As most people have probably now seen, Albania has become very popular all over social media. When I said I was going to Albania to people who don’t have social media they were very shocked as to why. Albania has so much to offer from white sandy beaches, waterfalls and mountains.
Information
We flew from Bristol to Tirana, this was a three hour flight that cost us £80 each for a return.
A lot of people travel from Corfu via the ferry to Sarande but we also wanted to explore north Albania which is why we decided to fly here.
At Tirana airport there is a Vodaphone shop that I would recommend going to to get a SIM card. I am with EE and to use my phone in Albania it would cost about £10 a day for 1GB data. With Vodaphone we paid €25 for a SIM card which is able to be used for up to 21 days with 40GB data.
At the airport there are so many different car hire shops, if I was to do it again or recommend it to someone I would say hire a car instead of using public transport as it would have just been a bit more convenient. It costs about €300 for the week. The buses were great and a lot cheaper but it was difficult finding the times in each town – there is nothing online and you just have to rely on asking the locals where the buses go from and at what time.
In Albania you can pay with both Lek and Euros and it’s very easy to convert between (1 Euro = 100 Lek).
Journey to Ksamil
We decided to start our trip down south in Ksamil and work our way up the country.
From the airport we got a taxi to the bus terminal which is found just outside of Tirana about 25 minutes away from the airport. This taxi cost 2000 Albanian Lek (€20)
The bus terminal was pretty much a giant carpark full of different buses with signs to destinations on the front. The bus drivers are all very helpful and pointed us in the direction of a bus going to Sarande which cost us €12 (1200 Lek) each.
We arrived at the bus terminal at 2:15pm and the bus didn’t leave until 4pm. The bus driver loaded our bags on and we went and enjoyed a drink in a local cafe.
The bus did have “air con” but it was basically just blowing warm air around the bus. The journey down to Sarande takes just over four hours.
Once we got here we then had to get a taxi to Ksamil where we had booked our accommodation for the night – this taxi took 25 minutes and cost us €20 (2000 Lek).
The hotels in Albania are very affordable and we were shocked at the prices of the more luxury hotels. We didn’t actually book our hotels in advance we decided to just book them as we went along as we weren’t sure where we were going to be.
Where to stay
We booked Hotel Monel on Booking.com and it was £50 each for two nights and for this we got a king size bed in a large room with a private bathroom and a balcony overlooking the pool and breakfasts included. I couldn’t recommend this hotel enough. The staff were so friendly and welcoming. They even upgraded our room and gave us a bottle of wine to celebrate my birthday.
The breakfasts here were INCREDIBLE. There was a buffet where you could get cereal, bread and various jams. They also then brought you a fruit salad, sandwiches and some form of egg dish (omelette, fried egg etc).
CLICK HERE TO BOOK HOTEL MONEL
Ksamil
We headed to Black Pearl Ksamil which is a beach bar with nets over the water to sunbathe in. It really gave off a Maldives vibe. It was €25 to hire the net for the day – you also get a big double bed lounger as well which is where we kept our belongings. They have a great cocktail menu and they cost €6 (600 Lek) each. The water here is beautiful and crystal clear. They also run boat trips out to the island from here too.
There were plenty of places to eat and drink, on the first night we headed to a grill where they served various grilled meats with chips and on the second night we went to a pizza restaurant. Dishes in both restaurants were around €6 (600 Lek).
On our last night in Ksamil we met with some friends and went to Bermuda Lounge which is a cocktail bar. Here they had happy hour until 9pm and all cocktails were €5 (500 Lek).
Sarandë
The next morning we checked out and headed to Sarandë. We had just missed the bus and didn’t want to wait two hours in the heat so instead we got a taxi that cost us €20 (2000 Lek).
We stayed at Hotel Qurku 2. This was a very central location and only a short 5 minute walk down to the harbour. The room had a large king size bed, a private bathroom and a balcony. It cost us €10 each for the night.
