Albania Travel Guide - Original Travel

Albania at a glance

Prepare for your trip with our Albania travel guide because this is a destination unlike any other. Neither a tourist trap nor so unwelcoming a place as to be a negative experience, Albania is a destination that very much retains its soul. Your Albania trip will be like a living history lesson, for instance when you stand - almost alone - in the ruins of Byllis. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine life 2,300 years before in the largest city in South Illyria. Imagine yourself as a Greek in Appolonia. Sit on the steps of the Roman theatre of Butrint imagining a tragedy playing out before you. Wander around the Byzantine era Church of the Holy Trinity in Berat. In the alleyways of Gjirokaster, visit pretty Ottoman era houses.

After all that exploring, enjoy a simple salad at a table outside in the shade at the corner of a small square, watching the locals go by. Follow your guide to search for bears, wolves, jackals and lynx in Shebenik-Jabllanice National Park or Teth Valley National Park. You may not see them, but you’ll certainly have sensed their presence, and come back with a smile at having witnessed stunning panoramas, taste buds tingling from the cold mountain stream water and nostrils quivering with the scent of trees. Then dive headfirst into the crystal-clear waters of the Ionian Sea from the fine sandy beaches of the Adriatic Coast; or into the blue of Lake Shkodra (Lake Skadar, as it's known across the border in Montenegro), the largest lake in the Balkans.