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 !!!!!!

The first hotel in Vlora was not very good, the second one in Himare was great. The first morning's hike was too much of a climb with no shade in the heat and we stopped half way so was uninteresting. Our wonderful guide made up for it with an excellent impromptu walk in the afternoon. I especially enjoyed the walks where we were surrounded by the wonderful diverse flora of Albania. Tes, the guide was the best ever.

I booked my flight from Luton at 06.05, which arrived at Tirana at 10.10. I thought to wait until 15.00 to meet up was just about OK, but to then be told on Feb 24th that the meet up time was now 19.30 was very disappointing. Explore stated that I could go into Tirana by taxi or shuttle bus during the wait to meet up, which I did not want to do. I don't know the spread of arrival times for the rest of the group, but couldn't Explore have put on two transports to at least not waste the whole of the first day travelling for some people. I had left home at 02.00 on Saturday morning , and arrived at the hotel in Vlore at 22.45. I appreciate that this would be an extra cost on the bottom line for Explore, but spread across the whole of the group this would be a small sum. I think this was very inconsiderate scheduling on Explore's part, which usually is excellent. To end on a more positive note our guide Tes is the best guide I have had with Explore. Excellent knowledge, and quick to adapt to whatever the day threw up.

This was an excellent walking trip in a really beautiful country. The guide was extremely knowledgeable and keen for us to have the best experience. We were a group of 5 very friendly and interesting people.