Ed Reeves

I came to travel via journalism. Before I started Drive Albania, I spent a decade floating around London working on magazines such as GQ, Esquire, Men's Health, Car Magazine and at one point, bizarrely, even Brides Magazine! I ended up writing a fair amount of travel stories, which brought me to Albania in 2012. My mother, who was very left-wing, had visited twice in the 1980s when Albania was supposedly closed to the outside world. In 2012, the Telegraph asked her to go back (with me, the journalist, in tow) to see how it had changed. The answer was "a lot". I was fascinated with the country, and the following year drove down in my Toyota Rav4 to do some more exploring. I quickly discovered that the road network was so bad that even this fairly capable 4x4 was out of its depth. One thing led to another and today I find myself living in Tirana, running a small agency focused on getting visitors to the more remote regions of Albania and Kosovo.

Being a Brit in Albania gives me a different perspective on what's interesting and what's not. For me, places like Durrës, Vlorë, Pogradec and Saranda are only places to drive through as quickly as possible, although Saranda is ok for a night if you're catching the Corfu ferry. In my opinion, rural Albania and all the smaller towns and cities are the best places to go. I know I can show you this unique, off-the-beaten-track side of this fascinating country.