Trip report: Albania
Visited in June 2021
A few years ago, Albania became one of the hottest insider tips in Europe. While travelers have already explored virtually every corner of the European continent, Albania was something new. A destination with less crowds but with lower prices and beaches that rival those in Italy or Spain.
The times when Albania was an insider tip are over now. In recent years, more and more tourists have traveled to the small Balkan country, so that Albania is no longer as off the beaten track as it was back then. But although Albania may no longer be an insider tip, it still remains a European destination with a bigger exotic factor than say Greece or Cyprus. Thus, choosing Albania for your vacation still makes you a more alternative traveler than going to Italy.
I guess, I don’t fall into that category, though, as Albania was one of my last countries in Europe. The third-last to be exact and it took me three attempts to get there. The first attempt was in August 2020. As the situation regarding Covid-19 got worse in Albania, I decided to cancel the flights shortly before the trip. In March 2021, it was the airline that canceled the flights and prevented me from going there. However, it finally happened in June 2021, after traveling almost exclusively to new countries outside of Europe in the last twelve months.
This trip was a kind of premiere because my mother accompanied me. I have never traveled with my mother in adulthood, but since she wanted to come with me to a new country, I asked her to choose a country I have not been to yet and her choice fell on Albania. Trip with my mom, new country in Europe, the anticipation was huge.
The hardest part, however, was deciding what we wanted to do in Albania. Although Albania is a fairly small country, it would take about ten days to see all of its highlights. With seven days, you would at least have enough time to get a good impression of the north, the south and central Albania. Unfortunately, we only had three full days, so we had to prioritize.
Travelers come to Albania mainly for three reasons. 1) for the beaches in the south, 2) for hiking in the Albanian Alps in the north, or 3) for a cultural trip. Since three days is a bit too short for the first two options, we opted for the third option. Or in other words, we tried to see as much as possible in only three days. In the end, we spent one day in the capital Tirana and did two day-trips. We went to Krujë and Shkodër on the first day-trip, and to Berat and the Erzeni Canyon on the second.
Tirana
In almost all countries, the capital is the best place to get an idea of how a country functions and what the mentality of the people is. For this reason, we dedicated our first day to Tirana, although the city does not have the reputation of being among the top places to visit in Albania.
Tirana is not a very big city and practically all the sights are quite close to each other. Thus, we were able to visit most of the highlights of the city already in the morning. Our sightseeing tour included the Et’hem Bey Mosque, the Clock Tower, the colorful houses around Skanderbeg Square (the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) and the Orthodox Resurrection Cathedral.
We also visited Bunk’Art2. This is a museum in a former nuclear bunker that recalls how, under the regime of communist dictator Enver Hoxha, the police oppressed the opposition. It is not the only bunker in the country. Hoxha is said to have built over 173,000 throughout Albania. There is another museum on this subject in Tirana, called BunkArt 1.
It was by the way not the only museum we visited in Albania. What fascinated me was that in Albanian museums the exhibits are not protected and anyone can touch them. In Bunk’Art 2, someone gratefully accepted this invitation and stabbed Enver Hoxha’s face on various pictures with a pointed object.
Two other sights I would have liked to see were unfortunately under construction. One was the ugly Pyramid of Tirana, which was first an Enver Hoxha museum and later a nightclub. Second, we would have liked to visit the rooftop bar of the Sky Hotel, which apparently has been closed for over a year.
When we reached the pyramid, we were standing in front of a large construction site. There was a security guard, to whom I wanted to explain that I would have liked to see the pyramid. The older gentleman did not speak English, so he tried to explain with sign language that this is not possible at the moment. However, he seemed to have been so bored that he asked me to follow him. And so he led me inside the pyramid, where construction was in progress. Somehow unimaginable that security man would give you access to a construction site in Western Europe. I often learned during this trip that rules are kind of flexible in Albania.
While the sparks of a welding machine flew close to our heads, he showed me the pyramid from above. “Multifunction bulding,” he said. So no more museum and nightclub. The guy seemed to have been so bored that he almost didn’t want to let me go.
Despite the language barrier, he wanted to know exactly what I had seen in Albania and gave me his recommendations on what else I should do. It took a while until I managed to say goodbye. Eventually, he went back to his work, i.e. sitting in front of the construction site and waiting until the day was over. Contrary to this gentleman, however, I must say that most Albanians either spoke good English or at least knew the basics.
Albania, by the way, is often labeled the poorhouse of Europe. In terms of GDP per capita, there are actually only a few countries in Europe that are behind Albania. However, I find that you don’t notice any of this in Tirana or in the other places we saw. Albanians wear good clothes, consumption seems to play an important role in society and Tirana is developing rapidly. Some have replied to my Instagram stories that the skyscrapers seen on them did not exist four to five years ago. In the meantime, the city has many of them.
In terms of sightseeing, I have to admit that Tirana is nothing special. I found the sights neither very thrilling nor would I call Tirana a beautiful city. Instead of sightseeing, Tirana is rather a city to eat well and cheap, drink coffee and do people-watching. Tirana is a vibrant city with a lot of things going on. I assume that nightlife is great too, although I did not go out at night.