Sarandë reminded us of your average busy harbour town with lots of restaurants, tourist shops etc. There were also a lot of bars, party boats and it was busy with teenagers.
We only stopped here as we wanted to go diving and one of the tours we wanted to do went from here.
What to do in the area
We booked a tour which included a visit to a local vineyard, a stop to see the castle and a stop for a swim at the Blue Eye.
We booked this using Viator. The highlight of the tour was the Blue Eye for us. This is a natural spring with crystal clear blue waters. You could jump on a little train (for €2) that took you down to the Blue Eye instead of walking all the way in the heat. It was so beautiful and we could not get over the colour of the water!!
The water temperature was 9 degrees and we jumped in and had a little swim – it was very refreshing! There were dragon flies all the way along the stream from the Blue Eye and these were so blue as well!
We had dinner in Sarandë at a fast food place on the main street – we had Gyros which cost only €3 each!! We avoided eating on the harbour front as all of the restaurants were quite a bit more expensive.
The next morning we started nice and early at 8am and walked over to Sarandë dive centre. This was a short 15 minute walk from our hotel. The dive cost €60. We headed out by boat to a shipwreck. The shipwreck was from WW2 and it was absolutely huge!! We were also lucky enough to spot a Lionfish.
After our dive we decided we didn’t want to stay another night here as the beaches were too stoney to chill on so we decided to jump on a bus and head up to Gjirokastër.
Gjirokastër
When we got off our bus in Gjirokastër we were greeted by a lovely Taxi driver called Elio (Taxi Gjirokaster Elio). At this point we did not have much of a plan of what we were doing or where we were going but he helped us plan our route. He dropped us off in the old town and told us to drop him a text when we were ready to be picked up. We left him with our suitcase so we didn’t have to carry it around (which we felt a little uneasy about of course!).
This was just such a beautiful town – we hadn’t even planned to stop here originally but we were so glad we did.
The whole town is so picturesque with cafes and souvenir shops all along the cobbled streets. We walked up to the castle which had lovely views but we did not go inside as we did not want to pay. You only need a few hours here to explore the streets and stop for an ice cream or a drink.
We really wanted to go to Përmet from here as we wanted to go horse riding but the bus times just weren’t fitting with our plans.
Elio picked us up and drove us all the way to Përmet, this was just over an hours drive. He was great to chat to, told us a lot about the local area and also made a view point stop for us. He charged us €50 euros which included driving us to old town, looking after our suitcase for a few hours and then driving us to Përmet.
Përmet
The Vjosa river runs all the way along Përmet- the views on the drive there were incredible.
Elio dropped us off at Funky Guest House which is where we were stayed and where our horse riding trip went from.
We were given a large room with a double bed, bunk beds and a private bathroom. Breakfast was included and you could eat this on the balcony with a view of the main square. The room cost us €20 each for the night. It is a family run guest house and everyone was so friendly and welcoming.
We really loved the vibe in Përmet. There were hardly any tourists and it was really quiet and very beautiful.
Our horse riding trip started at 8:30am. Avenir drove us in his 4×4 to where the horses are. Here he gave us a little safety briefing and we jumped on our horses and headed out. We were so lucky that the other people on this ride had cancelled that morning so it was a private ride for myself and Meg. You can book this tour on GetYourGuide here : CLICK HERE TO BOOK.
We could not recommend doing this enough! We had the most amazing day. The horse trek is four hours long and you go through fields, forests, mountains and along the Vjosa river. The views are just spectacular. Avenir had a speaker with him and played us some country music along the way. We stopped for a break at a beautiful view point where Avenir produced some sangria, lots of fresh fruits, cakes and nuts from his bag. We stopped here for a while whilst the horses had a little wander and enjoyed snacking on the grass and mulberries. We were also joined by a local farmer who brought his sheep with him and his dog and puppies.
We also had a dog with us who was so sweet and stayed with us for the whole four hour ride!! We saw a lot of animals along the way including chickens, donkeys, cows, goats and even a tortoise!!
