Albania, a completely unknown country for me (and likely many others) was one of the bigger countries I would cycle through on my way to Athens. Albania captured my curiosity so much so that I spent the longest time there discovering it on two wheels during my bike tour of the Balkans. I had not researched Albania before this trip and going in with zero expectations was mind blowing. Since I had little to go on it was Albania that I felt I really discovered and got to know in depth. It is one of those hidden gems in the Balkans and I am sure it will soon have many visitors!

Think beautiful coastline, stunning mountain peaks, beautiful rivers and lakes with castles, Eastern European vibes and a splash of Greek and Roman influence. Below are a few exciting short stories from my journey exploring the Balkan country of Albania on my bike tour.

Permet

Permet is a city I had never heard of before. I never heard anyone mention it or recommend it but one night I was looking at my navigation app, Komoot, and planning out potential bike routes headed South. In the app there are photos you can click on from others who have cycled these spots. I´m not sure how but I randomly clicked on a photo near Permet and just knew I had to go.

Permet wasn’t on my route at all but it was possible to reach and has a border crossing to Greece nearby which I needed.

The photo was enough for me to change my route entirely and go explore what the area had to offer. This was one of the best decisions I made because the area was stunning!

Permet is on the Vjosa River which has mountains on both sides of it. The river, a sinuous creamy turquoise color that appeared calm but offers turbulence to those floating along it. The mountains, full of light grey rocks and green trees, evoked a sense of wonder and fascination as the rays of the sun filtered through them to reach the valley.

As soon as I turned onto the road towards Permet I knew I made the correct change of route. The road was flat and full of curves just like the river next to it. Every curve offered a quick and stunning glimpse of those creamy turquoise waters. It seemed no one was here, I had the road basically all to myself with farms scattered here and there all enjoying the rich soil near the river. Along the way to Permet I passed unique rock formations, wonderful shaded areas with stretching high trees, a cute little town and one crazy dog who tried to chase me by jumping over farm fences parallel to me which only made me laugh.

I didn’t want the ride to end and sure wish I had filmed what I experienced as it was truly captivating and oh so perfect.

Finally I crossed the river and arrived to the City of Permet just before sundown. I was getting good at timing these arrivals as I almost always pulled into my destination around the same time. I got a hotel here and wandered the nicely put together tiny town of Permet which is known for white water rafting, MTB and hiking…well, known to few I’d say!

Now, truthfully, the photo I saw on the app was not from the Town of Permet but from 7km away from here so I headed there next. The photo which sparked this changed itinerary was of some natural hot springs with an old ottoman bridge in front of it. The hot springs of Benja!

I cycled over and camped along the river just below the springs. Hardly anything was here except a parking lot and two campsites. From the campsite I could easily walk to the bridge which would take me up and over along the huge stones of the ottoman arch to the pools of the hot springs. It was nothing developed at all but several pools had been separated out for those to enjoy the warm waters coming up from the ground below the river itself. There was one just to the side of the bridge, a bigger one to the far right and a few more hidden about the area. If you walked across the river, which I was able to do at that time you could also find some warm pockets filtering into the cold river bed.

A soak in each pool was important as each is said to help certain ailments of the body. I took a dip at night around sunset to catch the first stars in the sky and again in the morning as the first light of the day filtered through the mountains and began to warm the ground around the valley. Any time seemed to be a perfect time to sit in these pool. I was so happy I visited this area and even if the water was closer to warm than hot, it was perfect for me, plus I got to obsess about the cool Ottoman bridge on one side and the lovely mountains on the the other side.

I didn´t spent too long in Permet or Benja Hot Springs (in fact, I never did anywhere on my bike tour) but I know there is plenty more to discover including simply walking up the river from the hot spring into the canyon or hiking to the church above the town of Permet.

After taking my last dip I packed up and continued onward to the Greek border. Permet´s beauty followed me all the way there and it will remain an unforgettable stop on my journey through the Balkans.

Lucky Ohrid

Throughout my time in Albania I went back and forth with deciding to go to Macedonia until finally I did. Just before exiting Albania I decided to head to Lake Ohrid in Macedonia (N.). I wasn’t taking my bike as it was more than 5 hours by bus and beyond out of the way but now, after weeks of built up anticipation, I really wanted to get a taste of the country.

