Sleep in Tirana. Wake up somewhere else.
A canyon lake before lunch, a stone town by four, the Ionian the next morning. Albania is small enough to run from one base, and most of its best days out cost less than dinner. Reviews of every tour you can book here.
Komani, the Alps, Grama Bay, and a bazaar lunch in Tirana.
Four days out that decide what the rest of the trip looks like. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The gorge boatShala river & Komani lake -Day trip departure from Tirana/ShkodraUp Komani Lake and into the Shala, on the ferry the villages up there use as a road. The photographs do not oversell it.
02The Alps dayAlbanian Alps and Theth Village Day Tour from TiranaTheth under the Accursed Mountains, three hours north of Tirana on a road that only recently stopped being a rumour.
03The Riviera dayBlue Cave & Grama Bay Full Day Guided Boat TourGrama Bay and the Blue Cave by boat out of Vlorë. The water goes an unreasonable colour and there is no road in.
04The Tirana dayLocal food experience & walking tour of TiranaThe Pazari i Ri stalls, then a long lunch, then the streets the old regime kept off the map.
Nearly every Albanian day out leaves from Tirana. Pick which kind.
The capital sits within a morning of a canyon lake, two rafting rivers, a cave system and the Alps. Four kinds of day, what each costs to board, and how far you are really going.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Berat Tour Osumi Canyons Exploration Lunch Transfer
Bovilla LakeAn hour north of Tirana, a ridge to walk up, and green water in a canyon.
The canyon riversThe Osumi and the Vjosa, rafts and tubes, wet from the first minute.
The AlpsTheth and Valbona under limestone walls, a full day each way.
The cavesPellumbas and the sea caves off Karaburun, cool on the worst afternoon.
All 164 days out in Albania →
A full day out of Tirana starts at twelve dollars.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs a head. A surprising amount of the country sits in the first column.
Canyon hikes, city walks, castle entries and the lake days north of Tirana.
Full days: the Komani ferry, Berat and Gjirokastër, the Riviera boats, rafting the Osumi.
Private drivers, chartered boats out of Vlorë, and the two-country runs to Ohrid and Prizren.
Tirana, the Ionian, and four towns built out of stone.
A capital that painted itself back to life, a lake filling a canyon, two UNESCO towns of stone and timber, and beaches the rest of this sea has not got round to yet.
Berat and Gjirokastër are cut from the same rock and look nothing alike.
Berat stacks white Ottoman houses up a gorge above the Osum until the hillside is more window than wall. Gjirokastër roofs everything in grey slate and puts a fortress on top of it. Both are UNESCO, both are a day out of Tirana, and both cost less than the coast.
- 1Day Trip to Saranda and Butrint National Park from Corfufrom $68
- 2Berat city UNESCO tour, the Castle & Belshi lake- From Tiranafrom $12
- 3Kruja castle, the old Bazaar & Sarisalltik- Departure from Tiranafrom $24
The days out more travellers book than anything else in Albania.
The whole Albanian list →What each one costs, how long it takes, and what actually happens on it.
1
Hike Gamti Mountain with Bovilla lake view & canyon- From Tirana
Review of the Gamti Mountain hike from Tirana, with Bovilla Lake views, Ishëm Canyon, practical tips, costs, and honest drawbacks.
From · $12
Read our review →2
Day Trip to Saranda and Butrint National Park from Corfu
from $68
3
Berat city UNESCO tour, the Castle & Belshi lake- From Tirana
from $12
4
Walking Tour of Tirana
from $18
5
Kruja castle, the old Bazaar & Sarisalltik- Departure from Tirana
from $24
6
Albanian Night Show: Traditional Music, Dance & Dinner in Tirana
from $53
7
Hiking Tour to Bovilla Lake & Gamti Mountain
from $12
8
Berat Rafting, Kayaking & River Tubing – Osumi Canyons
from $54
South of Vlorë the road gives up and the boats take over.
