Albania for the Holidays

[SussexToffee1980]

Elbasan, Korce and Gjirokaster are worth seeing also.

Kruje as well, where their national hero Skanderbeg lived. He liberated the Ottomans.

The castle walls in Berat have people living there and also a restaurant ran by an elderly couple. The food there just tastes fantastic like someone has invited you into their home.

 

[barneygumble]

Has anybody ever been to or even considered the Albanian Riviera for holiday? Myself and the other half will be moving from our present home later this year hopefully and did not want to spend much on getting away this summer, long story short she seen an advert for Albanian holidays and we started looking. Wow they are cheap and I'm seriously tempted to give it a whirl based on the size of your bang for your buck. Btw I've been to Albania before for a football match, in and out job and found it grand, that was in the north of the country and just stayed a day but would be great to hear from people who had a holiday there or looked into having a holiday there.

I went to Tirana, and my advice is watch yourself, because they haven’t got a bloody clue how to drive

Crossing the road on “Green man”, means nothing to them. Was there for about 48 hours and honestly felt I was nearly ran over about 7-8 times.

Beautiful, developing plaxe, the locals are lovely, but it’s a mad place.

 

[nikom court]

been to tirana and durres,fantastic country i could spend a month there easy,highly recommended.
tirana is like a smaller version of istanbul
durres the biggest resort is full of italians on holiday,
cheap as chips but nightlife isnt what you would get in other resorts that cater for english package tourists,ie lappys,irish bars,theres no culture of binge drinking.
wizz used to fly direct to tirana from liverpool,hope they bring it back for next summer!

 

[bluejohn66]

I know an Albanian bloke and he says there are many gangsters in his country but that an increasing number of them are coming over here!

Bizarre how a high proportion of these Albanian err...... Refugees, choose to pay extortionate sums to people traffickers on a life or death dinghy crossing, yet a one way flight from Albania can be had for just over 20 quid ?? Guess if you've miss laid passport it's the only way, can't think of any other reason !!

 

[ArtetaMoney]

Bizarre how a high proportion of these Albanian err...... Refugees, choose to pay extortionate sums to people traffickers on a life or death dinghy crossing, yet a one way flight from Albania can be had for just over 20 quid ?? Guess if you've miss laid passport it's the only way, can't think of any other reason !!

Scared of flying.

 

[SussexToffee1980]

The Block district in Tirana is also well worth visiting. The checkpoint is marked by a fragment of the Berlin Wall. During Ever Hoxha's ruling, then that of his son's, nobody was allowed into the area unless you were a government worker.

Now, the district is very popular with whiskey bars, a Mexican restaurant and many other parts of local nightlife.

Due to this ruling, it was only government workers who were allowed to own a car, so it's only been since the early 90s it's been legal for anyone to do so. This sort of explains the fact it's dangerous to drive there. Pedestrians are not much better, as people cross the road in front of moving traffic, forcing them to stop. So, when crossing the road, make sure you are nearby a local and follow their lead!.

Western Media was banned during the Communism era, which made many Albanians unaware that the wall collapsed.

 

[ste d' indica]

I caught an interview with their prime minister a while back. Seemed far more sensible than ours so make of that what you will.

 

[lancs blue]

Went there years ago

Hired a self drive donkey. The hotel had a bucket for a toilet and entertainment consisted of the local lunatic asylum

Transport home is cheap though. Buy yourself an inflatable dinghy and offer to take a few locals to the UK with you

Judith Chalmers

 

[SussexToffee1980]

I went to Tirana, and my advice is watch yourself, because they haven’t got a bloody clue how to drive lol

Crossing the road on “Green man”, means nothing to them. Was there for about 48 hours and honestly felt I was nearly ran over about 7-8 times.

Beautiful, developing plaxe, the locals are lovely, but it’s a mad place.

Yep, people cross the road in front of traffic even on a red!. There are potholes almost everywhere and not all the traffic lights work!.

Anyone going, make sure you stay at the revolving bar hotel!.

 

[Rogue Trader]

After a good long think about where to go and after reading some comments on here I've decided to give it a go, waiting on the mrs work to confirm her holidays hopefully will have everything booked by early next week, place looks decent, it will cheap and there is a somewhat sense of adventure too, what can go wrong eh!? ?

 

[nikom court]

montenegro next door is boss also,kotor and the Adriatic coast are stunning,
a bit more developed than albania.
i plan to go back the end of april,
theres an overnight sleeper train over some mountains from the coastal city of bar to belgrade that i fancy doing.

 

[SussexToffee1980]

After a good long think about where to go and after reading some comments on here I've decided to give it a go, waiting on the mrs work to confirm her holidays hopefully will have everything booked by early next week, place looks decent, it will cheap and there is a somewhat sense of adventure too, what can go wrong eh!? ?

A bottle of beer is like 30 pence and meal for two is like 15 pounds, maybe cheaper!

 

[Runub]

montenegro next door is boss also,kotor and the Adriatic coast are stunning,
a bit more developed than albania.
i plan to go back the end of april,
theres an overnight sleeper train over some mountains from the coastal city of bar to belgrade that i fancy doing.

I stumbled across Kotor when driving around Croatia. It is spectacular

 

[DualityNSNO]

Swerve, go to any Greek island or Bulgarian mountainside.

I'm obviously unbiased.

 

[Rogue Trader]

montenegro next door is boss also,kotor and the Adriatic coast are stunning,
a bit more developed than albania.
i plan to go back the end of april,
theres an overnight sleeper train over some mountains from the coastal city of bar to belgrade that i fancy doing.

Believe it or not i was in Bar for about 20 minutes years ago, Montenegro was one of the places i seriously considered and thought it was lovely when i passed through it.