From the Albanian side of the lake to Ohrid the city in Macedonia there oddly wasn’t an easy way to really arrive. You had to take a taxi to the border, walk over a kilometer to the next town then take a mini bus to Ohrid. It would probably take 2 hours…so I thought why not rent a bike if it would take the same amount of time and so I did just that. Off season meant only one bike shop was open on the Albanian side, reviews online seemed fine so I went and got a bike for 10€ a day. The plan was to go across the border, reach the City of Ohrid, stay a night or two and return the same way.

I was excited for the journey ahead even if it wasn’t my bike I was still more then happy to cycle. That was until I realized it only had 3 gears working and I would have 500m (1300 ft) of elevation to get to the City of Ohrid…

Yes, going up the hills on this bike sucked but views were great! I had to stand up and pedal every hill in order to make it with this bike and the front break pads were kind of crumbling but they still worked enough to slow down ha ha. It did come with a rack which was handy given I brought my pannier bag plus the owner gave me all the tools and equipment I’d need for a repair but overall it was a shit bike that miraculously got me there, woo!

I made it to Ohrid, went straight to a hostel and dropped everything off to go explore. I took my swimsuit as I figured I would get a swim in too…why not complete a triathlon today lol, I mean I already ran this morning and cycled to get here…just needed the swim now, right?

I explored the city and some of it´s recommended sites then watched the sun set from the famous orthodox church resting along Lake Ohrid but just before all the light disappeared for the day I popped down to the lake and waded into the water for that swim. I got maybe 20 minutes of a swim done before it got too dark. I went from just below the famous church to the beach on the other side and back, probably 800m. It was a tad chilly I must say, given it was mid October and the sun was down but not freezing. The swim was nice and I was glad I did it until of course I got out of the water.

While getting out my foot felt a sharp pain but when I looked at it after changing I saw nothing wrong. I must have just stepped on an unfriendly rock. After swimming I returned to the sunset viewing spot because while swimming I looked up and could see that the famous church had lights turned on now so even though I was a bit cold with my hair wet and it felt a bit redundant to go back up I was curious to see the view with lights now. While trying to get a few good photos I randomly ran into a roomie from the hostel lol so we walked back to town together along the cool elevated walkway over the lake. Halfway back I looked down at my foot and noticed it was all bloody. I kind of thought something had cut me but I never found anything after the swim nor after showering and scrubbing the area clean with soap and water at the hostel. I did eventually locate a cut on the bottom of my big toe so I took the advice of the owner at the hostel and threw some local Rakija on it to completely sanitize the wound…60% drinking alcohol should probably kill any bacteria, right?

Now you would think this is the end of the tale from this journey to Ohrid but nope my luck continued….

At 2 am I started getting itchy, I brushed it off and applied mosquito repellent but by 3 am I was wide awake with bites still. Damn it, bed bugs found me again! I jumped out of bed, showered, put my clothes that had touched the bed in a plastic bag and moved all my stuff outside the room. No where to sleep at this hour I chilled downstairs with whatever warm clothes I had left yet I was still cold because my hair was wet…ugg seriously.

I didn’t leave as soon as the sun rose but chilled because it was cold outside and there was no way I was biking in the cold after being cold most of the night/morning. Instead I wandered around town for a few more hours then eventually jumped on the shitty rental bike and cycled back to Pogradec. Taking the same route, I took my sweet time on the return arriving with just enough time to return the bike before the shop closed but late enough that I missed the last bus out of town!

Why is 5 pm the last bus?

…stuck one more night on Lake Ohrid…just my luck!

Theth mountain hike

A popular 17 km (10 mile) hike in the Albanian Alps in Northern Albania is the Valbone-Theth route (or vice versa). It is a hike between two mountain towns and two national parks that is only accessible walking. Both sides are gorgeous and each is a strenuous hike but so worth it!

And of course, I decided to tackle it on my day off from cycling.

But to get there I first needed to cycle from Shkodar, the largest city in Northern Albania….a 41 mile ride with 5,900 ft (1800m) elevation gain…not an easy day but an extremely beautiful route all on nice asphalt! After 4 hours in the saddle I reached my campsite located up the mountain just above the town of Theth which offered mountain views in every direction, yummy food, an rambunctious cat and his doggo buddy and was treated with a full moon view from the tent!

To reach the trailhead from camp I had to hike down along the road and through some farms. I left early in the morning as I was unsure which plan I´d pursue. I was thinking maybe I’d stay the night in Valbone and then hike back the next day but also thought maybe I’d just do it all in one day, there and back, simply because I knew it was also possible for me to do. Leaving early easily gave me flexability to decide as the day progressed.

