Tours in Albania

Start in Tirana, in the late afternoon, when the square fills with people who have nowhere in particular to be. Locals walk slowly here. They stop to talk, they argue about football, and the coffee never seems to be rushed. The city is painted in colours you do not expect, and it is a good place to get your bearings before you head out to the rest of Albania.

Most of the country is mountain, and you feel it quickly. Roads climb, bend and drop into valleys where the green is almost startling. The north has the Albanian Alps, with stone villages and long walks. The south has the Ionian coast, where the water is clear and the towns around Sarande and Himare are all about the harbour at dusk. Inland, Berat and Gjirokaster are stone towns stacked up their hillsides, and both repay a slow wander with good shoes.

Close to Tirana, the easy day out is Kruja. It sits on a hill above the plain, and the walk up through the old bazaar is half the point. Shopkeepers lay out embroidery, rugs and silver, and you will be asked in more than once. Inside the castle walls there is an ethnographic museum that shows how families once lived, and the town is tied closely to Skanderbeg, whom Albanians still talk about as if he left last week. Higher up the mountain is the Sari Salltik tekke, a quiet holy place of the Bektashi order, where the mood changes completely from the market below.

Shkoder, Durres, Butrint, Lake Ohrid and Pogradec are all worth asking about too. We may not list a tour for every one of them yet, but a local guide can take the request and build the day around what you want to see.