Planning Our Albania Road Trip
Planning our Albania trip turned out to be slightly more challenging than we expected.
At first, it felt like Albania was everywhere. Between Instagram, TikTok and travel blogs, we thought planning the trip would be a breeze. But once we dug a little deeper, we found that detailed information was surprisingly limited.
We are big TripAdvisor fans because it provides real, honest insight. With Albania, though, there weren't many reviews to go on and the ones we did find often left us with more questions than answers, so we ended up piecing together information from multiple sources and doing a fair bit of detective work ourselves.
We also had an extra challenge. Ella could only join us for the first five nights, which meant we needed to build an airport stop in the middle of the trip so she could fly home.
Tirana or Corfu? Our Route to Albania
For UK travellers, there are two main ways into Albania. You can fly directly into Tirana, located roughly in the middle of the country, or fly into Corfu and take the ferry across to Sarandë in the south, putting you right in the middle of the Albanian Rivieria.
We chose Tirana for a couple of reasons. First, there were convenient British Airways flights from Heathrow, which appealed to our "Comfy Explorer" approach. Second, the flights were significantly cheaper than to Corfu when we booked.
That said, prices change. Just six weeks after our trip, we noticed that Corfu was often the cheaper option. If you're planning a trip to Albania, it's worth checking both routes before booking. A quick comparison could save you a surprising amount of money.
Finding Our First Stops
With our flights booked, it was time to start working out where we actually wanted to stay.
We initially started looking at beach destinations close to Tirana, as some proper beach time was Ella's number one priority for her short trip. While there were plenty of options, none of them seemed to quite have the appeal of the beaches we had been seeing further south on the Albanian Riviera.
Then I stumbled across an Airbnb in a place called Qerret. A quiet beach backed by pine trees sounded exactly the kind of spot we were looking for, so our first beach stop was booked.
Then came our first planning hiccup.
We realised that although the villa had a pool, it would not actually be open until June; we were arriving in the last few days of May. Back to the drawing board we went. After a bit more searching, we found Vila Eva.
While all this was going on, I had also discovered Alpeta Winery, just outside of Berat, which we could visit on the way. I thought a vineyard tour would be fun. After a few WhatsApp messages trying to arrange a meal and winery tour, it quickly became clear that staying overnight was a great option. A vineyard stay, wine tasting and a chance to spend a night in the Albanian countryside sounded like a pretty good way to kick off the trip.
It also geographically made sense as we could head back to Qerret, spend a few days on the beach and then drop Ella back at the airport which was less than an hour away.
Just like that, planning the first part of our trip was done!
Planning Part Two: Too Many Beaches, Not Enough Nights!
We then moved on to planning the second part of our trip. Our starting point would once again be Tirana Airport, where we'd be waving Ella off on her flight back to England.
From there, we knew we wanted to explore the Albanian Riviera, we just needed to work out the best route.
Gjirokastër quickly made its way onto our must-visit list. With its cobbled streets, historic charm and UNESCO World Heritage status, it felt like somewhere we couldn't miss. We decided the best option was to drive directly from Tirana Airport to Gjirokastër and then loop back along the coast, taking in some of the Riviera's most popular beach destinations along the way.
With just five nights left, we knew we wouldn't be able to stay everywhere on the Riviera, so more decisions needed to be made. After more research, we eventually settled on two nights in Ksamil and three nights in Himarë. Tony, in particular, had his reservations about Ksamil after reading plenty of comments suggesting it was overcrowded and overhyped. There was only one way to find out if the reviews were right.
And just like that, we had a plan.
There was a slight nagging feeling that we might have packed in a bit too much driving. With our route finally mapped out, it was time to move on to the next stage of planning, booking the hotels.
