Albania Small Group Trips

Our tour leader, Besa, was excellent - knowledgeable, articulate, sensitive to occasional individual needs or preferences and with enough experience to run our itinerary with the flexibility that, for example, avoided the worst of Tirana's traffic, or the busiest period of the day at popular sites or the best time of day to see certain viewpoints. Our driver, Astrit, was extremely safe and patient, having held an Albanian driving license for many decades. High praise for both; a really well thought out trip taking in many highlights of a little known, but beautiful country, culture and people.

Interesting visit to Albania as it begins to gear up for tourism. Scenic drives through mountainous countryside, archaeological sites, some attractive towns and villages to visit, although the capital Tirana and coastal towns we visited suffer from too many high rise blocks and a surfeit of Communist era concrete. Fascinating and complex history to learn about. A different cuisine to try out - meat heavy and plentiful portions, although vegetarians are also well catered for. Service in restaurants needs improvement as different parts of our food order didn’t come together. Promotion of Albanian crafts and goods such as honey and olive oil needs improvement as there was very little in terms of souvenirs, postcards, guide books etc

This trip had everything, loads of history, museums, mountains, forests, thermal springs, farm hospitality, local crafts, pretty towns, coastal resorts all visited at a comfortable pace. A wonderful insight into a lesser known country, brought to us by our excellent guide, Tedi, who was so knowledgeable and interesting to listen to, but also great fun to travel with. Thank you Tedi and Explore.

This is a superb holiday, with fantastic scenery throughout - especially the sailing up the lake and the walk over the pass to Theti. Our guide Albi was very attentive whilst maintaining a great sense of humour and enjoyment. The accommodation is a little basic - but then we were in a remote part of Albania, and that was part of the appeal. Visiting Albania was an eye-opener in itself.

Albania was just as I'd hoped, beautiful scenery, lovely people and great food. The trip was well organised thanks to an excellent, knowledgeable tour leader, Tedi, I can't rate him enough! Our driver, Fati, was an exceptional and safe driver. If I had to criticise anything, it was the trip to the coast, Durres, not quite as idyllic as I imagined it would be, not that we spent a long time there. Perhaps we did not go to the 'nice' part! Overall I would recommend Albania.

Lovely trip to the Albanian Alps and lucky to have a great bunch of people in the group too. The treks were correctly graded at moderate. A good level of fitness and confidence walking on uneven terrain is needed. Accommodation was basic but better than I had anticipated. Albi was a great guide, who had to juggle the capabilities of quite a diverse group. He needs new jokes though ;-) Transport to and from guesthouses wasn’t always great. We didn’t always have working seat belts and one occasion there wasn’t evening seats for everyone. If eating in the evening as a group with vegetarians/intolerances, I’d recommend steering away from fixed menus as they really aren’t catered for. The individuals are left with basically a veggie soup and salad ending up being relatively expensive for what they had.