Albania holidays

Albania is the Balkans' most-surprising and most-improving travel destination — a country that was completely closed to outside visitors from 1944-1991 under one of Europe's most-isolated communist regimes (Enver Hoxha's government built 173,000 bunkers across the country, many still visible today), now opening up rapidly with the southern Albanian Riviera coast (Saranda, Ksamil, Himarë, Dhërmi — Mediterranean beaches that match Croatia's at a third of the price), the UNESCO-listed Ottoman museum-cities of Berat (the "city of a thousand windows") and Gjirokastër (the "stone city"), the dramatic Albanian Alps in the north for the Theth-to-Valbona day-hike (one of Europe's great mountain crossings), the prehistoric site of Butrint (UNESCO, Greek-Roman-Byzantine ruins on a coastal lagoon), and the cosmopolitan capital Tirana with its rapidly-developing cafe-and-art scene.

A 10-14 day Albania trip: Tirana (2-3 nights — Skanderbeg Square, the National History Museum, the Et'hem Bey Mosque, the Bunk'Art-1 and Bunk'Art-2 communist-bunker museums, the colourful Blloku district once reserved for party officials, day-trip to Mount Dajti via the Dajti Ekspres cable car) → Berat UNESCO city (1-2 nights — Mangalem and Gorica Ottoman quarters, the Berat Castle inhabited fortress, the National Iconographic Museum) → Gjirokastër UNESCO city (1-2 nights — the stone-roofed houses, the Gjirokastër Castle, the underground Cold War tunnel, the Skenduli House) → Albanian Riviera at Ksamil and Saranda (3-4 nights — beach time on the Ionian Sea, Butrint archaeology day-trip, the Blue Eye spring, sunset at Lëkurësi Castle, optional ferry to Corfu) → optional Albanian Alps in the north (3 nights — Shkodër city, Komani Lake ferry, Valbona Valley, the Theth-to-Valbona day hike).