Albania doesn't have its own tourist board in the UK, but you should visit albania-holidays.com, a dynamic little local company which offers three-night hotel stays in Tirana from €109 (about £79) per person and week-long tours around the country from €399 (£290), including accommodation."

Useful tourist information and hotel booking websites: www.albania-hotel.com, www.albania-holidays.com"

Locally based Albania Holidays (tel. +355/4-235-498; www.albania-holidays.com) offers a seven-day, land-only "Highlights of Albania" trip that operates from March to November. The tour starts in Tirana with a pick-up service from the airport. It visits the Monastery of Ardenica, the ancient city of Apollonia, Vlora, Saranda, the Albanian Riviera, the Llogara Pass, the Lekuresi Fortress, the ancient city of Butrint, Berat, Gjirokastër, Durrës and Krujë. The tour is priced from $543 per person based on double occupancy and includes transfers and transportation in an air-conditioned motor coach, English speaking tour guide, six nights' accommodations in three-star hotels, breakfast and dinner daily, a folk Show in Tirana, all taxes and entrance fees. A single supplement is $136."

One week ago I concluded my first trip to Albania and I certainly hope it will not be my last. The majority of my visit was a Highlights of Albania tour organized by your company and I am writing to express my appreciation for an experience that surpassed my expectations.

I had been curious to visit Albania for several years already and, in contemplating my long anticipated trip, I was not sure what to expect. Given the rapid changes underway in your country, the guidebooks are dated and most travel agencies outside of Albania with whom I spoke knew nothing of the country. Furthermore, Albanian friends in Canada had recommended that I not travel alone. Thus, I was anxiously searching for a way to visit your country in a comfortable and efficient manner prior to the end of my sojourn in nearby Italy. At first, I tried visiting the websites of agencies listed in the guidebooks but found that in most cases they were not very informative, especially with respect to tour prices and schedules. Often, the quality of their English and Italian translations was mediocre, something that does not inspire confidence when one is considering the significant investment of time and money typical of a guided tour. At one point, I had even contacted an agency directly by phone, but my effort produced no tangible result – they never called me back with the information I requested.

Then I came across your website and that is when everything changed. Not only is your English translation markedly superior to that of several other agencies, but the information provided on your site is substantial and helpful. Just a few minutes of browsing reignited my enthusiasm and restored my hope that an imminent visit was indeed possible. Thus, I wrote an email explaining that I was looking for a tour that would leave as soon as possible. Soon after, I heard from Jonista who was extremely helpful in assisting me with my travel preparations. She was also quite patient as I had many questions and concerns, requiring several email exchanges before I was finally able to confirm my participation in a tour.

With respect to the tour itself, I found that it was logically organized and brought me to the places I wanted to see according to a schedule that was well conceived. All of the hotels in which we stayed were clean, comfortable and well located in their respective towns. Moreover, hotel staff were helpful and friendly, a nice relief from the indifference I have encountered in some of my recent trips elsewhere. More importantly, our guide, Klodian was excellent. Not only was he helpful and informative, explaining much about the places we visited and about Albanian history and culture, but he is friendly, patient and accommodating, undeniable essential qualities for a top notch guide. I should also mention how impressed we were with his superb driving skills.

My experience with Albania Holidays has given me an excellent introduction to your country and provided me with many fond memories. It is my earnest hope to return to Albania as soon as possible, and when I do, I will look forward to booking another tour with your company. Now that I have returned from my wonderful trip, several colleagues and friends have expressed curiosity in visiting Albania. After my good experience, I can easily recommend that they book a tour with Albania Holidays. In fact, I have already begun to do so

We just arrived at home after having a wonderful journey through your country. Arben was an excellent teacher, organizer and an enthusiastic tour leader and we learned and enjoyed a lot, especially knowledge and kindness. Arben made our tour to an unforgettable experience!!! All the hotels have been good some very good, sometimes with very small mistakes, but the staff was always friendly, helpful and customer orientated.
We will recommend your travel agency to our friends because we are very satisfied. It is not the last time we stay in Albania

We thought you would like to know that we thought the tour was very well organized, and that we both very much enjoyed ourselves. We particularly appreciated Klodi, our guide/ driver, and would like to express our appreciation of the care and effort he put into making our tour a success. His driving was alert and careful, his English is fluent and easy to understand, and his descriptions of the places we visited were well-judged – neither too long and over-detailed nor too short and undetailed. He proved to be an amusing companion, and we learned a great deal about Albania just from the conversations we had while driving along the road. The car was comfortable, and the hotels were of an acceptable standard. The Hotel Theranda in Tirana, in particular, seemed to us to be well located close to the Block, and to have an attractive clean, contemporary décor. The staff were welcoming, pleasant and helpful.

