Highlights of Albania

The guide ( Gerion) was amazing, not only was he extremely knowleadgeable of the entire history of all the towns and cities we touched on and passed, but his detailed understanding of the periods of the rise and fall of each period was astounding. We started off with no knowledge of Albanias history and left Albania with insight of its rich past and tapestry of interwoven historical achievements and tragedies. Truly an eye opener for us all. Gerion was an encyclopaedia of knowledge . But most of all, he is a most caring and personable tour guide with a keen sense of humour, which we love. We could approach him with any of our concerns and he negotiates on behalf of us,and eventually, solves our problems for us. For me, personally and my travelling companions , it is 102% of the time. He is , what we call, the absolute "best", a 5* guide and tour leader.

Albania is a beautiful country well worth visiting...very busy full on trip and tiring but so worth it...our guide Denis was superb..so knowledgeable, friendly, organised, caring and helpful...Tony our driver was superb too...the roads can be very challenging and he drove them so carefully and expertly...many thanks to both of them for an exceptionally good trip...

A great itinerary with good pace . Like so many small group escorted tours it's overall enjoyment is heavily dependent on the chemistry within the group.. Most of our group with a common UK background gelled well. The Australians and Americans amongst us less so because they seemed unable to "plug into" the prevalent humour and repartit.

All hotel staff and rooms were good except the Hotel Panorama at Lake Ohrid. It took 3 hours to get someone to repair a broken door lock after repeated requests. Our tour guide did not respond to the message we sent for help on this. The room had bare plaster in places and pieces of wooden skirting board were loose on the floor. Finally the bed sheet on one bed had been laundered but was very damp inside. Trip notes average (could be better). Tour content as expected but no real highlights. Rather a lot of mosques and churches. Prices in restaurants and cafes cheaper than expected, staff were attentive and helpful and the toilet facilities were clean. Tour leader had excellent command of English and good local knowledge. He actually got better as the tour progressed but had one major fault. He always started to talk before everyone had arrived (not just me but others as well).

Albania was an interesting place to visit as I had never been there or knew too much about it. The 10 day trip gave a good overview. Our tour guide (Dritan) was excellent and did a great job to be informative and entertaining plus handle the various personalities. One issue was the quality of the transport. The AC in the bus we had was totally insufficient and made many of the km's of travelling uncomfortable and very hot in the bus. Depending where you sat, you could get off the bus after an hour or 2 and your clothes were wet with perspiration. I think this is a major weakness of this trip. It might be Ok in cooler parts of the year, but definitely not suitable for August. The accomodation was also up and down in quality. I had note there were at least 3 hotels where the drain in the shower was clearly not recently cleaned. This meant the water did not run away when having a shower and you were left standing in 2 inches of dirty water when taking a shower. One other topic was room allocation. I know that in talking to others on the tour that room alocation seemed haphazard. One guest was a solo traveller and was given a room with a double and a single beds in it. We were a couple and got a room with either 2 singles or a double, but the room was so small, you could barely walk around the room or get around the bed. I note that many rooms were Ok but some were not. One location we went to was Saranda. It was a very unappealling location and the next day we stopped at a very nice beach area literally 1 hour down the road. I would suggest it would have been much nicer to stay here instead and totally skip Saranda. In terms of Albania itself, I realise they are a country recovering from years of political unrest with a dictator etc. But the country itself is nowhere as nice as I thought it might be due to rubbish being tipped everywhere on roadsides and footpaths and generally detracted from the experience. Also their use of plastic is disappointing. This is clearly not Explore's problem and not something you have any control over. But it would affect my desire to visit or recommend others to visit Albania in the future. Same as our visit to Saranda. The shoreline was quite littered. And the physical area was a complete amass of overdevelopment worth every sq mm covered by restaurants, bars or hotels. There is zero charm to this location so that is why I would suggest to bypass it

The itinerary was varied and Dritan our guide was very knowledgeable about the history of the country. The journey through the mountains was fantastic as was the the fortress at Berat. The views at the top were outstanding. Generally the hotels were good apart from the hotel at Lake Ohrid.. Mr Albert, the driver was great and he told us about life under communist rule which was very interesting. The local guide at Butrint was exceptional..Overall the trip showed all aspects of life in Albania which was great.

Excellent tour and interesting country. All Explore trips have done the leaders have been excellent but for the Albania Trip the leader truly outstanding and passionate about his country. Felt very safe with driver Toni.

The tour was really well organised and gave a great opportunity to visit so many different sites in Albania. Our tour leader and guide did an amazing job of explaining the history of Albania as well detailed information about the sites we visited.

Miss out Seranda. Two people on the tour were not able enough to take part fully, this put the tour leader in an awkward spot. They seemed to blame him. One mostly stayed on the bus and took up two seats. This takes the fun out of it for the rest of us who are enjoying the experiences. Could fitness levels be more stringently applied? Albania is wonderful. Tour guide (Dritan) wonderful, passionate and always good humoured despite the challenges he faced from the couple of grumpy (older) people who seemed to expect the rest of us (and him) to help and support them.

This was a great trip, although I didn't find it as full on as the itinerary suggested. Albania is a beautiful country with very friendly people. Denis is a fabulous group leader - friendly, fun and informative without overloading you with too much information. Would have been nice to stay in Himara rather than Sarande, but I guess that didn't fit the itinerary so well. Would definitely recommend this trip.

Denis is an outstanding guide. His knowledge, manner and humour were greatly enjoyed by everyone on our tour. The tour felt easygoing, yet we covered a lot. Albania is a beautiful country…don’t let it become known as a country littered with rubbish!

Albanian is wonderful country. The tour itself was generally good although there were days that could have been more organised but that might have been the guide. Who while being able to shed light on social history did not expand on the itinerary. Adjustment's made did not add to experience. Did not learn our names did not set up what’s app group no welcome meeting where we could meet each other and no tally of spending of money given.

Good itinerary but the chosen hotels were ordinary.