Walking in Albania

A challenging experience in the most stunning scenery which offers a reasonable balance between walking and sight seeing.

A fabulous holiday - superb landscape, wonderful ancient history, inspiring modern history, extremely hospitable people, we were treated like guests not tourists and the walking was good too!

We completed this walk in mid September so experienced good walking weather conditions, not too hot plus rain at night, how considerate. The trip was just as described in the detailed trip notes involving some stunning high mountain walking plus a range of terrific other non exertive cultural experiences. Phew. Instead of entering back into our rather luxurious new Mercedes coach on day one after a delicious lunch in Shkodër we crammed into this battered rough and tough old blue bus with no seatbelts and mis matched seats. This wonderfully set the scene for all that we were about to head on a trip into serious back country. Great fun.

Like the other nine people in my Exodus group I had only a vague preconceived image of what to expect in Albania ; possibly a rather drab, depressed society still struggling to free itself from the recent shackles of communism but with the compensatory prospect of some decent walking in a remote and little-known corner of Europe.The reality was almost overwhelming : the scenery (whether mountain or coastal) was stunning, towns and cities were bright and lively, clean, and seemingly safe; the depth of history and heritage was fascinating; and the locals were exceptionally friendly and welcoming wherever we went.

My advice is to visit Albania soon before everyone else catches on! At the moment it feels relatively tourist free and undiscovered to those who like an adventure.

I felt we spent too much time in the bus and not enough time walking and exploring. Sometimes we didn't know where we were going because our guide had only told the people at the front of the group. It would help if the guide said where we were and whether we would need walking boots or swimsuits etc. Otherwise it was an excellent trip - we saw a lot of southern Albania.

This trip offers a combination of (fairly serious) walking and culture, and as such might be slightly mis-named, in that the walking is concentrated at the start and the trip then becomes more of a mix - this is worth pointing out in case you are expecting heavy duty walking every day. It didn't bother me though, I loved the mix and exploring this fascinating country still struggling with its new freedom whilst also giving the old legs a bit of a stretch. There's a fair bit of travelling around, but nothing too serious, and I found the day trip into Kosovo provided an extra dimension.

Overall an enjoyable holiday with a mix of scenery/walking/culture. The hotels were generally very good -better than I expected-except the last one Teater Kame. It had a nice swimming pool but the chalets had a rather run down feel. The shower head in my room was broken -more water went over the shower room ceiling than over me- although at least the water was hot. Also the hand rail outside my chalet was broken -with nails and screws exposed. The food was generally good although 5 people (luckily I was not one of them) suffered food poisoning at one hotel.

A well thought out itinerary to show various places of interest as well as good walks off the beaten track

This is a really great trip combining some really challenging walking in wonderful, completely unspoilt mountainous terrain for the first half of the trip and a short exploration of Albanian culture for the second half. The accommodation in the mountains in very friendly, family run guest houses was beyond my expectations and always very clean - a great experience. The food, particularly at Valbone, was excellent and plentiful. It was a great pleasure to visit a country/region where tourism has not yet arrived!