Albania is a small, mountainous country in the Balkan Penisula, with a long Adriatic and Ionian coastline. The Balkans have become a popular destination in the past years, international travellers have regularly increased – Croatia’s surrounding neighbours and their cities like Kotor Bay in Montenegro and Mostar in Bosnia have also become popular to travellers. While the entire region is beautiful and culturally rich, it’s about time for Albania to be the next country to attract many tourists.
Albania has a long history, for many years it has been off the radar and nothing was known about what was going on in the country, since it has been under a communist regime for four decades until the regime fall in 1990. There are plenty of reasons to visit this country that in the last few years has become a vacation spot for Italians and other neighbours. Albania is an amazing country where you can do something different in Europe. You can go rafting, swimming, sailing, hiking and it’s a good country to take a break from the City, with a wonderful welcoming culture, Albanians will do every thing for their guests.
From fresh fish and seafood to incredible beaches in the Ionian Sea, the southern coast is very similar to rival Greece. Cities such as Sarandë, Dhërmi and Ksamil, which is located in the Butrint National Park, are the most popular beaches of the country.
Ksamil, however, is easier to reach by the nearby airport and ferry from the Greek island of Corfu. You can arrive to Ksmail area by flying to Tirana International Airport but will take you around 5 hours driving by car, or flying to Corfu island (looks funny to land in a different country) will take you just around 1 hour by ferry.
For a day out of the sun, if you are in the Durrës area you should also spend time visiting Rozafa Castle and Kruja Castle that are just outside Durrës. If instead you are in the south, Butrint is an important sight to visit, an ancient Greek and later Roman city that overlooks Corfu.
My partner that is Albanian, decided to bring me to visit her country, so in August 2018 we spent 10 amazing days wondering around with her cousins – going around a country with locals is always much easier, you see hidden places that as a normal tourist you wouldn’t know about.
We landed in Tirana Airport from London and spent few days in Durrës visiting her family and discovering the North part of the country in the region of Kukës with stunning view of the Fierza Lake just 2 hours north of Durrës.

While you are in Durrës I highly suggest to try the “albanian byrek”, it’s a baked or fried filled pastries made with several layers of dough known as “pasta phyllo”, you can have it with spinach and cheese, with potatoes or with meat, byrek is very popular in the cuisines of the Balkans.
Public transports in Albania don’t exist so just hire a car at the airport as soon as you land. From the north to the south, village guesthouse stays are some of the most authentic experiences travellers can have in Albania. After Durrës we started to go south, our first stop was for a swim just after the city of Valona, from this point until the end of Albania every beach is worth it. We spent the night in the middle of the Llogara National Park at Llogora Tourist Village, an amazing resort (really cheap – around 15-20euro per person), it was quite and surrounded by the great forest of the national park and the spectacular mountains, we were staying in the bungalows with the deer in the front seating in the middle of the park.

The coastal road that you will drive from north to south of Albania has very scenic views, you will experience the culture driving from one village to the next one. We stopped for two more nights in the town of Dhërmi, in this area you can relax in the many beautiful beaches and the colour of the water is amazing, more you go south toward Greece and more you will have spectacular beaches.

Our final stop was in Ksmail, an amazing village by the sea in the middle of Butrint National Park. This area of Albania in my opinion has the best sea that you will find in the country.
Our trip was coming to the end, while the cousins of my partner were going back to Durrës by car, my partner and I were boarding the ferry to Corfu from Saranda (really nice town by the sea) – going back from Corfu to London was the quicker and cheapest way, flying to Tirana from London is quite expensive, with this occasion we had the chance to enjoy one day exploring a bit of Corfu Island.