Once we got back we decided we wanted to go for a swim in the Vjosa river so we decided to stay another night in Përmet. We checked into GoGo Moustache Guest House. This was only €10 a night. This was newly built accommodation only a short 2 minute walk away from the main square. We had a large room with a double bed upstairs and two single beds and a private bathroom downstairs. The staff were all very friendly and the room was very clean with a cute little garden outside.
We walked down to the riverside where I sunbathed for a bit and Megs read her book. We then went for a swim in the fresh blue water and then headed back for a well needed sleep.
Tirana
The next morning we jumped on a bus to Tirana. This took just over 3 hours. From the bus station we got the public bus into Tirana centre (it says Kamza on the front). This took about 15 minutes and cost €0.40 each. From here we walked about 10 minutes to our accommodation. We stayed at Bricks Studio Apartments. This was a large apartment with a sofa, double bed, table and chairs, private bathroom and a fridge. It was on the 5th floor with no lift so was quite a long way up to carry a heavy suitcase (thanks Meg).
We spent the afternoon having a wander around Tirana, we headed to the main square and checked out some places to eat. We found a great restaurant called Mr Chicken which was really affordable at €3.60 per meal and very delicious. We also stopped for a crepe (€2) and an ice cream (€1) on our walk back to our apartment.
What to do in the area
We were desperate to head up north to visit the Albanian Alps so we booked a tour using GetYourGuide.
This tour took us up to Theth and was incredible from start to finish.
Henri our tour guide picked us up from our accommodation at 6:30am and we drove up two and a half hours to Qafe Thore where we stopped for a coffee and a view point stop.
We jumped back on the road for another hour and arrived in Theth. Everywhere you look in Theth is a photo opportunity, it is just so beautiful! After a guided tour around the village looking at historical landmarks including the church and the defence tower we started our hike up to Grunas waterfall. This was quite steep and hard work in the heat, but well worth it.
We then stopped for a lovely lunch with traditional Albanian dishes. The views at the restaurant of the mountains and crystal clear blue water were insane, we could have sat there all day and we were totally not expecting it on our lunch stop!!
After lunch we began our hike up to the Blue Eye, a natural spring/natural phenomenon. The whole way up you follow the clear blue river and multiple small waterfalls and it is absolutely magical. We jumped in for a swim and the water temperature was just 5 degrees. It was FREEZING!! Luckily I took a spare change of clothes as when walking back from the Blue Eye I slipped and fell into a fast moving stream and got very wet!!
This trip is an absolute must but you definitely need a good level of fitness as the hikes involve a lot of uphill climbing. Our tour guide Henri was great throughout the whole trip and was lovely to chat to.
We got back from the tour at 9:30pm so we skipped dinner and went straight to bed. The next morning we packed up and headed to the airport to catch our flight. Our accommodation arranged an airport shuttle for €22 euros for us.
Summary
Overall we had the most incredible trip. It was definitely one of my favourite countries I’ve visited – we saw so many different landscapes and all of them were just so beautiful.
It is likely that Albania is going to get very busy with tourists after there being so much circling the internet about it recently. The amount of tourists has gone up by 200% in the last year.
My main advice would be to hire a car, get a SIM card and explore as many places as you can – the whole of the country is just amazing. I wouldn’t recommend booking your accommodation in advance. We booked it on the day we planned to stay there as we never actually knew where we were going to be each night. A lot of the places we stayed also offered a cheaper last minute option on Booking.com.
All of the locals are so friendly and welcoming. A lot of them approached us to make sure we were ok and not lost and always seemed so happy being able to show us where to go etc.
Enjoy!!
Accomodation Summary:
Tirana : Bricks Studio Apartment
Ksamil: Hotel Monel
Sarande: Hotel Qurku 2
Permet: GoGo Moustache Guest House or Funky Guest House
Polly in Paradise 
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