Cycle Albania

Wonderful way to explore Albania aboard a bike saddle will be for us less fit people pretty challenging cycling, but the rewards for one’s efforts were great incredible views, fantastic mountain scenery, beautiful coastline and rural landscape. Once again, having a local guide made a massive difference introducing us to a wonderful range of Excellent local food much of it, organic locally grown and us very tasty and nutritious. The history and culture of Albania is fascinating. Although it’s difficult to burp watch while cycling, it was wonderful to hear the gold orioles singing, and the bee aters calling above your head as you rode for a beautiful rural countryside

Most Inspirational Moment
Soaking up the stunning mountain landscape, especially at the end of a long, hard climb

Thoughts on Group Leader
Erlis Our local guide was simply outstanding in every way. He and his support driver mechanic Klodi made the trip for us. They are truly wonderful ambassadors for their country. Both of them keen and enthusiastic throughout the day and evening, ever ready to help and guide. Erlis’s organisational skills are 2nd to none, despite having a relatively large group and on occasions arriving at quite busy restaurants we never waited long for food and always received superb service. Superb presentation, superb food at a very reasonable price. He clearly has a very good relationship with all his contacts out there. Travelling alone it’s a real lottery to Find a nice place to eat or have a coffee and in some areas. These places were few and far between but he and the locals didn’t let us down. He made himself available, 24 hours a day and hand with everybody and every situation with total competence and superb people skills. His command of English was exceptional and one evening he gave us a talk on the history and culture of Albania up to today and explained how the Albanian people of moulded and why they are as they are today. Also why some of the younger generation are leaving for other countries. Even though the talk lasted over an hour it seemed far less.On occasions, I looked around and everybody was transfixed he was constantly gauging, the level of interest from the people around him, and accurately detected. They were all fascinated by his presentation of his country’s history.He Deliver this presentation, which included many small details in an incredibly eloquent way, applying chronology of events throughout. I don’t believe he has had any training as a teacher, but I wish my history teachers had been as good as him. He came across as someone who genuinely loved his country. and wanted others like us to be aware of its history warts and all so they could understand his culture. It’s sad that so many people in the UK make generalisations about the Albania And the flood of your legal immigrants. Throughout our time in Albania, we were greeted with friendliness and given wonderful full hospitality. The Albanians, we had contact with warm hard-working people.

My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed our cycling holiday in Albania with [the tour operator]. Booking the trip was easy and communicating very straight forward. We booked 4 months in advance in order to guarantee our places and to book flights when they were cheaper. We were met on arrival by Erlis our guide and the transfer to our first hotel and start of the trip was seamless. The trip itself was very well planned and executed. We didn’t have to make many decisions and great accommodation and restaurants, coffee stops were all arranged for us in advance. Accommodation ranged in quality but on the whole was really good. The food was excellent always and plenty of it. We cycled in September so it was mostly very hot and we needed to rehydrate often. There were 2 days of really tough cycling, 1st and last but there were plenty of stops and options to go on the bus. I hired an electric bike which was a godsend on the difficult days especially due to the heat. It was an incredible trip; Albania is a fascinating country with a diverse history and beautiful landscape. We feel privileged to have travelled there at this time.

Most Inspirational Moment
Reaching the summit on the last day; 5 switchbacks in 30 degree heat. The view was worth it ! Great company and brilliant tour leader.

Thoughts on Group Leader
Erlis was amazing. Really welcoming and very well organised as well as being informative and helpful. He is a great tour leader with a lovely sense of humour. You would be lucky to get him.

Advice for Potential Travellers
Take plenty of suncream, seriously consider an electric bike, don't take too many snacks as they are provided, take earplugs as the Albanian dog howling committee comes out in force at night.

Suggestions
Thank you for a great trip !

Absolutely loved this trip. I am more of a runner so I found the mountain climbs quite hard at times, but once at the top, I had the most fun cycling down towards the ocean. Had no idea that Albania was this beautiful!!

Most Inspirational Moment
The entire group making it to the top of the most difficult climb on the last day of cycling, then celebrating with an incredible group lunch at the mountain restaurant.

Thoughts on Group Leader
Very passionate about Albania and it's history. Very proud of his country and very good at his job. The group was quite mixed, which he managed well.

Advice for Potential Travellers
Make sure you have a good fitness/experience level with mountain climbs. Otherwise, you may just decide to use an E-bike.

Suggestions
You can use both the local currency as well as Euros to pay for food and drinks in cafe's and restaurants. You will receive the local currency in change.