We had a wonderful week in Albania and want to return to the mountains to walk one day. Many thanks for all the help with hotel bookings and the advice about Lake Koman. We thought the hotels you recommended were just right for us and everyone was very kind and helped us with buses and taxis. We really loved the Lake Koman trip and we got a lift back on the high road which was wonderful - down to Puka. Many thanks again and we will contact you next time

We have returned to California just few days ago and wanted to thank you for your services. I especially want to extend my gratitude to Claudian boss how was able to intercede on my husbands behalf in order to secure his visa. I must say he was able to work a miracle, we were very disappointed to think we would not have a chance to experience Albania.
We had a wonderful time and Claudian was very professional and kind with us.Please extend him our best wishes and thanks again for your fine services

My son and I greatly enjoyed our very short visit to Albania, and want to thank you for your part in arranging this. We were particularly lucky with the weather and even luckier with the guide you chose for our trip to Kruje. He was not only knowledgeable on the ancient history of Albania but also very informative on more recent events. I would be grateful if you would email me his full name so that we can recommend him to any of our friends who follow in our footsteps

… a visitor gets royal treatment here when they know you're an American, and I have to admit it's always nice to be liked. Remember that if you want to visit Albania the staff of Albania Holidays will take care of you and all your needs. They can book your hotels, and specialize in the affordable ones, arrange tours for you to places outside of Tirana that should not be missed: Berat is where I went and Kruja too, an easy day-trip. And if Klodi is your driver you will have a charming and sweet young Albanian at your service and to answer enthusiastically any questions you might have about his country and everyday life.

Your new web page (http://www.albania-holidays.com/)! Clean, crisp, informative, bringing yourself & Albania into the 21st century. A job well done. Congratulations

We had a wonderful time in Albania. Our guide Claudian was the best man we could wish, Thanks to him we fell in love with your country. We hope to come back

The tour in Albania was a big success, and we enjoyed a lot traveling with Erkan and our driver. We have been able to see lot of things we wouldn´t have seen traveling on our own, and we had a great time together

I thought I would write a quick e-mail to thank you for arranging our travel requirements in Albania. We enjoyed our trip very much and everything went very smoothly. We liked Albania very much and found everyone to be very friendly and helpful. As well as Tirana, we visited Kruja and Durres. We were also impressed with your driver Klodi and found him to be very friendly and informative. He is also a very careful driver.I will not hesitate to use your company again when I next travel to Albania. I will also recommend you to my friends

Il viaggio é stato bello e tutto é andato molto bene. Abbiamo mangiato sempre bene, un buon cibo genuino, e non abbiamo incontrato un albanese che non fosse gentile.
Grazie per tutta la vostra buona organizzazione e vi contatteremo di nuovo per il nostro futuro nuovo viaggio in Albania. Consiglieremo ai nostri amici di visitare l'Albania e di fare organizzare il viaggio da Albania Holidays.
Grazie ancora, tanti cari saluti e a presto.

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Trip to a very interesting country with wrongly bad perception in western europe.

The motivation to see Kosovo was to ticking off the last country in Europe which I have not seen withour expecting much. To my huge surprise and after this four days trip I have to confess, that Kosovo is a very interesting country from a scenic, cultural, historical and infrastructural point of view. Also the general service and knowledge of our guide was impressive. Congratulation to Kosovo Holidays and the country to what they have achieved since their real Independence of less than 20 years and massiv civil war!

Trip across the Balkans
Did a trip across the Balkans with Arsim who was super professional and knowledgeable. I highly recommend him and the services of Kosovo Holidays

"Seriously; you are on holiday here?"
So asked the border control officer as he checked our passports. We were on holiday and had a fantastic few days exploring Kosovo with our excellent guide. Kosovo is a young, new, developing country. There are extremes of wealth. There is unemployment. But it is a beautiful country and the region has a history and many fine sights that are worth exploring. We enjoyed the Bear Sanctuary. the snow covered mountains and the waterfalls. The churches we visited were stunning. We enjoyed great value food, beers, wines and raki, Sabaja brewery was a top place to visit as was the Bodrumi i Vjetër (Old Cellar) winery.The cities of Prishtina, Peja and Prizren gave an insight into the history of the region and the way of life there. We were blessed to have a very knowledgeable and passionate guide. Thanks Arsim."How did you enjoy your holiday?" asked the same border control officer as we left. Wonderful we smiled

Europe’s youngest nation, Kosovo is full of surprises
Kosovo Holidays, is a reputable and efficient English-speaking tour operator offering group and custom trips for activities from outdoor adventures and Bosnian village lunches to cultural city and wine-tasting visits throughout Kosovo, Margo Pleiff wrote for San Francisco Chronicle.
It is hard to believe that Kosovo is the youngest nation in Europe, of 8 years old, and the numbers of visitors who come to Kosovo are increasing every year. We explored this beautiful country together with Kosovo Holidays tour guide, Arsim Rexhepi