Albania
Travel has been hard to do this year given the global pandemic and trying to stay healthy and safe. Living in New York City meant that pretty much the first half of the year, I was secluded to my apartment. However, as the months went by and New York's cases continued to fall and the test positivity rate fell below 1% for over a month, I started googling where I could travel (safely).
When I put in the search bar "Where can Americans travel right now?" I found the list in my last blog post from August 2020. At the top was Albania. Now I will admit, prior to researching Albania I would've bet money that it was a landlocked, Eastern European country. Not sure if that says more about my intelligence or the American education system, but that's a topic for another day :) I soon found out in my search that Albania is on the coast of the Adriatic Sea between Montenegro and Greece. I have been to both of those countries and loved the landscape, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that is where Albania is located!
What was even better in my research of Albania was learning how undiscovered it is by most non-European tourists (and even then, it's not very popular outside of the general region). This was great for several reasons, but mostly because it meant it wasn't overly developed and crowded, plus it was very inexpensive! Throughout our week in Albania (both in the coastal towns and the capital city Tirana), we did not spend more than $34 on any meal. And those meals included several beverages, appetizers, entrées, and dessert! Not only was the food so cheap, but the quality was amazing. I seriously had some of the best meals of my life in Albania.
Getting There
Albania had no entry requirements, so there was no need to be tested. However, just to be safe (and considerate of those we'd be around en route and once there), we got COVID-19 tests two days before our flight. Our results got to us before we left on our flight to Frankfurt, so we had that reassurance that we were good to travel before boarding! I went on this trip with my brother (because it was hard to convince anyone to travel right now.....rightly so), so I went to Ohio first to visit family. Our flights to get to Albania consisted of three flights: Cleveland to Chicago, Chicago to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Tirana. What was extra special about this routing was that because U.S. citizens are prevented from entering the EU right now, there were pretty much no people traveling to Frankfurt. Our Cleveland to Chicago flight was actually full, which surprised me because who is traveling right now in the U.S.?! But our Chicago to Frankfurt flight was practically empty. The entire plane was at less than 50% capacity. My brother used miles and was in business class where he was one of THREE people! Premium Economy was empty and I was in regular Economy where there were a total of 25 people, including me. Yes, the entire Economy cabin had only 25 people! It was actually pretty crazy to see how empty a giant 747 was. From my seat, the three rows in front of me and the three rows behind me were empty. I couldn't see one person the entire flight! I actually sat in my original seat for the first two hours watching a movie and eating the dinner, then I went to the other side of the plane and made a bed in the opposite side three-seat row to sleep. It was like getting a full flat seat, in my own "private plane" all for 35,000 United miles. While we did have to wear a mask the entire time (except when eating), I was honestly enjoying the uniqueness of the experience so much I didn't even notice. It wasn't a big deal at all, so please don't let the mask requirement prevent you from flying right now.
While the empty plane was a cool experience, it also meant that when we arrived in Frankfurt there was very little open. The lounges in Frankfurt were all closed, plus since we were not leaving the airport and were not allowed to enter Germany even if we wanted to, we were stuck in the terminal in which we landed (which was the same as our departing flight). When you travel by air in Europe, if you are in what is known as the "Schengen area" (which consists of 26 countries, 22 of which are EU states), you are usually in a different part of the airport than the Non-Schengen area. Since we arrived from a country not in the Schengen area and we were connecting to a country outside of the Schengen area, we were stuck in the Non-Schengen section. And since not a lot of travel is happening to/from those countries right now, pretty much everything was closed. We ran into the same problem on our return flights when we connected in Austria. We were stuck in the Non-Schengen area and couldn't access any lounges (even though we could see the lounge through the windows!) and every restaurant was closed. I had a latte from a vending machine and a Kinder bar from the newsstand....I was very hungry by the time we boarded! Our flight to Tirana, Albania was surprisingly full, but we learned later that there are only a few European routes to/from Albania, so most of the flight were Albanians returning home. We did see a couple of Americans, but they were either visiting family in Albania or were dual citizens.