Perhaps, I should also mention that the temperatures were unbearable. It was about 40°C, which you can rather expect on the Arabian Peninsula at this time of the year and not in Europe. We therefore spent several hours from noon until late afternoon in the air-conditioned hotel. Given the fact that Tirana is not packed with attractions, that was not a problem, though.
Krujë & Shkodër
There are several ways to get around in Albania, but the most comfortable is definitely booking a (private) tour. Albania is not an expensive country and you can find several tour operators that offer affordable day-trips from Tirana. Krujë and Shkodër are both popular day-trips, but the tour operator we used offered a trip to both in one day. In fact, we visited a few more places on this tour, but more on that later…
It was 8.30AM and about 37°C when our guide Jetmir picked us up from our hotel. The journey to North Albania was about to start. First, we had to get out of Tirana and this takes some time. Traffic in Tirana is awful, but it even got worse when we left the city.
After visiting 45 out of 47 countries in Europe, I conclude that Albania has the highest percentage of terrible drivers on the entire continent. Seriously, I have never seen such bad driving in Europe before. Many drivers seem to use the brakes only once after starting the car, and that is when arriving at the final destination. At the same time, these drivers seem to care pretty little about what other cars are doing to their left and right at any given time. Add to that negligent overtaking maneuvers that would probably pretty much cost you your license in Western Europe.
During three days in Albania we have seen one accident and at least twelve near accidents. The reason why we did not witness more of them were the rest of the drivers, the reasonable ones. They drive with the highest concentration, so that the bad 5% don’t threaten their lives. While you can usually drive on main roads without any worries in Western Europe, it can always happen that a car speeds out of a side street in Albania, even though it has no right of way.
Fortunately, Jetmir belongs to the reasonable drivers and we made it safe and sound to Fushë-Krujë, our first stop. This small town is basically so unspectacular that even cities like Vaduz or Andorra la Vella could be described as highly exciting in comparison. However, Fushë-Krujë has a landmark in the form of a statue. It is a statue of George W. Bush.
In 2007, then U.S. President George W. Bush popped up in Fushë-Krujë to meet local small business owners who were receiving American microloans. During his short visit he had the Albanian dessert trileçe at a café, mingled with the crowd, and then disappeared again. The café subsequently changed its name to “George W. Bush café”. Bush was later honored with a statue on the main square, which is now also named after him, and was declared an honorary citizen of the city.
Will Bush look back on his visit to Fushë-Krujë as positively as its inhabitants? After all, his watch was stolen from his wrist while he was surrounded by the masses. With the presence of the entire Secret Service guys, an incredible accomplishment if you ask me, which would actually deserve a statue much more than eating a dessert in a café. 🙂
When we got back to our car, we noticed a policeman standing next to it. Jetmir allowed himself to leave the car on the side of the road instead of looking for a parking space somewhere. The old policeman did not seem happy about it at all. I don’t speak Albanian, but what he said sounded like “hey asshole, who do you think you are to just park your car here?”
In a heated conversation, Jetmir then tried to explain that he only wanted to show the statue to two tourists and that he had only parked there for five minutes. This saved him from a fine in the end. The bad mood of the policeman changed abruptly when he found out that we were tourists. His face suddenly looked like that of a four-year-old who met a man in a Mickey Mouse costume at Disneyland. He waved at us with a big smile and didn’t even stop after we waved back three or four times.
We arrived a little later in Krujë, where we visited the bazaar (the main sight of the city) and the castle. Castles are a thing in Albania. Virtually every town has one, perched on a hill overlooking the city. On our two day trips, we visited a castle a total of three times.
Later we made a stop in Lezhë, where we visited the mausoleum of the Albanian national hero, then we drove towards Shkodër. One place I definitely didn’t want to miss in Albania was the Mesi Bridge near Shkodër, reminiscent of the Stari Most in Mostar, a centuries-old stone bridge that crosses a turquoise river.
Here’s what I expected:
Although the picture above seems to be photoshopped, the reality did not even look close..
Although the bridge still looks beautiful, it was of course a pity that no water flowed through below. Albania in summer offers not only a tremendous heat, it is also not the best time to travel for good photos. Not only because rivers have dried up. When it hasn’t rained for a while, the sky gets slightly foggy near the coast. As a result, visibility is sometimes not the best.
A little anecdote about the Mesi Bridge: when we arrived, there was a car with tourists on the bridge. The tourists were happily taking pictures and didn’t really care that the stone bridge is several hundred years old and could collapse under the weight of a car. “I know that Albanians are stupid sometimes, but not THAT stupid,” Jetmir said when I asked him if they were local or foreign tourists.
Afterwards, we spent about two to three hours in Shkodër. The city seemed quite relaxed compared to Tirana and also looks visually clearly more appealing. The highlight of the city is the pedestrian promenade in the center, where there are many cafes, restaurants and gelaterias.
Of course, there is also a castle in Shkodër, which we visited. In hindsight, the castle in Shkodër (Rozafa Castle) was definitely the most interesting of all the castles we saw in Albania. The views were simply stunning.
