We hated our vacation to Albania, but you won’t!

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You all would agree when we say that vacations are supposed to be a fun and relaxing experience. Well, our Albanian trip was far from that. No, almost nothing was wrong with the country as our vacation was ruined by other peripheral factors. We hated our vacation to Albania, but you won’t! Let’s deep dive into our article where we will talk about what went wrong, and also provide a few highlights of our trip with a short itinerary.

Albania

Albania is one of the most underrated countries in the Balkan region offering gorgeous beaches and amazing food, and is super affordable, unlike other European countries.

What went wrong and how you can avoid going through the trouble

Let me start by saying that our vacation was hands down ruined by Lufthansa. Lufthansa used to be one of the most sought and poshest airlines but in recent years, their service, quality, and timeliness have taken a bit hit. We faced major issues on both sides of our trip.

It all started with neither the airline system nor the staff knowing about the visa requirements for Irish residents with Indian passports. We had written confirmation from the embassy that we didn’t need a visa and even then the staff took more than 1 hour to check us in.

Onward journey to Albania

During our onward journey, we reached Tirana almost at midnight with no bags, clothes, buggy, or anything else as the airline had checked in our carry-on luggage as well but failed to transfer our bags to the connecting flight (of course that was due to the first flight getting delayed). Then the courier company took their sweet time to finally deliver our luggage after multiple inquiries and follow-ups. We only finally got our luggage after 4 days i.e. halfway into the trip. You can imagine how tough it was for us with a toddler who likes dirting and changing at least 3 pairs of clothes each day. Top that with us starting our road trip with Theth where there were no shops to buy anything.

On our journey back home

While coming back the flight was delayed on the runway due to technical issues. The airline staff were very rude, especially towards our little toddler. After hours of waiting they gave small candies to everyone but not our child who occupied a full seat. But candies!? I mean they should have given us some sandwiches or a heavier bite for all that we had to endure. We missed our connecting flight and since we didn’t have a Schengen visa it was another nightmare to get a hotel room for the night. We finally landed post-noon the next day, ruining the first half of our working day.

By the way, Lufthansa only compensates 50% for the clothes you purchase and 100% for toiletries in a non-home country for delayed baggage. We didn’t keep the receipts for the initial few purchases so got compensated way less.

We were very stressed the entire trip, and to be honest, weren’t in the right frame of mind to explore or enjoy. So lesson for us is to never fly with Lufthansa even if it means that we are paying extra for alternate airlines.

8-day road-trip Itinerary for Albania

Let’s deep dive into the itinerary, and you can easily start to see how things went wrong and why we hated our vacation to Albania. With better planning, I am sure you won’t have such a terrible experience.

Having traveled to many European destinations and cities, we made a conscious choice to skip Tirana and don’t regret that decision. We focused on the smaller towns, mountains, and beaches and they were all lovely.

Our itinerary looked something like this, though, in a normal situation, we would have spent a lot more time researching and enjoying each destination. Anyways, we are putting all the information down, so you can plan your vacation better.

Day 0: Land at Tirana airport & rest for the night.

Since our flight landed late in the night, we chose to rest in N hotel by Noshi just a 10-minute walk from the airport. It was super convenient, considering our crazy situation.

Day 1: Drive to Theth with a lunch stop at Kruje

Kruje is just about 45-minute drive from Tirana International Airport and a charming town. It was one of the highlights of the trip as we were still hopeful about our luggage. So, mentally we were not in a bad place yet. Kruje Bazar is a short strip of cobbled street filled with vendors selling all sorts of souvenirs. In addition, if you have time, you can explore the castle of Kruje as well. We had to stop to buy clothes, toiletries, etc before starting our trip, so didn’t have much time to spare in Kruje.

From Kruje, we drove to Theth and witnessed the most amazing sunset on the way. The roads to the mountains aren’t in great condition and hence the speed limit was very low. It took us more than 4-5 hours to cover 160kms, which was quite frustrating.

Most of the guesthouses in Theth provide you with dinner options, but not all of them are edible. Our guesthouse charged 14 euros per person for a non-meat salad which tasted awful. We would suggest reaching Theth early so you don’t have to drive at night and also can enjoy some decent dinner. Also, we wouldn’t recommend the guesthouse we stayed at, so not linking here.

Day 2 – Explore Theth

There are amazing hiking options available in Theth, but since we were traveling with a tiny 3-year-old kiddo, we chose the safer option of hiking to Grunasi waterfall (Theth waterfall). We did a slow hike of letting our toddler walk and carrying her on our shoulders to complete the hike in 5 hours. The walk and the view are spectacular but it’s slowly getting ruined by commercialization and loud music played by cafes.

In the evening, we visited Theth church which was very high on my to-do list. The location and the backdrop are breathtaking. It starts getting crowded in the evening, but nothing compared to other European attractions.

We had our dinner at Villa GJECAJ Guesthouse and Restaurant and highly recommend this restaurant if you are in Theth. Their amazing food lifted our spirits.

