Northern Albania is known for its rivers, lakes and mountains. We explored all three while staying in Shkodër.

Early in our stay, we drove towards the Canyon ‘Ura e Shtrenjtë following the Kiri River looking for swimming holes. The road was narrow and windy, the Albanians were crazy drivers and the swimming holes were freezing, all of which became the norm here. However, the natural landscapes surrounding us were beautiful.

Albania is blessed with lots of roadside bars and restaurants similar to Spain so we were happy to stop on the way home for lunch.

Komani Lake and Shala River tour.

Our amazing Airbnb host Max booked a day tour to Shala River for us. It’s a popular destination and one we had read about. We decided to wait until September hoping it would be less busy. It was a big day as we left at 630am on a minibus to catch the ferry on Komani Lake which would take us to Shala River. The road to the ferry depot was very bad and we were very happy that we had decided not to take Freddy as I don’t think he would have survived. After 2 hours we arrived at the Komani Lake ferry port. The lake is actually a dam on the Drini River and the port is right next to the dam wall. We had to walk through a tunnel to reach it.

After an hour on the ferry, we arrived at Shala River nestled in amongst the mountains.

The river is shallow, rocky and cold and is surrounded by restaurants and guesthouses. There are also lots of activities like kayaking and zipline etc. There are also the dreaded umbrellas and lounge chairs which are common on many of the beaches in Southern Europe. We did not realise we had to pay until we chose a couple of the lounges and then 5 minutes later we were asked for 10 Euro. We did not stay as it was almost time to go back to the ferry anyway so chose to spend the money at a bar on the way back to the ferry instead. A much better idea!

Albanian Alps and the village of Thethi

The Albanian Alps is a popular hiking destination and the village of Thethi is one of the main hubs for hikers to explore the region. One of the most popular hikes is from Theth National Park to Valbona Valley National Park or vice versa so Thethi village is very busy. Again we decided to wait until September hoping it was a bit calmer.

We also chose to drive and not take a tour as the road had recently been upgraded and sealed. Even so, it was still quite narrow and the last section was just hairpin after hairpin but we eventually made it and Salvador and Freddy were still in one piece but feeling a little stressed.

The village is set high up in the Alps and is surrounded by beautiful views no matter which way you look. We walked to the Kisha e Thethit, which is a small unusual and beautiful church built in 1892. When first settled the residents of Thethi, were Roman Catholics and so, one of the first buildings was the church.

We decided to stop on the way home for lunch at the amazing Buni i Bajraktarit restaurant which has a wonderful view and great food. They had a special building that housed the open-fire rotisseries where they cooked whole lambs so of course that’s what we had to have.

Shkodër Lake

Lake Skadar – also called Lake Scutari, Lake Shkodër and Lake Shkodra – lies on the border of Albania and Montenegro, and is the largest lake in Southern Europe. The city of Shkodër (where we are based) lies on its southeastern coast. The small town of Shiroka is located on the northwestern side of the lake where there is a large boulevard that follows the lake and lots of bars and restaurants (of course) where you can enjoy the view.

The road around the lake continues from Shiroka along the lake shoreline to what was once a border crossing with Montenegro but is now closed. The road looked dodgy so we did not venture all the way. This is also where numerous bunkers were built by the leader Enver Hoxha from the 60’s-80’s as he was convinced every country nearby wanted to invade. Concrete military bunkers are seen throughout Albania, as the communist government fortified Albania by building more than 750,000 bunkers.