I only found a handful of people going up from the Theth side and even for me this trail seemed tough. Every person I saw I told them congrats (…as I passed them) because they were all literal rocks stars doing this tough baby. The hike was like so many of my early summer training hikes to prepare for Mt. Rainier…steep, long and not easy! Luckily my legs quickly recalled those months of training!

I reached the mountain pass and was immediately hit with wind followed by the stunning views of the mountains and valley on the other side. It was incredibly breathtaking seeing so many white-ish peaks on surround sound ha! The color almost made you believe they had snow on them but it was late summer and these are only 2000m peaks. I looked at my watch surprised, only 1.5 hours had passed…this was supposed to be a 7-8 hour one way hike. I couldn’t believe it! On the descent toward Valbone I saw the first of the hikers reaching the pass, it appeared I was the first across today. The further down I went I began to see tons more…big groups crowded the tiny path almost to the flat part of the trail, it was like a line of ants…for sure over 100 hikers! This was definitely the more popular side to hike up! Crazy!

Once off the mountain trail you follow a dry riverbed for miles. Still with great views but also the occasional car since from Valbone tour operators offer the option to get a ride to the last town before hiking up to the pass…a cheating way but I get it. All these hikers do a loop (usually Shkodar to Lake Koman to ferry across followed by a bus to Valbone, a night here, finally the hike to Theth and back) so essentially they all get picked up once they get to Theth and head back to the closest city, Shkoder. The hike without the lift in a vehicle makes this approach the longest route but it felt as though it was the less strenuous option.

Once off the riverbed you still have a few miles to town…now on a paved road. I put my thumb out and actually got a ride on car number two. They were a nice family but they misunderstood where I was headed and drove past town…so an epic fail as I now had a few miles on the opposite side of town to walk. I was a bit frustrated at this so I jogged back to town. Yes, I know I hiked and then jogged…and in reality I’d decided rather quickly I would also hike back to Theth same day.

Valbone just wasn’t filling me with the energy I’d hoped, it felt very touristy even though at this hour I was basically the only tourist here lol. Valbone was quite pretty but it just seemed way more developed and it wasn’t as welcoming.

With the decision to return made I found a restaurant and had a late breakfast. For some reason I´m always craving eggs on this trip…so I was excited that at 11 am it was still offered at some (not all) restaurants! I ate in the company of the house cat, paid, refilled H2O and soon I was on my way back up the mountain.

I tried hitching a ride again but now no one cared to get me to the end of the road, a fancy little resort where everyone passing was headed for lunch but no kindness found. Just my luck! Oh well, I occupied myself with sporadic jogging and sang creative tunes about all the jerks not giving me a lift…

The way back was just as fast with different lighting on the peaks surrounding me and again I was pretty much the only one left hiking ha ha. I ended up back to the start of the trail in Theth before 5 pm…grabbed snacks at the only store in town and then waited for a handsome fellow to give me a lift back up to the campsite.

So much for a day off…I hiked the route 2 times in one day for a total of 34km (21 miles) with 2,400m (nearly 8,000 ft) gain all during my current 8 to 5 job…lol

How to do Albania´s Must do Hike

Cycling to Theth Info

Fier money

As I made my way to the coast of Albania I decided to visit the ruins at Apollonia near the City of Fier (Fear). Apollonia is a Greek influenced Illyrian trading post from 600 BC where Emperor Julius Cesar studied in his youth and is one of only two Greek colonies in the Adriatic Sea. There isn´t much between Fier and the ruins so I stopped for lunch in Fier. Lunch at Zgara e Likes was great, the chef used to work in London but decided to return home and open his own restaurant in his neighborhood. This seemed to be a trend; I met many Albanians who had lived abroad starting to return and open businesses. He was very friendly and his family was sitting two tables away. After I paid I ran to the bathroom and then said thank you to him and his family upon exiting. The chef was holding a plate of food for his family and as I walked by I said, “What is that? It doesn’t look like the two options you said you had for lunch!” He said, ¨try one!¨ I took one and bit down…it was frog legs. I said, How come you didn’t offer that as an option?¨, lol, to which he replied ¨most tourists are only looking for the basics!¨ which is true but I said “It would be nice to know these more exotic dishes exist in Albania… Ha ha I took one more frog leg, said, ¨thank you¨ and I was on my way!

Today after visiting Apollonia I would be headed to the Albanian coast for the first time. I planned to stay at an eco campground and assumed no ATM would be nearby. Given Fier had the highest potential for having an ATM between here and there and having plenty of past experiences to know (or you would think I’d know by now lol) it is always important to have enough cash on hand so before leaving the city I headed to the bank!

