Walking Albania's Coastal Trails

Albania trip and Explore good. However as a walking trip and I have done a lot with explore it doesn’t work. There are few real trails round the coastal areas. The first walk was to no where and we were eaten by mosquitoes. It needs circular walks but perhaps land access is an issue. A few of the walks were ok. Having said that I enjoyed the trip and the experience but would not recommend it as a walking trip.

A bit of a curate's egg - good in parts. Could have been so much better. The first 2 walks based in Vlore were uninspiring and plagued by insects. The remaining walks based in Himara had interesting sections but were relatively short. All finished in a village or at a beach but there was no time to linger in a cafe or have a swim. We were rushed back to the hotel for no apparent reason. The climbs to the old villages with their narrow cobbled streets were probably the highlight. There was no wow factor and for the first time with Explore I came away feeling a little short changed - clearly a work in progress. Nevertheless, a good group made for an enjoyable week.

Early September in Albania was too hot for walking! It was also very humid on some of the walks, particularly day 1. I enjoyed the coastal walks with opportunity to swim on more remote beaches. Our guide Besi was fantastic. He was well organised and good fun. He took us to some great places to eat.

The actual countryside is beautiful, the hotels good, the people nice but the tour itinerary was ill thought out, 2 days just wasted. It could have been so much more than it turned out to be.

Everything was fine except for the 10 hour wait at Tirana airport !!!!!!