The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Ten ways to make the most of a trip to unsung Albania
Beguiling scenery, a rich history, glorious beaches and great food are among the reasons to make this your next summer escape. Elise Morton has some holiday suggestions
There is a good chance that you have been to Greece. You may even have thought about the current darling of the Adriatic, Montenegro, as the setting for your next beach holiday. But for those really looking to get ahead of the curve, there is one less heralded country to consider – beautiful Albania, the unsung pearl of the Balkans.
Sitting snugly between those aforementioned holiday hotspots on the shores of the Ionian Sea, Albania is beginning to draw international visitors with its enticing blend of beguiling scenery, excellent cuisine and intriguing history.
Visitors who are willing to diverge a little from the well-beaten Mediterranean track are rewarded with a mosaic of cultural riches and natural beauty: from the Ottoman stone houses of Gjirokaster and the unspoilt sands of the Albanian Riviera to cutting-edge culinary culture in Tirana and whispers of ancient civilisations at the Unesco-listed Butrint Archaeological Park.
Getting to Albania couldn’t be simpler, with direct flights to the capital, Tirana, running regularly from London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Edinburgh with Wizzair, Ryanair and British Airways. Flying time is less than four hours from all UK airports, meaning Albania is ripe for both weekend city breaks and bigger adventures.
Now, all you need is a little inspiration, so we have picked 10 of the most thrilling ways to get under the skin of Europe’s latest holiday hotspot in the making – before this Balkan pearl is unsung no longer.
Hit the town in Tirana
Albania’s dynamic capital, Tirana, is beginning to make a name for itself as an offbeat destination for an urban escape. This is a city where rich – albeit sometimes unsettling – history converges with a distinctly youthful energy to create a totally unique stay. Step back into the communist era via bunkers-turned-museums Bunk’art 1 and 2, and visit the House of Leaves Museum of Secret Surveillance, set in the former headquarters of the Sigurimi state intelligence service.
Afterwards, hit the lively cafés, hip bars and stylish boutiques of the chic Blloku neighbourhood, once the haunt of the communist party elite. A trip up nearby Mt Dajti on the Dajti Ekspres – the longest cableway in the Balkans – will give you an idea of the region’s impressive topography, while dinner at culinary hotspot Mullixhiu, set at the edge of the Grand Park, showcases a bounty of local produce.
Stay at The Plaza (00 355 422 112 21; plazatirana.com), which has rooms from £125 per night.
Explore the European Galapagos
Why visit one country when you can tick two off the list, all in the space of one relaxing waterside break? One of Europe’s oldest and deepest inland bodies of water, Lake Ohrid straddles Albania and North Macedonia and is often referred to as the “European Galapagos”, thanks to its impressive biodiversity. Stroll the promenade or take a sweetwater dip at Pogradec and enjoy a boat ride at Drilon, before peeking over the border into North Macedonia and taking in the Byzantine St Naum Monastery. If time allows, follow the road round to the fascinating Unesco-protected town of Ohrid. Lakeside Hotel Hymeti’s Palace (00 355 67 500 0800; hymetispalace.al) has rooms from £70 per night.
Savour an unsung cuisine
Drawing on the diverse produce of its varied landscape – think rustic, hearty fare in the northern mountains, and quintessential Mediterranean flavours along the riviera – and its history under numerous empires (most notably the Ottoman), Albania’s culinary culture will surprise and delight with every olive oil-laden mouthful. Savour national dish tave kosi (baked lamb and rice with yoghurt), pispili cornbread with leeks and scarlet fergese stew packed with tomatoes, peppers and feta cheeese, before sampling the fruits of the local terroir at one of Albania’s many up-and-coming vineyards; there are plenty of excellent options, but Alpeta Agrotourism & Winery (alpeta.al) makes a particularly good one-stop-shop introduction to food and wine culture.
Sample Albanian gastronomy with Responsible Travel (01273 823 700; responsibletravel.com), which offers a seven-day Albanian food and wine tour from £1,200 per person.
Go white-water rafting in the Osumi Canyon
Albania is a thrill-seeker’s paradise, particularly when it comes to aquatic activities. Beyond the watersports available at the pristine beaches that punctuate the Albanian Riviera, heading inland means river hiking or rafting in the Osumi Canyon – a deep 16-mile river gorge, dotted with waterfalls – and kayaking on the Vjosa River, dubbed Europe’s last truly wild river. And if you would sooner explore the Osumi riverbed on foot than in a boat? Visit in the dry season between July and October.
Much Better Adventures (020 3966 7597; muchbetteradventures.com) offers a range of rafting, kayaking and hiking trips from £828 per person.