I was likely only going to be in Albania a week longer so I figured I´d get enough to last the rest of the travels here before Euro land again. I figured maybe the equivalent of €80 would be enough.

Albania´s currency, the Leke, comes in bills of 100s and 1000s. For example, 10,000 is about €100. For your future travels know that Albania doesn´t use the Euro but does accept it and that they mainly deal in cash, cards were hardly ever an option to use.

I stopped at one ATM which had a really high ATM fee so I canceled and decided to try another bank. At the other bank, the fee was much better but still kind of high but I still took money out knowing that my debit card returns all my foreign atm fees so it’s not so bad.

When I grabbed the money from the ATM I was surprised it gave me so many small bills so I walked inside to see if I could exchange them for bigger ones. They could not so I was stuck with a ton of bills to carry around with me. Darn!

In my hands was a stack of 2,000s and each 2,000 individually goes quite a long way in Albania. It took a minute for me to understand what was really going on at this ATM. If you are doing the math you probably figured it out before me…lol

I went to get €80 out but for some reason I typed 80,000 instead of 8,000 and to my disbelief my bank let me do this transaction. Next thing I knew I had the 800€ equivalent in Leke! It wasn´t a mistake by the ATM to give me so many bills, in fact they weren´t really that small of bills.

There was nothing I could do. I had completely spaced at the ATM. I should have caught on at the first bank that had a €50 fee or even at the second with a €20 fee because both were odd (usually it was between 5-8€) but nope I continued with the amount at both banks and unfortunately succeeded at one of them. :¡ Did the frog legs fog my brain? At least at the end of the month I’d get the ATM fees back…

I rode around for a while in disbelief of what I had just done. I got mad at myself for making this huge error and for now having to carrying so much money on me which isn´t that safe to do, ya know, on a bike. The 800€ equivalent could likely last the whole rest of the trip! I would exchange what was left over obviously but I would now lose 30€ or so on that exchange…bummer!

New lesson unlocked, pay attention at the ATM and remember what is the local currency conversion!

FYI this 800€ was later exchanged and did in fact last until Athens. At least there could be a positive in the situation but it sure was stressful carrying that much dinero cycling around!

More About Apollonia

Apollonia

Tirana friend

As I entered the big capitol City of Tirana night fell upon me. I looked at the map and pushed on a bit further before deciding to add a headlight. The backlight was already on. The point I stopped was just after the navigation app Komoot sent me across this sketchy pedestrian bridge that crossed a ravine. While getting the light out of my bag another cyclist appeared besides me and said, “oh, hey”.

Obviously we were headed the same direction and how often do you see another cyclist touring…for me, hardly ever….so we decided to cycle into the city center together. It was way more fun riding through the traffic and navigating into the center with another cyclist! When we reached Skanderbeg Square (literal center of Tirana) we stopped and looked at where our accommodations were located. It appeared we were at opposite ends of the square so we exchanged numbers to meet later for dinner and went on our separate ways…both very excited to be done cycling through Tirana’s crazy traffic and take a rest day here.

As I cycled away I quickly realized I was wrong, turns out, I needed to go the same way. In fact, I was actually on the same street as his accommodation, so as I passed I yelled his name and let him know I was actually a few buildings down…laughing as I went. Absurd coincidence!

At dinner we shared stories about our travels and learned about each other’s route onward. We had both started in Vienna actually but he was crushing distances and doing it all in 3 weeks. Turns out we would be leaving from Tirana the same day and both be headed South so maybe we’d cycle out together too lol. It was nice finding another cyclist headed South since on the entire trip I had only found 4, including him. The majority seemed to do this route heading North!

We spent the next day meeting for a morning walking tour of Tirana and shared another dinner too.

The day we headed out we met for breakfast but would exit Tirana at different times, mainly because I went for a run and needed a bit more time, so we said farewell.

While climbing the lovely carless mountain pass just outside of the capitol though I found him again. This time we cycled together a few hours until the bottom of the pass where we finally went our separate ways.

Tom is from Latvia and was headed to the opposite coast of Greece and is the person I spent the most time with on my entire cycling trip! It was so nice, the social bit was quite welcome if not needed for both of us! Although it was just a few hours it felt like a week or more, sharing miles and experiences together adds up quick when you fly solo on a bike through Europe!

Recommendation – Where to Visit in Albania

More Info on Cycling in Albania

Other stories from touring the Balkans: Greece – Montenegro – Croatia – Bosnia

Bike Touring for Beginners