I passed through customs in Saranda, Albania, at 2 PM on August 29th. I was thoroughly sunburnt from my days sunbathing and boat driving in the clearest waters Corfu could offer. After backpacking through mainland Greece for two weeks, I was thoroughly exhausted and needed a place to base myself for a little while and recover.
When I decided to travel to Albania, I was only planning on seeing the main cities. Saranda, Tirana, and maybe one more town, before hopping over to the rest of the Balkans.
I had no idea the grip Albania would soon have on me.
I fell in love with the people, the history, the mountains, the food, and the country itself.
As I am writing this, I am on a bus headed from Tirana, Albania to Ohrid, Macedonia.
Here is a compiled itinerary to take help you plan your Albanian journey - to help you make the most of your time.
Note: This guide can be done in reverse! I started my journey from Corfu, but it is entirely possible to start from the North down as well. If you fly directly into Tirana, you can adjust your schedule!
Protip: Albania is still a cash-driven society. Some hotels and supermarkets accept card but you need cash for almost everything else. If you withdraw money domestically, do it at Credins bank as there is no conversion fee. If you withdraw at OTP Bank it will charge 800 lekk for one transaction.
I began my journey here after a quick ferry ride from Corfu. I had five nights booked at a hostel here. You *do not* need five days for Saranda, but you can use it as a base to take day trips from. Days 1-3 I ended up sick and stuck in my hostel so I had to nix all the day trips I had planned. Days 4-5 I spent working in the hostel to make up for the three days lost to recovery.
Here is what I would have done had I not been sick.
Saranda/Himare - For any of the things I am recommending here after Day 1, it is possible to do from Himare. I did not stay there, but according to other travelers, it is better to base yourself in Himare than Saranda. The beaches in Himare have clearer water and less tourists. Also consider visiting Ksamil while in the area!
Arrive in Saranda and settle into your accommodation. Go for a swim at any of the nearby beaches. Grab a nice meal at any of the nearby restaurants.
In the evening, walk down by the boardwalk at night and enjoy the array of boats.
Hop onto the pirate boat if you’re feeling up for a party!
Go on any of the tours advertised by the boardwalk that takes you to the surrounding beaches for the day. Tours average around 20 Euros and will take you to some of the most secluded, beautiful beaches. Another popular option is to take a jeep adventure tour.
This UNESCO World Heritage Site is just a few kilometers outside of the city.
The ruins remain relatively undiscovered by tourists. Spend three or four hours walking around and taking pictures. Busses depart regularly from Saranda, but you will have an easier time if you drive. Odds are that someone at your hostel has a car, so you can all go together!
Here is where you can split your trip in two different ways. What I did is ride with a friend from the hostel to go to the famous Blue Eye. Do not skip over the blue eye! You will feel like you are in a fairytale nestled within the mountains. Even though the car park looked packed, the blue eye itself was relatively empty.
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After this, drive the extra forty minutes to Gjirokaster.
If you drive, you can see the main sights in three to four hours. From there you can return back to Saranda, but I recommend staying at least one night at Stone City Hostel - ranked the best hostel in Albania. The hostel felt like a home with cozy couches and family-style breakfasts every morning.
I still dream of the owner’s - Brenna, a kindhearted American woman - homemade cakes. Staying here was the highlight of my trip. So much so that I ended up staying four nights.
For meals around Gjirokaster, you cannot miss The Barrels. It is a vineyard located about ten minutes outside of Gjirokaster city center. I felt like I was in Tuscany. The food is all homemade by a lovely Albanian mother. The son works as a server. It was so good I ended up going twice. We had a five course meal and two liters of wine - red and white - for under $13 USD.
Every day there was some sort of excursion with the hostel. The owner guided walking tours around the city and gave a full history of the town. The next day there was a sunset hike. On the last day, he took a group on a hike to a nearby waterfall. For this reason alone I would recommend at least three nights in Gjirokaster, but if you are crunched on time you could stay only one.
This is where I would do things differently. I did not go to Birat, but other travelers say that it is one of the best towns in Albania. Everyone recommended one afternoon to explore the town, stay one night at a hostel, and take a canyon tour the next day - organized by the hostel.
Tirana is the capital city of Albania. The good news for travelers is that almost everything to see and do in the city is located in one central area - Skandeberg Square.
Join the free walking tour that meets here every day at 10 AM and 6 PM to get the full history of Albania and Tirana.
You do not have to plan your days here too strictly because the guides can tell you the quickest and most efficient ways to see the city. I highly recommend grabbing meals by the Old Bazaar. In the evening, the area comes to life with families enjoying the cooler weather and children blowing bubbles.
This is a small big-city in the North of Albania. Travelers recommend one to two nights here. The area is filled to the brim with rich history and overflowing nature.
Spend a nice day cycling along Shkoder Lake - bike rentals available at most hostels - or browse through the photography museum. Plan a few hours to look through Site of Witness and Memory museum.
Travelers use Shkoder as a launch point for the Theth - Valbona hike through the Albanian Alps. If you stay at a hostel, they will organize everything for you and you can leave the next day. Most people recommend at least two days in Theth to stay at a guesthouse run by local Albanian families that come up for the hiking season.
I recommend Shpella Inn.
It is one of the cutest, quaintest villages in Albania. Theth became my favorite place I visited in the Balkans. I still dream of the sunny nature, friendly locals, and winding roads.
Most guesthouses there provide free breakfast, but dinner is harder to come by and more expensive than anywhere else I've seen in Albania. Plan to spend a bit more at some of the local restaurants or pack ready-to-make meals.
Take one day to enjoy Theth to enjoy nature, and the next to do the hike to Valbona. From Valbona you can ride back to Shkoder.
Refresh and relax. Catch a bus to Tirana to fly out, or head to your next destination!
Average hostel: $15 Per night. The more north I went the more expensive they became, but nothing ever cost over $25 USD. The most I paid for accomodation was Shpella Guesthouse in Theth. There, I paid $40 for a bunk.
Air BNB in Tirana: About $30 per night (this was a splurge for me. This was for an entire apartment. If you are traveling with multiple people it will drive the cost per person down.)
About $4 for a good, filling meal at an average restaurant. If you go out for fine dining it will on-average cost $12-20 USD. I also bought groceries to cook while in the Air BNB in Tirana and found that what I spent on groceries would have averaged out to eating out every day for all of my meals.
Transportation: The busses in Tirana cost 40 lekk per ride (about 30 cents). Every other bus, depending on distance, will cost between 200-1500 lekk domestically. The international bus to Ohrid was 2500 lekk.
Entrance fees/tickets: Almost everything in Gjirokaster cost 200 lekk to enter, so altogether under $10 USD to see everything there. The Blue Eye was 50 lekk (about 40 cents) .The national history museum in Tirana was 500 lekk (about 4.5 USD). The National History Museum was great! If you go to The National History Museum make sure you have Google Translate instant-scan ready to go so that you can understand, as not a lot of things have been translated to English.
Sim card: I did not get a sim card because I did not feel like I needed it, but there were signs all around the cities from Vodafone and ONE advertising a 35GB tourist pack for 2000 lekk. I survived by downloading Google Maps offline and using restaurant wi-fi wherever I went.
Any questions? Email me at @encompassed.travels@gmail.com
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