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Long-form guides, traditions, recipes and practical know-how — written by travellers who keep coming back.
guideThe 12 best beaches in Albania, ranked by clarity, accessibility, vibe and crowds. From Ksamil's Caribbean islands to Gjipe's hidden cove.
guideThe trek between Theth and Valbonë is the hike that put the Albanian Alps on the map, and with good reason. In a single long day you cross the spine of…
guideThe 26 km Osum Canyon, with walls up to 80 m high, is rafted in spring when snowmelt fills the river — a half-day adventure from Berat.
guideHalfway between Vlorë and Sarandë, Himarë is the Riviera at half-volume — beach clubs by day, simple tavernas by night, and access to the most secret coves on the coast.
guideAlbania packs an outsized amount of variety into a country you can drive across in a day. In a single trip you can swim in Ionian turquoise, hike a…
guideDhërmi is the Riviera at full saturation: a white village spilling down a green mountainside, some of the most vivid turquoise water in the country, and —…
guideThe 2,415 m Mount Tomorr above Berat is sacred to both Bektashi Muslims and Orthodox Christians — a 6 to 8-hour summit hike with a national park lodge halfway.
guideGjirokastër is the stone city — a UNESCO Ottoman town carved into the side of a mountain, with a giant fortress on top and a Cold War bunker tunnel beneath it. Here's how to spend two days here properly.
guideA 30-minute scrambling descent from Drymades to one of the Riviera's last unbuilt beaches — sharp, sun-baked and worth every step.
guideAlbania has made wine for at least three thousand years — some of Europe's oldest cultivated vines grew on these hills — yet the modern industry is small,…
guideKorçë (Korça) sits on a high plateau in Albania's southeast, closer in spirit to the continental Balkans than to the Mediterranean coast.
guidePerched on a mountain shelf with the whole coastal plain falling away beneath it, Krujë is the town where Albania's national story was written.
guideThe northernmost Albanian village links to Plav and Gusinje (Montenegro) via 2,000 m alpine passes — a quiet, dramatic corner of the Balkans.
guideThe Albanian Riviera — the roughly 100 km of coast from the Llogara Pass down to Sarandë — is no longer undiscovered. Yet the crowds still cluster on the…
guideTirana is the loudest, most painted, most contradictory city in the Balkans — a former communist capital that woke up in colour. Here's how to spend three or four days really seeing it.
guideFrom the famous turquoise of Ksamil to the seven-kilometre stretch of Borsh — our editor-picked beaches across the Riviera and Adriatic coast.
guideComplete Albania travel guide for 2026 — when to go, where to stay, what to eat, how much it costs, what to see. Written by people who travel here, not just visit.
guideSarandë is the southern gateway of the Albanian Riviera — a horseshoe of pastel buildings facing Corfu across a strip of water you can almost swim. Here's how to spend three or four days here without missing the things that matter.
guideTirana's food scene has matured fast. A decade ago the city offered hearty home cooking and little else; today it spans wood fired traditional taverns,…
guideAlbania photographs better than almost anywhere in the Mediterranean, largely because so much of it is still unpolished. You get turquoise water without…
guideShëngjin is where the Albanian coast turns family holiday. Set on a broad, shallow bay in the northern region of Lezhë, it is the closest stretch of sea…
guideAlbania has two Blue Eyes. The famous one bubbles up near Sarandë; the wilder, harder won one hides in the Accursed Mountains below Theth, and reaching it…
guideThe Albanian Riviera — the Ionian stretch from the Llogara pass down to Sarandë — has grown from a string of quiet coves into the summer heart of the…
guideThe classic 7-day Albania itinerary — Tirana, Berat, Gjirokastër, Saranda, Ksamil, Albanian Riviera. Day-by-day plan with hotels, drive times and costs.
guideEverything you need for the Theth–Valbona hike — distance, difficulty, accommodation, transport (Koman Lake ferry), packing list, day-by-day plan.
guideSarandë curves around a wide horseshoe bay at the southern end of the Albanian Riviera, close enough to Corfu that the Greek island shimmers on the…
guideKsamil is the postcard image of the Albanian Riviera: a cluster of tiny white sand coves and turquoise water at the country's southern tip, with a scatter…
guideThe complete Albanian Riviera road trip — 7 days from Vlorë to Saranda via Llogara Pass, Dhërmi, Himarë, Porto Palermo, Ksamil and Butrint. Day-by-day plan.
