Regardless of being tough and prepared in some locations, we discovered Albania to be actually welcoming to households.
“Good morning my good friend! I’ve missed you!”
Manuel scoops up our son and enfolds him in a hug earlier than delighting him with a chase by the restaurant. Finley’s squeals of laughter echo by the family-run lodge within the tiny village of Qeparo the place we’re staying on the Albanian Riviera.
Easy accessibility to white pebbled seashores, azure water and views of Greece make this a soothing spot to get pleasure from scrumptious regionally sourced Albanian delicacies. However the meals and panorama aren’t the one causes my husband and I’ve fallen in love with this nation.
Our two-year-old son is welcomed in all places we go. His presence is anticipated and celebrated versus simply being tolerated, as we skilled after we travelled with him as a six-month-old.
Our three-week household vacation included UNESCO World Heritage Websites, Butrint Nationwide Park, the world-class mountaineering path between Theth and Valbona, and the thermal springs and interesting historical past of Permet within the Vjosë River Valley.
Climbing the Valbona Go: Come rain or shine
Albania’s family-friendly ambiance is clear as quickly as we arrive within the Balkan nation, instantly making our means north.
As an alternative of the solar, sea and sand that the majority vacationers are right here for, we embrace the scent of rain and heavy rumble of thunder that cuts by the moody clouds crowding the tiny hamlet of Theth.
A 16km hike over the well-known Valbona Go awaits us the following day. Stated to be one of many world’s greatest hikes, we will’t wait to lace up our boots and hit the path.
We sprint from the taxi into the welcoming arms of a family-run guesthouse the place native kids examine Finley curiously earlier than taking him outdoors to satisfy a energetic black and white pet.
We sip Korca beer and watch our son play fortunately whereas we meet different hikers who’ve now arrived, moist and exhausted, from Valbona.
What’s it prefer to hike Albania’s Accursed Mountains?
The following morning we clamber up a hillside studded with Norway Spruce, the woodsy balsamic scent tingling in our nostrils.
Often the sunshine tinkering of a cowbell breaks thorugh our huffing and puffing as we toil up the steep slope, solely catching our breath as soon as the primary pearly peaks of the Accursed Mountains emerge.
At a small hillside café, I give Finley a break from the backpack he’s been strapped into, arm him with a mountaineering pole and let him stroll.
The path is crowded with fellow hikers however everybody provides him a smile, transferring apart as he makes his means up an incline, solely sometimes toppling over into the mud that has fashioned after final night time’s storm.
Tirana: UNESCO Websites and luxurious scorching springs
Again in Tirana we lease a automotive, cruising between locations on newly paved roads, ending up on the UNESCO World Heritage Website of Berat.
The town of a thousand home windows, seasoned liberally with Byzantine church buildings, provides a visible feast for our grownup eyes, whereas the crumbling fort partitions of the Citadel of Berat – relationship again to the thirteenth century – are the right playground for Finley.
He totters up the cobbled roads, scrambles over stones and inspects an Ottoman Mosque whereas the solar sinks beneath this hallowed horizon.
Within the metropolis of Permet close to the Greek border we soak within the luxurious scorching springs of the Vjosë Valley whereas Finley creates summary artwork with the mud by the facet of the river within the alabaster canyon that flows into the valley.
We scale the ‘Stone of the Metropolis’, a bulging landmark of the city, climbing 42 metres or 101 steps up a rickety staircase to the stays of a fortress relationship again to the 4th century.
We be taught concerning the native legend wherein Premt, the ruler of the fortress, threw himself from the rock fairly than being captured by an enemy invasion. We maintain a detailed eye on our son, who’s inspecting the ruins, to make sure the identical factor doesn’t occur to him.
On the UNESCO World Heritage Website of Gjirokaster, we wander by the ghostly inexperienced glow of a sound tunnel that was as soon as an entrance to a chilly warfare bunker beneath the Gjirokaster Fortress.
The strategically essential fort additionally serves as an amusement park as Finleyruns alongside the ramparts, shouts with delight on the historic armoury on show and performs conceal and search among the many completely preserved arches that adorn the traditional twelfth century construction overlooking the magnificent mountains ringing the Drino Valley.
Butrint Nationwide Park: Furry felines and views for miles
In Butrint Nationwide Park – first a prehistoric Greek colony, then a Roman metropolis after which, following a short occupation by the Venetians, deserted to the salty marshes of space – Finley is enamoured by the various cats that stay onsite, gently stroking the furry felines whereas my husband and I love our first views of the Adriatic.
The Albanian Riviera is looking to us, however first, Finley should shimmy and climb over the richly layered archaeological ruins that now protect the tales of the various historical civilisations that after settled right here.
Whereas visiting the fabled seashores of the shoreline, we watch our son timidly play subsequent to the surging surf, dipping a toe, perhaps two at a time, shyly considering the countless horizon that stretches earlier than him.
By the tip of our time in Albania, very like our preliminary uneasy method to travelling right here with our son, Finley is frolicking confidently within the sea. We will’t wait to return again.