Sarandë
When we landed in Tirana, after going through Customs where they didn't give stamps because "it's just in the system" :( , we got our rental car and headed south to the "Albanian Riviera." Specifically, our destination was Sarandë (also written as Saranda). When I was searching hotels in the Albanian Riviera, most hotels were in Sarandë. The pictures I could find online of the coast of Sarandë looked beautiful, so it was an easy decision to pick that as our destination. Similar to the cost of food, hotels were very cheap! We ended up in a two bedroom suite, with a balcony, on the coast looking out over the sea to Corfu, Greece for a grand total of €360! Is that not insane?! And it was a really nice room, too. Most hotels of the same caliber in similar coastal locations would be more than that PER NIGHT! We stayed at the Hotel Saranda Palace and it was the perfect choice. With free parking, a great private beach, and a central location for everything we wanted to see and do, I couldn't be happier with our choice.
View from our balcony - Greek island of Corfu in the distance
LOVED these views
We spent the next 4 days enjoying the private beach of our hotel, taking a drive down the coast to the beach town of Ksamil, visiting Lëkurësi Castle, and going to the famous "Blue Eye" water spring in the nearby village of Muzinë in Finiq municipality. The weather was perfect while we were there, sunny every day in the upper 80s, but with a constant breeze from the sea.
Southern view from atop Lëkurësi Castle
Lëkurësi Castle terrace
View of all of Sarandë from Lëkurësi Castle
The "Blue Eye"
Coastal Drive
On our last day, we drove up the coast of Albania to make our way back to the capital city of Tirana before flying home the next day. The coast was absolutely stunning and the drive was equally as gorgeous. Similar to driving the Pacific Coast Highway in California, we drove along the cliffs, up mountains and back down, through adorable little villages, and we then stopped in the city of Vlorë for a late lunch and our last beach fun of the trip. Vlorë is the third largest city in Albania and had a very Miami feel to it with the palm trees and long boulevard along the beach filled with restaurants and bars. It was a great way to finish our road trip before heading to Tirana. Once in Tirana we checked into our hotel and then headed into town to see the city and have dinner. Tirana reminded me a lot of Buenos Aires from the architecture, city layout, and nightlife. We had dinner at an amazing restaurant for our final night in a truly beautiful country!
We came across a hang glider hot spot on the drive!
Vlorë (aka Miami)
Dining in Albania
When I say we had dinner at an amazing restaurant, that could be true for everywhere we ate in Albania. My brother, a restaurant owner and foodie, was in charge of picking where we ate and boy did he deliver! Seriously, not one place we ate at was mediocre or bad, everything we had was delicious. Being on the Adriatic Sea and also so close to Greece, a lot of the food reminded me of Greek food. We had a lot of really nice, fresh seafood, as well as tzatziki and local dishes. Also, being across the sea from Italy, there were a lot of Italian restaurants and dishes. We even had gelato a time or two! Again, I can't say enough about the quality of food we enjoyed on this trip. Just another reason to add Albania to your travel list!
Amazing tzatziki at Bar Restaurant Limani
Restaurant on our first night at Saranda Palace Hotel
La Petite Restaurant in Sarandë
Ya mas in Vlorë
Kripë Dhe Piper in Tirana
Definitely Visit!
All in all, I highly recommend visiting Albania. The country is still pretty underdeveloped given its post-USSR history (there are thousands of unfinished buildings due to some developers that took the money and ran in the early 90s as Albania became a capitalist country - - there are greedy capitalists everywhere!), but even then the scenery and people were so nice. We were asked several times "Why are you here?" or "How did you come to visit Albania?" and they all seemed genuinely overjoyed to have American tourists. They seemed to see us being there as a beacon of hope that more Americans will start visiting and the country will be able to bring in more tourism dollars. They were so pleased to share their country with us and it just made the visit all the more special. I sincerely hope that more Americans (and other tourists) consider Albania for future travels!
Udhetim i mire!
