Spending 2 weeks in Albania is a great idea for families, couples and singles due to its diversity. That’s exactly how much time I spent there – of course, you can’t travel around the whole country in that time, but you can see quite a lot.  And even go to neighboring MacedoniaSpending two weeks in Albania is a great idea for families, couples and singles due to its diversity.

I decided not to duplicate content from other blogs and not to give advice and ready-made recipes for visiting Albania. I spent my holidays in this country and this post will be about my impressions of the trip: what surprised me, what I liked/didn’t like, the people and the food.

Years ago, when I lived in Greece, Albanians were not a particularly liked nation, and my few contacts with them didn’t make me enthusiastic about their country. With such memories, and somewhat prejudiced against their copuntry, I decided to spend 2 weeks in Albania. Am I still prejudiced? Read on.

Travel:

Flights from Italy to Tirana cost pennies, but we decided to go by car. From Bari we took a ferry to Vlore (Valona in Italian) and back to Bari after two weeks. The ship was almost three hours late both ways; loading the cars in Bari took forever. What surprised me (despite my prejudices) was that packing/unpacking the ferry went much more smoothly on the Albanian side. Although Italians and organizational skills don’t go hand in hand; they never even stood by each other, I still expected more chaos in Albania.

2 weeks in Albania by car – how to drive there.

We spent our holidays in Albania by car and it was the most convenient option. The roads, at least the main ones, are no worse than those in southern Italy (comparison again); in many places they are better. Apart from a few (fortunately) idiots, Albanians generally drive normally. However, their tendency to cut bents is irritating and dangerous, so out of the blue you can have an oncoming car in your lane. We had a few situations like that, one on a very winding narrow mountain road, where there was nowhere to run. On the other hand, in the area around Pogradec and near the Macedonian border there are a lot of turtles on the roads. Hallelujah, we didn’t kill any of them.

What surprised me:

There were a few things that surprised me in 2 weeks in Albania. First was the fact that the vegetation in Albania has such vivid colors; I expected a faded, dried-out green, something like Greece or southern Italy. The second surprise was that it’s cleaner than, for example, in Puglia or Campania. The third – the incredibly blue color of the sea and how beautiful the Albanian coast is. And I live by the same sea.

Another super positive surprise is the number of all kinds of small businesses, shops, workshops, etc. You can see right away that chain stores haven’t flooded Albania yet and together with the corporation-loving EU, they still haven’t finished off small entrepreneurs. But everything is ahead of them after joining the union.

Buildings – I wouldn’t say it’s a surprise, because it wasn’t my first time in the Balkans, so Balkan architectural fantasy isn’t  foreign to me. Despite this, some buildings shocked me. The biggest wonder that just hit me in the eye was the hotel in Elbasan. Apart from the building itself, gosh… what was there! Deer, lanterns, a booth, hippolytes, women with tits, bears, pink benches…

 

I wanted to see this wonder inside, but unfortunately the hotel was closed. It’s weird that tourists didn’t want to spend their 2 weeks inn Albania in this architectural wonder.

Cables – how electricity is brought to homes is a masterpiece. I wonder what the statistics are for accidents at work, especially when installing them. And how on earth do they know which wire needs to be replaced in the event of a failure.

Where to stay in 2 weeks in Albania:

We divided our Albania holiday into two parts: a week in the south, staying in Dhermi, and a week more or less in the middle: 3 days in Berat and 3 days in Pogradec. In addition, 1 and a half of a day in Macedonia, a dozen or so hours in Tirana and a few in Kruje.

2 weeks in Albania – what I liked (in random order).

Dhermi, a part of which lies by the sea and a part in the mountains. The town is nothing special, but it is a good base for trips downhill while spending your vacation in Albania. We rented a house in the upper part of the town, which I think is worth visiting, going to the streets above the main road. I really like stone houses and narrow streets with flowers, so the highest part of Dhermi hit my taste. And besides, the view from the top is great.

Beautiful Holt Canyon (Kanioni and Holtes) with various depths of blue, sometimes warm (supposedly), and sometimes very cold, sulfur-smelling water. The walls of the gorge are grayish, which matches the color of the springs flowing between them. You can walk on the streams, and I don’t remember stepping in a place where the water was warm. My task was only cold.

 

 

I ended my tour of the canyon behind a large boulder, which required either climbing it or walking around it by wading through the water, which I did. And this time I was immersed in the icy flow up to my chest. An unnecessary sacrifice, because it turned out that the gorge narrowed so much that it was impossible to see how long or how deep the next stream was. Possible swimming through this part was out of the question. When we were leaving the gorge, we heard knocking and saw people running in panic through the middle of the canyon: rocks were falling from above, so we hid under the wall waiting out the heavy rain. It was incredibly lucky that none of the escaping people got hit in the head, because the rocks were falling right into the middle of the gorge, from such a height even the smallest piece of rock can make a solid boogeyman. That’s the kind of surprise during two weeks in Albania: a rock falls on your head.

Gjipe Canyon and Beach – we reached the beach by a path through the mountains. The trail is decently marked and generally easy. There are several viewpoints on the way to the green-gold-turquoise coast. Even though I live by the same sea, I like the color of the Albanian Adriatic more. Apart from that, the beach is a beach, but the sea is great.

