The Guardian: Albania, 3rd place for the best adventure travel in 2018

Either for beach holidays,  culture or adventure Albania has managed to be on the list by world popular travel magazines. This time, Albania and its coast is in the top 3 recommended for adventure  and hiking trails among “20 of the best adventure travel challenges for 2018’ as listed by the well-known UK newspaper,The Guardian.

Hiking in Albania is popular not only for rugged landscapes,but also for getting to meet locals and know their history and heritage.  All these make Albania very attractive for travelers all around the world.

Photo source: The Guardian

“Albania’s star has been rising, with more travelers each year wanting to explore its treasures, such as the Accursed Mountains of the north, and wild beautiful white beaches of the south. Wild Frontiers has two new group hiking adventures there, one at each end of the country. On its eight-day package to the south, sunny walks along coastal paths and hinterland mountain trails take the group into the Albanian Riviera, Ottoman towns and Butrint national park.”

See full article: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2018/jan/20/20-best-adventure-travel-challenges-for-2018-cycling-hikes-marathons

Albania part of Via Dinarica among of hot new hiking trails of 2018 by National Geographic

Prestigious National Geographic Traveler included Via Dinarica Trail amongst world’s best hiking trail in 2018. Via Dinarica is a mega-mountaineering and hiking trail, connecting natural and cultural sights in across 7 countries.

Albanian Alps

 Via Dinarica, named Outside magazine’s Best New Trail in 2014, Paste magazine’s best trekking path in 2015, a 2016 must-see by both Wanderlust magazine and The Guardian, and National Geographic Traveler‘s “Best of the World” destination for 2017 and this year among “hot hiking trails” by National Geographic.

‘A European odyssey, the Via Dinarica runs like a rocky backbone along the Western Balkans. It starts in the peaks of northern Albania, winding its way through five countries before ending in Slovenia. The challenging White Trail is already beckoning — at 782 miles, it takes in some of the highest summits, with a combined ascent of nearly 170,000ft. Take a tent, or check-in at highland huts and farm-stays. “

See more: http://www.natgeotraveller.co.uk/smart-travel/travel-talk/new-hiking-and-biking-trails/

The Guardian: Trekking in the highest peak of Albania

The British prestigious newspaper “The Guardian” has recently published the article written by Ben Lerwill, describing his adventure in Albania starting in the high peaks of Accursed Mountains, continuing along the trail of Kosovo and Montenegro.

Albania is offering many kinds of tourism, including the adventurous tourism, for all people who love hiking trails, climbing and outdoor lovers.

Rocky road … trekking in the Accursed Mountains. Photograph: Ben Lerwill

A short summary of the Ben’s Lervill article for the Guardian:

The hiking begins a few hours’ drive to the south, with an ascent of Albania’s highest point, the 2,751m Mount Korab. Functioning as an appetiser to the week’s main walk, the climb is a long, hot slog. The slopes are full of grasshoppers and buttercups. We pass only tough-faced, welly-booted shepherds. There are snow patches in the higher cols. At the summit, just to muddle the multi-country element further, the panorama reveals the cushion-soft valleys of western Macedonia.

The Korab walk takes most of the day. Radomire, the trailhead village where we start and end, is a cluster of minarets, cheap beer and unsealed roads. All its bathroom taps are left on round the clock, even in the local bar, which baffles me until it’s explained that the plumbing wouldn’t cope with the pressure of being turned off. And like the water, we keep moving. By nightfall we’ve mini-bussed into Kosovo, ready(ish) to begin the hike proper.

When we arrive into Valbona Valley at the journey’s end, the sun is fierce overhead. Albanian flags flutter from village rooftops, flashes of red and black against the unforgiving grey of the hills. There is more to come from our trip – time in the capital city Tirana and a sailing along Lake Koman, the latter an accidentally lovely product of a Chinese-built dam – but this is where we take our boots off.

It’s funny the memories that stay with you from a journey like this. Mighty horizons and forested slopes. Doorstops of sheep’s cheese for breakfast. And a tatty plaque, on top of a big mountain, adrift in a sea of Balkan peaks." 

Full article:  https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/sep/24/trekking-in-the-balkans-mountains-albania-kosovo-montenegro

Walking in the miracle of Albanian Alps

"Boom on a once enchanted place". The beautiful of Northern Albania has captured the eye of a German journalist, Florian Sanktjohanser, who wrote a whole article published at online magazine “NWZ Online”. He describes the mountains of Northern Albania as a long been forgotten corner, poorer even than the rest of the run-down state. But now more tourists venture into the picturesque valleys. There it looks like in the Alps 200 years ago. During his journey he met local people and has unveiled their lifestyle in the villages. The top staggering places mentioned in the article are: the city of Shkodra, Thethi village, Valbona Valley and Lake Koman.

Shkodra 

"The foreigners are asking to buy "The tower of vendetta", known as “Kulla e Ngujimit’ who has guarded my family for 400 years. But I would not give up the tradition," says Sokol Nikolle Koçeku, the owner of this tower. The tower survived during the rule of the Ottomans and the Communists, and is one of the few such historic houses in Albania. Now I will not let this place to be sacrificed to the latest invasion: the onslaught of tourists. The Kulla is in Theth, a village in the "Cursed Mountains" in far north of Albania. It is a wild area where the Kanun, the tradition of common law governs life even in these days. The people here have been extremely poor for centuries. But now a small miracle happens: Since a few years, more and more tourists come walking in the Albanian Alps. And with them sweep the people,( who left the area for years), back to their villages.

In the well-kept pedestrianized area, you can see young Westerners sit in cafes, walk to the fortress, or book their ferry for the next morning to Valbona Valley. For the fastest and most stunning way to the Valbona Valley leads over the Koman dam. 

Valbona Valley: Since 2007, the Valbona National Park is in guidebooks. Albanian television crews came and turned documentaries about the ancient traditions. Even more important was that the only road was pave into the valley. Since then, the number of day-trippers has increased rapidly. "Valbona has for many Albanians something mystical. In July and August rose at least 50 hikers per day up to the pass. And every year would more.

Thethi Village: ‘I think no place where human beings live has given me such an impression of majestic isolation from the entire world. It is a spot where the centuries shrivel; the river might be the world’s well-spring, its banks the fit home of elemental instincts–passions that are red and rapid’, the English writer Edith Durham wrote in early 20th century about Theth. The "majestic" can continue to let them stand until almost 2700m, the craggy peaks on.  At least the residents of Theth have preserved their traditional architecture. Most houses are built of stone and covered with shingles. And the church, destroyed during the atheistic republic, was restored thanks to wealthy Albanians in the diaspora.

Read full article: 

http://www.nwzonline.de/reisen/boom-an-einem-einst-verwunschenen-ort_a_31,0,2358967404.html