We’re proud to support and work with several projects in and around Albania.
Tirana XXL
A great website if you want to know what’s going on in Albania’s small but fun capital city. It is definitely the most comprehensive listings site for Tirana, and the guys behind it are a great bunch too.
Journey to Valbona
This English-language site should be your first resource if you want to visit Valbona and Albania’s eery Accursed Mountains. It’s packed with information on places to stay, how to reach Valbona, the latest times for the erratic Lake Koman ferry and updates on Pango, possibly our favourite hound in all of Albania (certainly one of the friendliest!). Catherine,. Alfred, Skender are all so special in their ways but united in the love for Valbona, the Albanian tradition and the huge efforts they’ve put into the preservation and development of the Valley and the Alps by making way to a new standard that if lucky enough more Albanian ‘gems’ will adopt. It’s certainly one of the very unique and sustainable ways to approach a beauty of the standard of the Accursed Mountains and by knowing about it, it’s hard to resist falling in love.
Hans Peter Jost
We’re proud to be the Albanian contact for the acclaimed photographer Hans Peter Jost, whose book Albania in Transition contains portraits of Albania from the collapse of communism in the early 1990s right through to 2010. Alongside Hans’ photographs are essays by Christina Kleineidam, lifting a lid on the injustice and corruption – both traditional and modern – that have blighted our little country. Email us if you’re interested in picking up a copy of the book on your visit to Albania – it’s a more satisfying gift than a bottle of raki!
Albanian Folk Music – Iso Polyphony
Whenever we can, we try to introduce our Albanian Trip clients to traditional Albanian folk music, which has echoed around our mountains since ancient times. We’re always delighted to stop for a dinner with with one of the Laberia families, who will try to teach you how to keep the ‘Iso’ while they hold the main voices. Does that make sense? Well, it will after a raki or three… Some believe Iso Polyphony music has healing properties. We don’t know about that, but it’s certainly good fun.
S.O.E. Trails
In May 1943 two British officers of the Special Operations Executive, Neil ‘Billy’ McLean and David Smiley, walked into Albania from Greece to try and raise resistance to the Germans. We don’t know if they succeeded but their efforts, along with Brigadier ‘Trotsky’ Davies, certainly added colour to our wartime history – and maybe made our dear departed leader Enver Hoxha’s rise to power a little bit easier! We’ve been helping the English writer Edward Reeves research his compatriots’ activities in Albania, and hopefully too organise a trek in the footsteps of one of the missions, codenamed SPILLWAY.
Leyla Alyanak – Women on the Road
In 2012 our friend Catherine from Journey to Valbona put Leyla in touch with us, and we helped her explore Albania. Our guide, Genc, spent several days with Leyla and her photographer Anne, and you can read their funny, realistic blog Women on the Road to find out what happened. There are great articles there on Korca and Lake Koman. Well worth a look!