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Albanian Riviera

not-bono-ever

not-bono-ever

meh
Ok - looks like I will have a job next month, so the 1 month drive /camp to croatia is out of the window. will be looking at a fortnight in corfu, with the middle week in Albania, south of Vlore to the greek border- the "riviera"

been to Alb a few times, but not with the family & not this far south

anyone got an experience of the 'hood and where to stay/ what to do ? it will be primarily beach and snorkelling, but open to suggestions. am googling furiously at the minute...

cheers
 
The area near Vuno is REALLY nice. Dermi, Himere etc. Quite popular with Albanians on holiday (living abroad etc) as well as Kosovans. I stayed there for a week or so, was great. Good, beautiful coast, cheap, nice people, not too bad roads and buses from Vlor available.

I worked in Sarande a month, and while the town is quite concretey, there are some dead nice places to stay if you look around a bit. This area is truly fabulous as well. Butrint's amazing Greek/Roman well-preserved ruins , castles, sri kalta (sp?) "blue eye" lagoon, lovely countryside for walking, lagoons and the national park, you could probably get a boat and go exploring.

This area right in the south is really near Greece too, so you could cross the border or get the ferry to Corfu and explore there. It's a bit expensive the boat relatively, but would be fun i'd imagine.

Wikitravel page useful.
 
will be entering via Corfu and renting a car ( that should be loltastic ) and drifting around. Looking to be doing lots of snorkelling and wandering about - the national parks look good and have ID'd a couple of lodges in the mountains to stay in. Will initially stay in Sarande but will move on in a day or two.Butrint is a must, bu the kids are a bit Ruin weary after Pompeii and Herc at easter. Looking forward to it

Cheers for the pointers!
 
Riklet said:
The area near Vuno is REALLY nice. Dermi, Himere etc. Quite popular with Albanians on holiday (living abroad etc) as well as Kosovans. I stayed there for a week or so, was great. Good, beautiful coast, cheap, nice people, not too bad roads and buses from Vlor available.

I worked in Sarande a month, and while the town is quite concretey, there are some dead nice places to stay if you look around a bit. This area is truly fabulous as well. Butrint's amazing Greek/Roman well-preserved ruins , castles, sri kalta (sp?) "blue eye" lagoon, lovely countryside for walking, lagoons and the national park, you could probably get a boat and go exploring.

This area right in the south is really near Greece too, so you could cross the border or get the ferry to Corfu and explore there. It's a bit expensive the boat relatively, but would be fun i'd imagine.

Wikitravel page useful.
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oh yes dont suppose you know any Ok car hire places in Saranda ?

cheerz
 
fucking hell. 10 years and and I am taking the now grown up family for a tour of Northern Albania. They dont remember much about it- ive been a few times since, but it will be relatively new for them. Doing the Usual golden circle of Tirana/ Beaches/ Ohrid / Berat over a couple of weeks. They have been advised that there will be a signifcant amount of urbex as i am paying. they grimaced
 
Ok, was held for a while , made to delete my pics and sternly warned that incursion into a live NATO airfield might get me shot. Luckily the recently deleted pics folder is intact
 
not-bono-ever said:
Stupid

Men with ak’s dragging me off isn’t what they came in holiday for.
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What the heck were you photographing :eek:

I'm off to Albania again for a 5 day mini break! Super excited can't wait! I havent been since 2011 so I guess it will have changed. Definitely seems more expensive as I'm poor as fuck but my GF is suggesting staying in a hotel that costs 64 quid a night.... I guess I was thinking in terms of prices from 12 years ago!! Any recommendations for accommodation in Tirana?

We are undecided on itinerary afterwards. 2 days Tirana maybe 3 days somewhere else? Berat or the beach probably. Don't want to travel too much. Open to suggestions!
 
Riklet said:
What the heck were you photographing :eek:

I'm off to Albania again for a 5 day mini break! Super excited can't wait! I havent been since 2011 so I guess it will have changed. Definitely seems more expensive as I'm poor as fuck but my GF is suggesting staying in a hotel that costs 64 quid a night.... I guess I was thinking in terms of prices from 12 years ago!! Any recommendations for accommodation in Tirana?

We are undecided on itinerary afterwards. 2 days Tirana maybe 3 days somewhere else? Berat or the beach probably. Don't want to travel too much. Open to suggestions!
Click to expand...
IMG_7522_Original.jpegIMG_7522_Original.jpegIMG_7514_Original.jpegIMG_2821_Original.jpegIMG_7514_Original.jpeg
 
Riklet said:
What the heck were you photographing :eek:

I'm off to Albania again for a 5 day mini break! Super excited can't wait! I havent been since 2011 so I guess it will have changed. Definitely seems more expensive as I'm poor as fuck but my GF is suggesting staying in a hotel that costs 64 quid a night.... I guess I was thinking in terms of prices from 12 years ago!! Any recommendations for accommodation in Tirana?

We are undecided on itinerary afterwards. 2 days Tirana maybe 3 days somewhere else? Berat or the beach probably. Don't want to travel too much. Open to suggestions!
Click to expand...
It’s gone up a bit but not Croatia prices. Berat is good for a day or two. Durres is an hour down the road for beaches. Skhodra up cost a bit for wildlife and water . Hoxha main bunker up in the hills above Tirana is worth a couple of hours
 
So Albania in 2024 much different from 2011 unsurprisingly. It was insanely hot the week we were there... 36 to 38 degrees every single day. Including on the coast. Hugely more touristy and busy, the airport was absolutely rammed!! It's clearly in fashion nowadays, maybe not as mad as Croatia and Montenegro though.

A lot more expensive... for everything. We paid between 50 and 80 euros a night for accomm. Transport between towns not bad, taxis an absolute scam. Petrol is 1.80€ a litre there so quite expensibe. It's maybe cheaper than Greece or Italy during summer but still not Super Balkans Cheap. Infrastructure was a bit better and transport too.. but still not great. Beaches were dirty and badly looked after which was sad to see. Life must be bloody hard for most Albanians you can see why they emigrate. Lots of people spoke English, more than before, and some extremely well. They are good with languages the Albanians.. managed to get by with broken Italian and a bit of Albanian if they didn't speak English.

Didnt really have any amazing food but it was mostly good or ok. Had some nice traditional food in Kruje up in the mountains though. Food was no longer cheap either especially in Dhermi on the Riviera. Got charged 2 fucking euros for an espresso there and 4.50 for a box of eggs. Had lots of good giros shwarma fast food though to be fair. Also met some lovely people from Kosovo.. which Im now much keener to go to than back to Albania/the busy parts of Albania. Then check out the in-land parts of the Balkans, maybe Slovenia Croatia and Serbia.

I liked Durres I have to say. Very "normal" city but clean and very Med feeling.. reminded me of Italy, Spain, also Crete. Also was cooler there. Albanian Riveria seemed like a victim of its own success really with privatised beaches and no where to sit for free, high prices, crummy infrastructure and overpriced accommodation.

I went with a GF and we argued and then agreed to break up on the trip but still had lots of good filthy fun :D and enjoyed ourselves. It wasn't a bad holiday or a bad experience but just too hot and intense really. I have to say if you go to Albania dont expect too much with the Riviera honestly... go to the mountains, the interior or maybe down to Sarande and near there with Butrint and where the beaches are amazing and hopefully less of a rip off than the Dhermi/Himare area. I'll go to a cheaper part of Greece next time I think for the sea, much cleaner and better food/restaurants for the money and just less scammy overall than parts of Albania.
 
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