Gjipe Canyon looks very innocent at first; only here and there are boulders. After walking a few dozen meters, the landscape begins to change, to the point where it becomes difficult. The rock blocks are so large and high that they can only be overcome by climbing ropes, of which there are 10. We did the first two (it was easier uphill than down) and returned to the beach. I think that going through the whole canyon requires a guide, so I will attack it next time.

Blue Eye is a stunning natural, over 50m deep, spring that springs out of the Bistricë River. The water in the eye has a wonderful crystal turquoise color and is cold. Blue Eye and the river look like a huge aquarium with underwater plants, fish, stones and tree branches.

 

 

There is a path running along the river, it is worth walking along it, feasting your eyes on the blue water flowing lazily surrounded by greenery… this place looks like it is from the tropics. Blue Eye is popular and was a bit crowded, but the natural circumstances are still overwhelming.

A small sandy beach right behind Porto Palemo, unfortunately I do not remember the name. The blue of the water is striking, so the beach is easy to spot. There is a road leading down to it, and there is a small parking lot on the opposite side of the road. It is difficult to park there, so we left the car a few hundred meters away. It was worth it.

Gjirokaster, a very nice city. Apart from the incredibly friendly locals, Gijokastro offers monuments such as the castle and Skenduli House, whose owner and guide uses a mixture of single words collected from probably every possible language. A funny experience.

 

Additionally, the city is full of restaurants, bars, shops, etc.

Cold Water is a picturesque and refreshingly cold river; we stopped there for a few hours on the way to Berat. Lying under the trees in the shade and then wading in the river against the current, I came to the conclusion that this may not be our last 2 weeks in Albania. The river was a great place, especially in such hot weather.

Berat – called the city of a thousand windows and probably the most beautiful city in Albania. Indeed, delightful with a very nice atmosphere. There’s a nice castle there, from which there is a beautiful view of Berat (better in the evening) and where there’s a beautiful little orthodox church.

Ujëvara e Bogovës Waterfalls – I walked about 20 minutes in full sun, so I jumped into the icy water with great pleasure. The place is very popular and probably much nicer in spring, when it rains, the snow melts and the waterfall is fuller of water.

The Osum River Canyon (Kanionet e Osumit) is one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen, and not to skip if you’re staying 2 weeks in Albania.  We had planned to have rafting, unfortunately due to the low water level of the river, it did not take place.

 

 

But we still managed to see a large part of the gorge from the inside on foot. I really liked the canyon walls carved by water erosion. In my opinion, an absolutely great place.

There was a group of Germans in the canyon who tried to have something like rafting in water with gusts reaching up to their thighs. It looked funny.

Pogradec – the most ‘Albanian’ of the places we visited and the last place we stayed during 2 weeks in Albania. It’s not a particularly interesting city in itself, however there is a pretty nice big park Driloni which helps to cool down during the heat, as well as Tushemishti Lin Korce. From Lin Korce we walked a long way along the path along Lake Ohrid admiring its beautiful sea colours.

Tirana – in my opinion it’s a pretty cool place for a city break, even though it’s not beautiful at all. What I liked was the multitude of small shops, restaurants, bars etc. and plenty of space to walk around. There’s not much to see there, but in my opinion it’s a great destination for a city break and eating, drinking, walking and maybe buying something.

Kruje – this is where we actually started our 2 weeks in Albania, because apart from the airport in Tirana (to pick up our friends), it was the first town we visited. Kruje is a very nice village, with good coffee and ice cream.

What we could skip:

A boat trip to the caves (Pirates Cave and Pigeons Cave). In  Dhermi, (there’s anice beach to spend 2 weeks in Albania), we rented a boat; on the way there is also Dipje Beach, which we had been to the previous day, so we were only interested in the caves. The cruise normally costs 120 euros (for 4 people), but if you pay 30 euros extra, the boat will take you to the places you want to spend 2-3 hours.

We entered the Pirates Cave and left; we managed to take a few photos of this beautiful cave, and spent the rest of the time on the beach in the Pigeon Cave. After 3 hours, as agreed, the boat came to pick us up. Was it worth it? No, 150 euros could be spent in a more enjoyable way to make your 2 weeks in Albania even better. While the Pirates Cave is indeed impressive, the visit lasted a minute. The Pigeon Cave can be reached from Dipje Beach by a path. The cave is cool, the turquoise-crystalline sea is great and if I’d never seen a cave and lived by the sea, I would probably be truly delighted.

In Dhermi we went to the Angelos Souvlaki & Grill restaurant recommended by Internet users. I can’t share the general enthusiasm for this place. The food is good, the gyros pita too, even if it’s served with some strange grey sauce, the prices are also ok. What is not ok is the very swaggering waiter we got; and I don’t mean the service like in a 5-star restaurant, but the normal taking order without eye rolling, sighing and  foot stomping. On top of that, the owner was yelling at the employees.

Ksamil, a popular holiday destination in Albania built up with hotels and apartments. We planned to spend half the day there and the rest in Saranda. We run away from Ksamil after 30 minutes, and we didn’t even make it to Saranda.

Spending 2 weeks in Albania is a great thing. I think I’ll go back there, this time to the north.