Hike the Albanian Alps
Swap Mont Blanc and Zermatt for the Albanian Alps, set in the country’s rugged north. Home to Albania’s finest hiking, this mountain range sees dramatic peaks melt into lush forests and deep valleys dotted with wildflowers. Don’t be put off by the area’s other moniker, the “Accursed Mountains”: the epic scenery is crisscrossed by varied trails, ensuring a happy holiday for all intrepid walkers of all abilities. One of the most popular trails runs through the Valbona pass to the village of Theth – dubbed the most beautiful village in Albania.
Trek Balkan (00 383 49 601 007; trekbalkan.com) offers a six-day hiking tour from £640 per person, including local accommodation.
Mix ruins and relaxation
A holiday in Albania’s far south means combining adventures in history with lazy beach days. Start by exploring the country’s most extensive archaeological site, Butrint, marvelling at the way
the ruins trace the settlement’s evolution as new occupants made their mark on the city. With traces of the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians and Ottomans all in evidence, it is easy to see why Butrint is often referred to as a microcosm of Mediterranean history. Ancient amphitheatre and agora duly investigated, take to your sunlounger on the nearby pure white sands of the Ksamil Islands: Albania’s answer to the Maldives, surrounded by inviting, crystal-clear waters.
Hop on the ferry from the nearby Greek island of Corfu to reach the Albanian seaside city of Sarande in 1.5 hours.
Blue Eye Ksamil (00 355 693708250; blueeyehotel.al) has double rooms from £43 per night.
Explore Ottoman history in Berat and Gjirokaster
During the communist era, much of Albania’s Ottoman architectural heritage was dismantled in favour of functional, often more stark, building design. The UNESCO-protected cities of Berat and Gjirokaster escaped this fate: Berat is known as the “city of a thousand windows” for its beautifully preserved Ottoman-era hillside houses, while Gjirokaster is crowned by its 12thcentury castle and dubbed the “city of stone”, thanks to its slate-roofed stone houses. Journeying between the two cities by car generally takes less than three hours, with local buses providing a cheaper (if slightly slower) alternative. Albanian Holidays (albanianholidays. co.uk) offers the two-day Berat and Gjirokaster tour from £250 per person.
Take a road trip along the Albanian Riviera
Skip St Tropez and the familiar Meditteranean spots and head to Albania’s very own riviera, in the southwest of the country. It is a seemingly endless string of breathtaking bays stretching between Vlore and Ksamil. Often cited as some of the country’s finest swimming spots, the beaches at Dhermi and Gjipe are the perfect setting for your first Ionian paddle. Here, near-radiant white pebbles are lapped by turquoise waters and backed by the dramatic Ceraunia Mountains, with Gjipe offering a taste of wilder Albanian beauty and Dhermi equipped with comfortable sun loungers and awash with seaside lunch spots. What’s more, Dhermi is touted as the holiday destination of choice for Albanian prime ministers. And while you are in the Sarande area, head inland to visit the Blue Eye – a breathtaking spring, shrouded in local legend and known for its deep underwater cave.
Take in the coastal views from Villa
Filip (00 355 696247924; villafilip. business.site) which has rooms from
£30 per night.
Combine city culture and nature in Shkoder
The legend-rich Rozafa Fortress may well be Shkoder’s star attraction, but pottering past rows of pastel-coloured houses, enjoying café culture on charming Kole Idromeno Street and exploring the Marubi National Museum of Photography are all good reasons to visit the city. In addition to its distinctly relaxed vibe, a remarkable feature is the large number of mosques and churches that pepper the cityscape. These buildings, and their close proximity, speak to the city’s high level of religious diversity (Shkoder is the centre of Catholicism in this Muslimmajority country) – perhaps best experienced by visiting the 19thcentury St Stephen’s Cathedral, followed by the modern Ebu Beker Mosque. From here, head to the nearby village of Shiroka to go stand-up paddleboarding or kayaking on the eponymous lake, or tuck into fresh fish by the water. Family-run Cocja Boutique Hotel
(00 355 685383781; cocja.com) has doubles from £66 per night.
Pedal through paradise
Prefer to travel on two wheels? Drawn by the striking coastal views of the Albanian Riviera, the challenging gradients of the Accursed Mountains or the promise of simply pootling along by Lake Shkoder or Ohrid, cyclists are arriving in Albania in their droves each year. Many resorts have bike rental available, but for more extensive expeditions it is worth exploring organised tour options. Explore (01252391103; explore.co.uk) offers an eight-day cycling tour of Albania from £1,179 per person.