📍 Tirana & Sarandë, Albania 🇦🇱

When we told our friends we planned on traveling through Europe, we were told we had to go to Albania. Moral of this very short story? Listen to your friends advice!

Day 1: We arrived in Tirana, the major city, around dinner time. We walked around the city a bit and found a place to eat real, authentic, Albanian food. We got the menu at Musicbooks and what do we see? “Hamburger, quesadilla, chicken, etc.” Cool, exactly what we were looking for 🤔🙃. Good news, our waiter was SO friendly and he recommend a few dishes that weren’t on the menu. They weren’t necessarily typical Albanian, but we ordered them and they were amazing.

We were a bit exhausted from our time in Ireland (sign of a good trip, right?) so we headed to our hotel, Hotel Vila Tirana for bed.

Day 2: The next day was our real search for an authentic Albanian experience, for real this time. Started our morning with a coffee at one of the many cute outdoor cafes.

We then went to Oda and accomplished our goal of trying the food. Like all of it. In one sitting. They kindly asked the two of us to move to a table for four people simply because the food wouldn’t fit on our table. Each dish was a 10/10.

We walked around the city and went to Bunk’art 2, which is a Communist-era nuclear bunker.

When we left the bunker, all the rain that we didn’t have in Ireland came pouring down on us.

We didn’t let the rain stop us (too much). We tried to get a rooftop view of the city (yes, in the rain…I cannot explain our logic on that decision) but it was closed. Tried to go see the “pyramid,” also closed. As we ran in the rain from place to place we finally made it to an old castle that has been transformed into a strip of bars and restaurants. We were still so full from our massive lunch that we didn’t even have space for a drink.

The rain didn’t stop so we decided to find an indoor activity. We found a mall and wow! We were busy exploring for a few hours.

We left the mall and it was stilllll raining so we took this as a sign to catch up on some sleep and called it a night. Now is a good time to point out that throughout this entire day we did not stop once to buy an umbrella. As I type this, I realize this is just as dumb as trying to get a rooftop view in the foggy and rainy weather. Better luck to us next rainy day.

Day 3: We had breakfast in our hotel, got our rental car, and began exploring the rest of Albania. We drove down to Sarandë, a small beachy city along the coast.

We arrived to Sarandë around dinner time and explored the area.

Day 3: At our hotel breakfast, we met a couple from the Netherlands.

The couple was planning on going to the same place as we were, but didn’t have a car, so we invited them to join us. The four of us went to Ksamil and we had ourselves a day.

We biked around (on the water), explored, and headed back to the beach. J got a beach massage and I got a beach pizza, very on brand. We then headed to lunch (yes the pizza was my appetizer; this is a judgement free zone). We went to Guvat Mediterranean and the views were amazing.

We ate, drank, and walked around the beach town for a few more cocktails. We had dinner with our new friends at Manxurané and it was great. The local liquor is called Raki and it is not good (J here to remind AK I’ve seen her shoot far worse tequila by choice!). Actually painful to drink if you want my honest opinion, but alas, one shot turned to 5 and our night had just began. You know how it goes. We sat at the table long enough that by the time we left we were ready for our late night snack. Pizza! Lemme tell you, Albanians know how to make a pizza. 10/10. A+.

Day 4: The woman who runs our hotel, Alma, is super sweet and was always interested in what we were doing and giving recommendations. This day, we followed what she said and we were not let down. Way to go Alma.

Happy and full we headed to the Blue Eye, which is a clear spring water that looks like an eye from above. The water is FREEZING, like forget what your toes feel like cold, but we had to go in.

If you’ve read the first three posts you can probably guess what come next…dinner. Our friend had told us about Natyra Restaurant for the views and it did not disappoint. I would recommend the views, the food, and even the company.

We drove up to a nearby castle, overlooking the entire city, and watched the sunset. It was like a movie set it was so pretty!

We met up with our friends for “a drink” at a local bar and spent hours outside talking (and drinking). This was the night I found out I could text in my pizza order and have it delivered. I believe this is what they call “heaven.”

The next day we had planned to get up at 8:30 am to catch a ferry for a day trip to Greece. At 3 am the night before (with pizza in hand), we decided to stay another night, sleep in, and explore locally instead. Things worked out. Our day started with a local gyro…yes those are fries inside 🤤.

We then found the most secluded beach VERY off the beaten path and it was amazing. There was absolutely no one around and we were swimming in the middle of the Mediterranean sea. The drive was a little rocky (literally), but it was so worth it.

We then tried to find an old monastery, but the road was closed and we randomly ended up at this structure (house is too generous of a term) where cheese was made and sold. We asked if else could come in and before you know it, we were tasting, touring, and buying cheese (fresh feta and delicious kaçkavall).

In the “off the beaten path” theme of the day, we asked the kind cheese man where we should eat (using Google translate). He recommended a place high up in the mountains so we drove on over. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed but we got an amazing view and saw some cows.

We drove to the part of town where it seemed to be less touristy and found a local bakery. We ordered some bread and pastries and ask the woman working where we should eat. She told us to go to Taverna Filipi and it was one of our favorite meals in Saranda.

We spent the last night with our Dutch friends and were responsible enough to go to bed at a decent time to wake up for the 10:30 am ferry to Corfu, Greece.

That wraps up our time in Tirana and Saranda, but what’s a blog post without a few outtakes…

Thanks again for following along! Next stop: a day trip Corfu, which is a 30 minute ferry ride from Saranda, and then Himare, Albania.

AK & J