guideTirana looks best from above. As the Albanian capital has reinvented itself — painted facades, new towers, the green wall of Mount Dajti on the horizon —…
guideAlbania or Montenegro for your Adriatic holiday? Honest head-to-head: beaches, prices, food, mountains, ease of travel — with the verdict for each traveller type.
guideAlbania spent decades cut off from the world, and its museums tell that story with unusual intensity — alongside antiquity, Byzantine icons and a…
guideAlbania or Greece for your Mediterranean trip? Honest comparison: Riviera vs islands, food, ruins, prices, crowds — for every traveller type.
guideAlbania's Adriatic coast is made for a bicycle. Between the Montenegrin border and the city of Vlorë runs a broad, low lying plain of sandy beaches,…
guideLimestone walls, glacial river beds, and the eastern terminus of the iconic Theth–Valbona hike — Valbonë is the wider, wilder cousin of Theth.
guideKsamil is the bluest water in mainland Europe — four small islands a swim from shore, four months of summer, and a village that has gone from twenty houses to a thousand in a decade. Here's how to do it right.
guideThe easiest mountain hike in Albania — take the Dajti cable car up from Tirana, hike one of three loops, lunch at the summit, return by car or on foot.
guideAlbania rewards couples who like their romance a little wild — empty coves instead of manicured resorts, candle lit stone terraces instead of chain…
guideAlbania's third city is also its summer playground — long sandy beaches, the wild Karaburun peninsula, and the gateway to the Riviera.
guideVermosh is the last village in Albania before Montenegro, the northernmost inhabited point in the country, folded into a green alpine valley in the…
guideA spectacular hike along the original Italian-built mule track over the Llogara mountain — sea on one side, pine forest on the other.
guideNot every beautiful beach is a beach you can bring a four year old to. Albania's most photogenic coves are often steep, pebbly and reached by a scramble —…
guideAlbania is small enough to string several cities together in a single trip, yet each has a distinct character, with Ottoman, Italian, communist and…
guideSeven kilometres of pebble and sand, an olive grove behind, almost no high-rises. Borsh is the slow-Riviera answer to packed Ksamil.
guideThe Shala river flows through a steep canyon north of Lake Komani — a half-day boat trip with swimming stops makes one of Albania's great soft adventures.
guideTirana city guide — Skanderbeg Square, Bunk'Art bunkers, Blloku nightlife, where to eat, where to stay. The capital of Albania in 48 hours.
guideTirana makes an unusually good base. Within an easy drive or a short furgon (shared minibus) ride, you can reach an Ottoman bazaar, Roman ruins, a…
guideBerat is the city of a thousand windows — an Ottoman hill town stacked white against the dark stone of its castle, and one of two UNESCO sites in Albania that you can sleep inside. Here's how to spend two slow days in it.
guideVelipojë is the Adriatic at its wildest and least polished — a long, flat sweep of sand where the Buna river empties into the sea at Albania's far…
guideQeparo is really two villages wearing the same name, and understanding that is the key to the place. High on the hillside sits Qeparo i Sipërm, the old…
guideFew countries pack this much ancient history into a short drive. Albania was Illyria, then a coveted edge of the Greek and Roman worlds, then Byzantium —…
guideShkodër is one of Albania's oldest cities and the cultural capital of the north, spread across a plain where three rivers meet at the foot of the Albanian…
guideA perfectly circular spring of impossibly blue water, bubbling up from a depth no diver has reached. Here's how to get to the Blue Eye, when to go, what it costs, and how to combine it with Sarandë and Gjirokastër.
guideAlbania is stitched together by stone. Because it sat on the fault line between empires — Illyrian, Roman, Byzantine, Venetian, Ottoman — nearly every…
guideA week is enough to taste the four Albanias — capital, coast, mountains and heritage cities. Here's our editor-picked route.
guideTheth feels like a place the twentieth century agreed to leave alone. Cradled deep in the Albanian Alps — the Bjeshkët e Nemuna, the "Accursed Mountains"…
guideDurrës is Albania's oldest and second largest city, an Adriatic port that has been trading, defending and sunbathing for 2,500 years.
guidePogradec lies on the Albanian shore of Lake Ohrid , one of the oldest and deepest lakes in Europe and a UNESCO protected natural and cultural site shared…
guideSarandë curves around a horseshoe bay on Albania's southern coast, looking straight across the strait to the Greek island of Corfu.
guideAlbania is a mountain country that happens to have a coastline. Behind the beaches, the interior rises into some of the least developed high country in…
