing against goats and chickens, mind it! I’m just sad that traditional Albanian houses hardly get renovated.
British cars
British cars. You are also likely to see many British cars with British license plates. Wow, Albania must be a favorite destination for British tourists who come this far by car, you will think. It appears that in Albania having a British license plate is a prestigious thing, so those who work in the UK buy there a car and then keep the plate for as long as possible.
Unfinished buildings
As I said earlier, Albania is changing fast, and one of the biggest changes is the construction. Honestly, I’m afraid to think about all the games behind these new hotels, resorts and houses that are growing at an amazing speed, but one thing for sure – Albanian coast will get less and less empty and wild. Everybody tries to get a piece of this cake, so you will see dozens (if not hundreds) of unfinished but perfectly operating hotels with metallic rods sticking from the next floor-to-be.
Bunkers
Albanian bunkers are these quirky, mushroom-shaped concrete structures scattered all over Albania. They were built during the Communist era, primarily under the rule of Enver Hoxha, who was paranoid about potential invasions. Hoxha ordered the construction of around 700,000 bunkers starting in the 1960s (“only” 175, 000 were built at the end though), and you can find them everywhere—from beaches and mountains to cities and farmlands. They were meant to be a defensive measure, but luckily, they were never actually needed for war. Nowadays, they’ve become an iconic and somewhat odd part of the landscape. Some have been repurposed into cafes, museums, and even homes, while others just sit there as relics of a different time.
Religious Chill
One of the things about Albania we appreciated the most is the organic mix of religions. Being both atheists, we don’t have much perspective on this question even in our own countries but one thing for sure – mixed marriages would definitely be a trouble. Not in Albania though. The churches stand in front of the mosques, birth and death religious ceremonies are announced on the same board – ones with a moon, another – with a cross. Honestly, the idea that religions can peacefully coexist is a very refreshing thought in our troubled world.
Kanun
The craziest thing about Albania is Kanun though. It’s the set of everyday laws that dictate people’s lives in Northern parts of Albania with blood feuds in the center. Kanun has been around for centuries. Imagine it like an ancient rulebook that covers everything from how to resolve disputes to how property is inherited. It’s super detailed and was originally passed down orally before being written down. People used to follow it religiously, especially in rural areas, and it was a big deal for maintaining order and justice. Even though modern laws have taken over (thank god, as according to Kanun killing someone is not only permissible but sometimes absolutely necessary), some of the Kanun principles still influence Albanian culture and society today – the feuds danger is even mentioned as a potential risk for a tourist in Albania!
Travel Reads
I wonder why I have never done this section before (considering how much I love reading), but it’s time to introduce it to our blog. Two books will give an amazing perspective for your Albanian trip:
“Broken April” by Ismael Kadare – an amazing book by the most famous Albanian author, which will present you Kanun in all its horrible glory.
“Xenophobe’s Guide to Albanians” by Alan Andoni – a funny culture guide that will answer many questions you’ll have on your Albanian journey. Some of them I put in this article (British cars or Evil eye info), but it will tell much more!
“How to Feed a Dictator: Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Enver Hoxha, Fidel Castro, and Pol Pot Through the Eyes of Their Cooks” by Witold Szabłowski – it’s not the best book about Hoxha existing in the world, but the only one I’ve read so far. Today’s Albania can’t be understood without getting familiared first with its communist history – people there have seen some serious shit.
Blogs for inspiration
And on the final note before getting to the separate articles about North, Center and South of Albania, here are some blogs that were inspiring, beautiful and helpful that we used for our trip.
- Posts by Along Dusty Roads
- Posts by BlackAndWood
- Posts by The Sandy Feet
- Posts by Wander Lush
See you in the next posts and don’t hesitate to leave a comment if you found this post useful (or not 😀)
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