In summary, combining the two cities were a good idea, as you don’t need more than two to three hours for either Krujë or Shkodër. Unless you want to fill the day with some museum visits (we visited the Krujë Castle Museum and found it not very interesting). For this reason, I would also advise against visiting these two cities on separate trips. However, in combination they offer a good day-trip from Tirana.
Of course, you can visit these places also without booking a tour. Just rent a car, head to Krujë, have lunch in Mrizi i Zavane, probably the most famous restaurant in Albania (reservation necessary!!!), continue to Mesi Bridge and finish your tour in Shkodër before returning to Tirana. The stops in Fushë-Krujë and Lezhë are in my opinion not really necessary. Unless you want to see the Xhorxh statue and Skanderbeg’s tomb.
Berat
The same applies for Berat as for Krujë and Shkodër. Two to three hours are enough to see its attractions. Because I already had a premonition that Berat would not keep us busy for a whole day, I suggested if we could combine the tour with something else. Above all, we would have preferred to see a bit of Albania’s nature. Therefore, after Berat, we visited Erzeni Canyon as well.
The drive to Berat took about two hours, as we took the slower route along the coast. On the way, we passed Durrës, a port town near Tirana, whose beaches attract mainly people from the capital.
However, Albanians also like to travel outside the country. Because they travel for free. Why is that? Besides the three million Albanians in Albania, another five million live spread all over the world. And every Albanian knows the brother of a cousin’s friend whose work colleague has a nephew in [insert any country/city]. This nephew then has to make sure that the guest from Albania can stay for free at his place. “And what if this nephew says no?” I asked Jetmir. “It doesn’t matter. The Albanians will insist until he agrees.”
After arriving in Berat, we first visited – what a surprise – the castle and then the historic old town, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Berat is known for its houses with many windows on the river bank. That is why the city bears the name: City of 1001 windows.
Berat is one of the most visited cities in Albania. I was a little unsure if I really wanted to go there and my doubts were confirmed when I got there. In Berat, you take a look at the houses from the riverbank, marvel at the city from the castle above and that’s it. Not that this is bad in any way, but as mentioned, it’s not a city that keeps you entertained for hours.
After all, we had an excellent meal in Berat. Albanian cuisine is a mixture of Turkish, Greek and ex-Yugoslavian cuisine. That means you get stuffed vegetables, burek, yogurt, meat, olives and so on. You will also find a lot of Italian food in Albania. The food we ate in Albania was excellent, we could not complain.
Combining Erzeni Canyon with Berat was, however, a bit too optimistic. As we took it quite slow that day, it was already about 16:30 when we arrived there. The Erzeni Canyon requires a short but hard hike. Very hard even, considering that temperatures were again 36°C or higher. Admittedly, I underestimated this last part of the tour. Basically, a visit to Erzeni Canyon is a half-day tour from Tirana, which we were already too late to start in the late afternoon. For this reason, we only walked to Pellumbas Cave and gave up the last part.
Of course, it would have been possible to visit both Berat and Erzeni Canyon in one day. But as I said, the heat was brutal again on that day and we lowered our pace. Besides, we lost some time by getting out of Tirana (it was a Saturday and many people head to the coast that day) and we also took the longer route via Durrës. Therefore, it was a bit too rushed to do the full hike to the canyon.
That was also okay, though. We had already seen a lot in three days and the hike to the cave still offered one or the other superb view. All in all, this second day trip was also worth it. If I had to make a decision, I would call the Krujë/Skhodër trip the better one, though. There we simply saw and experienced more in one day than in Berat and at the canyon.
Albania as a destination
Did I already mention that summer temperatures can be brutal in Albania and that there are better months to visit the country than June?
In retrospect, it was simply too hot during our visit, which also slightly affected the quality of the trip. But Albania can’t be blamed for that, as it was my planning error. Despite everything, we made the best of the situation and in the end we had a good time and learned many things about Albania.
Albania as a destination offers basically everything you could want in Europe: Beaches, mountains, historic cities, castles, Roman ruin site and much more. If someone only had a week and wanted to see Europe in a nutshell, Albania probably wouldn’t be the worst choice.
But also for Europe connoisseurs, Albania is certainly a great destination. Although Albania, as mentioned in the introduction, is no longer an insider tip, the country is still relatively untouched compared to other, partly completely overcrowded European destinations. In addition, the prices in the country are as expected low and the locals are happy about tourists (well, except this Albanian restaurant owner…).
This trip to Albania was also the first trip in a long time together with my mother. Was it different than when I travel alone or with friends? Not really. On the first day, we went at the same pace as I normally do and my mother was satisfied at the end. On the second day, we took it slower, but after two days with temperatures close to 40 degrees, that was fine with me. By the way, my mother named Eritrea as the next country she wants to travel to with me. Hopefully, the country reopens its closed borders soon.
As already mentioned, Albania was the third last country in Europe. Another good country in Europe. Now, I slowly run out of new countries on this continent, as only Belarus and Iceland are left.