Karaburun is a military peninsula and Sazan was a closed island, which is why the water round them is still empty. Grama Bay has no road in at all. Ksamil has islets you can wade between. This coast gets better the harder it is to reach.
A ferry that is a road, a fortress over slate, and 170,000 bunkers.
Ruins and beaches are everywhere on this sea. A cargo boat doubling as the only way north, a Roman city left to a marsh for four centuries, and a country that concreted itself against an invasion that never came are not.
The Komani Ferry
The reservoir behind the Koman dam drowned the only road north, so the ferry became the road. It carries cars, livestock, post and whoever is going to Fierzë, up a gorge narrow enough in places that the walls close over the bow. One boat each way each day, the deck fills with vehicles first, and it does not wait for you.
- 1Shala river & Komani lake -Day trip departure from Tirana/Shkodra★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 309 reviews
- 2Semi-Private Hiking Tour; Theth, Valbona & Koman Lake in 3 Days★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 28 reviews
- 3Self-Guided Hiking Tour: Theth, Valbona & Koman Lake in 3 Days★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 26 reviews
Hoxha’s bunkers
Enver Hoxha put something close to 170,000 concrete domes across a country of three million people: on beaches, in gardens, on mountain passes, against an invasion that never arrived. Most are still standing because breaking one costs more than ignoring it. Two of the big command bunkers under Tirana are museums now, and they are the strangest hour in the city.
- 1A Communist Manifesto: Tirana before and after★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 50 reviews
- 2The truest face of Communism★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 18 reviews
- 3Full-Day Tour of Albania’s Bunkers and Beaches, from Tirana★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 16 reviews
Butrint
Greek colony, Roman town, Byzantine bishopric, Venetian fort, all on one peninsula in a lagoon opposite Corfu, and then abandoned to the water for four hundred years. That neglect is why so much of it is still standing. The theatre floods, the mosaics stay under sand most of the year, and the gate shuts long before the light does.
- 1Day Trip to Saranda and Butrint National Park from Corfu★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 847 reviews
- 2Butrint, Ksamil, Blue Eye, Lekuresi Castle. All-in-one daytrip.★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 125 reviews
- 3Butrint, Blue Eye, Ksamil and Lekuresi Castle Tour From Saranda★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 102 reviews
Four Albanian bookings that run on somebody else’s timetable.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast. These four cannot. They run on one boat a day, a mountain pass with a season, and gates that shut earlier than you would like.
- 01Shala river & Komani lake -Day trip departure from Tirana/ShkodraOne ferry each way, each day, and cars take the deck first. Miss it and the alternative is a very long drive round.
- 02Albanian Alps and Theth Village Day Tour from TiranaThe Theth to Valbona crossing is a summer pass. Snow closes it, and the guesthouses at both ends are full weeks ahead of the season.
- 03The Stone City & Blue Eye- The monument of Nature.The spring is a small pool with a car park to match. Through July and August the queue starts back at the road, so take the first slot of the day.
- 04Day Trip to Saranda and Butrint National Park from CorfuLast entry is well before sunset and the site is far bigger than it looks from the car park. Turn up after lunch and you see half of it.
When Ksamil is shoulder to shoulder, go inland and go underground.
The Riviera in August is most of the Balkans on one strip of sand. The country directly behind it is empty and several degrees cooler: canyons with cold water in them, caves that hold their temperature all summer, a rafting river, and a kitchen with the shutters pulled to.
Tirana, Berat, Gjirokastër, Sarandë: the line almost everybody drives first.
The newest Albanian tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Llogara Caesar’s Path,Orikum Park & Marmiroi Church Guided Tour
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Tirana’s Communist Past: A Tasting Tour with Traditional Lunch
Read our review →
Cultural Tour in Tirana including House of Leaves
Read our review →
Apollonia and Ardenica Monastery – full day tour
Read our review →
SOTIRA WATERFALL HIKING/TREKKING from Berat by 1001 Albanian Adventures
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Albania Birdwatching, Kayaking, Bicycle National Park Divjaka Karavasta(ARG)
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