An odd few days making the way across Northern Albania
Summary
I spent 3 days passing through Albania on the way from Lake Ohrid in Macedonia to the coast of Montenegro and not sure I’d recommend it as a destination in its own right. The main reason being that the surrounding countries seem to have so much more to offer. The coast, whilst nice, cannot compete with the magnificent coastline of Montenegro or the nearby beaches in Greece; the interior is also nice, but it is a cut below the view you get over Lake Ohrid in Macedonia; and Tirana is ok to walk around but you’d never chose it over Sarajevo or the world famous Dubrovnik. It gets points for sheer randomness, for example the countryside is littered with 170,000 bunkers to help ward off potential invasion, but overall I’d put it down the list when it comes to places to visit in the Balkans
- If you are keen though on a trip around this part of the world with its stunning castles and old towns, and some of the best coastline in the world all compactly housed within the Western Balkans’ 8 countries, see my 2-3 week itinerary for the highlights and general tips for this part of the world, –3 week trip around the Balkans States
highlights
#1 Checking out the main sites in central Tirana
#2 Driving through the hills near the border with Macedonia
#3 Spotting some of the 170,000 super random bunkers spread out all across the country
#4 Wandering through the actually quite pretty tree-lined streets in suburban Tirana
#5 Staying in Shkodra to see the . . . er . . .mosque I suppose
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other Random Travel Experiences around the World
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone