Hey you lovely lot, a couple of people mentioned that we might want to share our last month in Albania on here for some tips & ideas so here goes… Tirana - capital, small, walkable, Skandeburg Square and Opera House and Bunk Art only real things to “see”. It’s a mooch city for coffee and shopping and walking by the river. Blloku was a great area to stay in, cafes & all hip and arty. Shkoder - gateway to the Albanian Alps. Lovely old cobbled town, biggest lake in the Balkans right there for a day trip & some castles (lots of these in Albania). Stay in the centre. FISI is a brilliant local restaurant.
From there lots of people take a boat across Lake Komani and into the Alps for hiking.The big one is Valbone to Theth (1900m and 15km, 7/8 hour hike and we were some of the oldest groovers up there ) and lots of day hikes. Valbone - start of the Albania Alps, chilled, daily hikes and waterfalls, freezing cold blue pools to swim in, small but very cute. Guesthouse Mehmeti was outstanding.
Theth - other end of the mega hike, another pretty Alps village, more hiking, big bigger than Valbone. Durres - start of the coast, nice town, beach huge but water not as clean as further down the coast. Good stop off point to get down south or take a bus north to Montenegro. Art Gallery Boutique Hotel if you fancy a treat. Himare - lovely traditional coastal resort with lots of locals and families, not as glitzy as Ksamil (or as pricey) August was rammed so this was a good option for us. Water was stunning and lots of great boat trips on offer. Berat - City of 1000 windows, a UNESCO site, super sweet, stay in the old part. Berat Castle is amazing (& you can stay inside the grounds too). Free to get in, well preserved and still feels very authentic and unspoilt. A horse carriage ride round Berat was a lovely touch - look out for Ferdinand and Gina the horse. 10 euros well spent!
GENERAL - we used buses everywhere, traffic is terrible and system is chaotic but great fun and super cheap! Lots of people rent cars but parking can be a pain and driving can be more than a little crazy. Eating and drinking is also very reasonable, £1.50/£2 for a beer. £2/3 for a gyros/kofte. People are lovely. Feels like a combination of Greece, old Russia and Turkey, still a bit rough and disorganised but interesting.
Thanks @Cuttlefish for such a lovely and detailed review of your time in Albania. I was fortunate enough to visit all Balkan countries in '22 and absolutely loved it. I particularly liked sitting outside of cafes at night having dinner. Glass of red with warm fires and blankets, dining always on the most delicious and cheap food. Tirana is definitely an “interesting” city with those bunkers! Did you see the strange memorial piece of the actual Berlin Wall, meant to symbolize Albania’s isolation. Everything in Tirana was a tiny bit strange. It felt like it was still locked in a little bit of communist Albania, which a lot of the Baltics felt like
Would you recommend making the effort just to go to Berat? I have around ten days to kill and was thinking of doing Durres then staying inside the castle at Berat for two days. Or would you highly recommend a stay at Himare, given it will be mid October and not really beach weather.
FWIW, I much preferred Gjirokaster to Berat. Berat was fine but I really was charmed by Gjirokaster and wished I had more time to hang out there and explore all the tiny roads and cafes.
If you like wine, I did a tasting at this wine bar in Durres (https://maps.app.goo.gl/iG7pdUiS3z4YzRFYA) and it was really nice. I ended up buying a couple bottles to take with me on my travels.
I spent a couple weeks road tripping through Albania with my campervan and really liked it. It’s definitely the most ‘rustic’ of the balkan countries I’ve visited with cash being a necessity almost everywhere and I missed the convenience of larger supermarkets vs the 3 stop shop, but that’s just a lifestyle thing that is impacted by me moving relatively quickly vs settling in to one spot and finding shops I like.
ETA: regarding cash, I recommend getting it before you go (euros) because ATM fees in Albania are brutal unless you are reimbursed by your bank.
We have a housesit in Mullet (Just out of Tirana) next month. Then we have a month before a housesit in Cyprus, so THAAAANNNNKKKS for all that info. Much appreciated.
We liked Berat (staying inside the castle for a night would be fun) but have also heard Girokaster (wrong spelling) is lovely and didn’t go so @CreatureCuddler has been to both. Durres is fine but not a very exciting city, would head off south to Himare or Dhermi also gets great reviews. There’s a good blog called wanderlush.org by an Ozzie who lives in Georgia who writes great guides. Would still like to see Ksamil’s pretty waters myself at that time of year and October will be fab warm seas @ziggy#somuchfuntobehad
Highly recommend asking the HO for their favorite food shopping places, especially if you eat meat. Trial and error with butchers can be a bit hair raising.
I agree about Durres being boring. I only went because it was en route and I really wanted to do an Albanian wine tasting. I was collecting bottles from each country along the way to bring to my birthday in Croatia a few weeks later.
@Brightlight If you’ll have a car, there are a lot of great agritourism restaurants around Albania which is a great way to have some good food, see some great scenery, and support local small businesses. Many also have associated guest houses.
If you do go to Berat, the food here was great: https://maps.app.goo.gl/XaYHMApNB3fGN72B9. And please eat tons of fergese for me. I love that stuff and you can only get it in Albania.
Thanks for that additional info @CreatureCuddler, I was looking at Gjirokster also but given I am relying on public transport which isn’t the greatest in Albania, I felt Berat was just a little easier and staying inside the castle would be nice. If I like wine? Is the Pope Catholic? Oh yes, I like wine! Agree with you and @Cuttlefish about euros also, it is definitely necessary and commonly preferred apart from the major cities. Also they certainly do love meat in the Balkans, I’m not a big meat eater myself.
@Cuttlefish yes, I follow wanderlush.org and read her blogs for most countries I visit, they are always great and very informative.
Oh so much to see in this world of ours and so little time to see it all
Definitely if you’re going via public transport you have to adjust destinations accordingly and more people likely to go to Berat. They are both worth visiting but I didn’t have the desire to linger in Berat though I definitely enjoyed my time there.
The other place we nearly went to (& then public transport let us down as we had to go from Shkoder back to Tirana in order to get out there), was Kruje where you can also stay inside the castle and it’s supposed to be cute for a night. BTW there are two bus stations in Durres, the main one and the south one called Plepa (a 15 minute local bus ride within town) for Berat and beyond down the coast. Easy when you know but a pain if no-one tells you it leaves from Plepa #talkingfromexperience
I spent about a month in Albania in 2017. Loved it! Himare was a highlight, and we actually stayed extra days in Berat even though we saw everything the first day. We planned on night in Kukes to the north on our way to Pristina, and the family stayed with was so lovely we stayed extra days. To be clear: there is nothing to do in Kukes. And we loved it. We got asked if we had jobs there because we were there so long (maybe 4 days?) lol. But we got treated like family and had wonderful food and adventures.
I spent 4 months in the Balkans that spring and it was really fabulous - Montenegro is one of the most beautiful countries I’ve seen. Came back a year later to stay in Zagreb another 2 months, very livable city.
That sounds fab @belluca ! We went to Montenegro for 10 days and took the bus up from Durres to Budva and then Tivat, Porto Montenegro & Kotor with a cheeky 6 day house sit in Tivat And also did a bit of hitching as well which was fun. #balkanbeauties
Tirana - capital, small, walkable, Skandeburg Square and Opera House and Bunk Art only real things to “see”. It’s a mooch city for coffee and shopping and walking by the river. Blloku was a great area to stay in, cafes & all hip and arty.
) and lots of day hikes.
And also did a bit of hitching as well which was fun.