Day 3: Drive to Berat and stay overnight

Theth to Berat is a 5-hour drive and can be easily covered if you don’t make any stops. However, the confusion regarding our luggage caused so much delay. Instead of leaving early morning, we started our journey only before mid-day and then decided to stop at Shkoder for lunch and some much-needed essentials shopping. If you are stopping at Skhoder, we highly recommend trying Restaurant Pizzeria Italia – mindblowing food.

By the time we reached Berat, it was already sunset time and we lost the entire day! We stayed overnight at Berati Castle Hotel and just walked around the castle to watch the most gorgeous sunset.

Day 4: Explore Berat and drive to Ksamil

I was determined to wake up early and go for a nice walk around the town. Let me tell you, it was cozy and charming. Old Town of Mangalem and Gorica Bridge are the main attractions there, and you don’t need more than a day to cover Berat.

Our original plan was to stop at Gijrokaster for lunch and then visit the Blue Eye before reaching Ksamil. But, by now you can tell how off we were from our itinerary and how ruined our trip was already. So, we never made it to the other pit stops. After lunch at Berat, we directly drove down to Ksamil and still had no news of our luggage.

We had booked a beautiful guesthouse in Ksamil – the Santa Olivia Suites, which was one of the highlights of the trip. However, it took a bit of time and effort to locate it, as the caretaker spoke no English and Google Maps couldn’t locate it. Just around the time we reached Ksamil, a man arrived with our luggage with everything intact.

We spent the evening at the beach as our little kiddo immediately wanted to go for a dip.

Day 5: Spend the day relaxing at one of the many beaches

Ksamil is known for all its beach parties with loud music. So, if that’s not your jam, we would suggest skipping Ksamil altogether and heading straight to Himare.

There are many many spots to choose from, some of them requiring a bit of hike as well. We decided to spend a day at Lori Beach as it’s one of the kid-friendly beaches in that area. You will need to rent out two sunbeds and an umbrella for around 15 euros, but they have parking at the site and a restaurant.

It was our first day of relaxing stress-free and our kiddo had a blast.

Day 6: Drive to Himare and enjoy Lvadhi Beach

The drive from Ksamil to Himare is about 1.5 hours and it’s stunning. Of course, by now you know how things weren’t going according to plan, so we completely missed stopping at two locations I had originally marked to visit and directly reached Himare.

The first one is the half-abandoned village of Upper Qeparo. It’s a unique little old town with some awesome views of the coastline.

The second spot worth visiting is the Castle of Porto Palermo. The castle has a combination of Ottoman and Venetian influences and is a unique site to visit.

We spent the day at Livadhi Beach in Himare. It’s one of the most stunning beaches in the location, and the extreme right end of the beach has a sandy grove which is perfect for small kiddos. There are some restaurants in the area, in case you are hungry. Of course, you need to rent the sunbeds and an umbrella for the day.

We stayed at Filoxenia Residence and liked the relaxed and green set-up away from the hustle and bustle of the town.

Day 7: Explore the beaches of Himare

Himare isn’t a party town like Ksamil, and there are a lot of nice cozy spots where you can spend your day. Some of the famous beaches in Himare are Gjipe Beach (though this one is over-commercialized now), Drymades Beach, and Gramma Beach. You can also consider taking a boat tour, from the numerous options available.

We also highly recommend going to Himare Castle for sunset. The views are amazing and the cooler weather will allow you to enjoy the location better. You can end your day at the Himare beach promenade with a lovely dinner and walk.

Our day was messed up and nothing went according to plan. So, I won’t even bother mentioning it here.

Day 8: Drive back to Tirana via Llogara pass

Himare to Tirana is about a 4-hour drive, but it might take longer due to road conditions, etc. This was our last full day of the trip. We decided to reach Tirana late at night to catch the flight the next day.

We stopped at Dhermi on our way back. None of us were excited about the pitstop and by now we were ready to go back home. But, I must say that Dhermi charmed us with its beauty. We struggled to find vegetarian food and it was an extremely hot day. However, our hike up to the Monastery of St. Mary was one of the highlights of our rather sad vacation.

Our drive to Tirana was via the Llogara pass during sunset and it was breathtaking.

In Summary: We hated our vacation to Albania, but you won’t

If you read our article, I think it’s apparent that our vacation was a disaster. But the photos tell a completely different story. We had a few good moments / partial days that I will cherish, but I think everything was a failure from the get-go. Not going to lie, the food we experienced was mostly delicious, but that’s just one of the factors that add up to a good trip.

Would we consider taking another trip to this underrated developing country, our answer is probably not. We hated our vacation to Albania, but I am sure you won’t get as unlucky as we were!!

Also Read:

• You can consider combining your Albania vacation with Montenegro. We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary there and it was a super amazing trip.
• Albania is highly influenced by Greek & Italian culture. Check out our articles from these countries:
  • Postcard from Santorini
  • A complete guide for Mykonos
  • Postcard from Positano
  • Spend 3 glorious days in Rome
  • Roadtrip through Tuscany
• Postcard from Cappadocia and other adventures from Turkey

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