Road trip in the Balkans (Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro)

For the long weekend of May 2025, I decided to go to Albania and to book excursions with GetYourGuide to go to Kosovo, North Macedonia and Montenegro. I went there from May 2nd to May 9th 2025.

Day 1 - Albania

The first day, after my walk in Tirana, when I returned to the hotel, I realized that my phone was blocked. It was impossible for me to unlock it despite all my attempts. It must have gotten stuck rubbing against my chest, the PIN code probably entered itself multiple times due to the rubbing and ended up locking the phone after several unsuccessful PIN code attempts.

I panicked because the information about my various excursions was only accessible on my phone. Fortunately for me, I was carrying my iPad. Not knowing my passwords by heart, I was still stuck because I couldn't contact the organizers of the excursions by email, as I couldn't access my mailbox without a password. Remembering my friend Angela's email address, I tried to contact her and found that I could call her on her phone because she has an iPhone, and since I was using my iPad and both devices are from Apple, the manipulation was possible. I explained my problem to her, and by some miracle, she managed to access my email account. I was able to contact the organizers and explain that I had a phone problem and that if they had any information to provide, they should send it directly on Angela's phone, my savior.

The rest of my trip in the Balkans, I used my iPad to take photos during my excursions. It was not practical, but it still helped me out.

Tirana

Day 2 - Albania

Sari Salltik, Kruja Castle and Old Bazaar

I almost missed this excursion. The meeting point was supposed to be at my hotel, but I ended up having to walk a few minutes from my hotel near a stadium where all the participants were waiting. Not having my phone and therefore no GPS, I tried my best to get to the meeting point. I got lost, but thanks to many Albanians, I managed to find my way and arrived 5 minutes before the bus left. What a fright!

Day 3 - Kosovo

Prizren

I loved Prizren; it's a very pretty town that reminds me a bit of a village. I had lunch with one of the participants of the excursion who just came from Singapore. She was very nice and even paid for my meal. We paid €11 for two, drinks included.

Pristina

I didn't like Pristina as much as Prizren; it's way too modern for me. The city is also heavily focused on the USA because there are many references to that country in the city.

Day 4 - North Macedonia

During this excursion, I became friends with a Brazilian woman, Viviane, who lives in Portugal (in Portimao where the Afro Nation festival takes place). She was really lovely! We took photos and videos together with her drone. After returning from the excursion, we had dinner together at a traditional restaurant in Tirana.

Anecdote from the excursion: we lost 4 members of the group, two American women and a British couple. After driving for 2 hours, we stopped to take a break. It was at that moment that our guide asked for our passports. One of the American women didn't have it; she said she never carried her ID around with her at home. Serious mistake because to get to North Macedonia, we had to go through customs since we had just come from Albania. The guide called a taxi for her to return to Tirana. Her friend had her passport, but she decided to accompany her too.

Upon arrival at customs (3 hours from there), the guide provided our passports to the customs officers. However, there was a problem with the British passports; they had an electronic visa, but unfortunately, only paper visas were accepted. They had to take the opposite route to get back to Tirana by taxi.

Ohrid

Bay of the bones museum

Saint Naum Monastery

National Park of Drilon

Day 5 - Montenegro

Wonderful trip with the guide Ilir, who was incredible! The day was very long because Ilir came to pick me up at 7:15 at my hotel and we returned to Tirana around 11:45 PM. However, despite the busy day, I didn't get bored, I loved this excursion. Ilir wanted to show us as much as possible at all costs. He knows the best spots for taking great photos and also took us on the ferry to Perast - Kotor.

For this excursion, there were 6 of us, including Ilir, 4 Americans (two young women who had left together and two other women who were a bit older and also friends), and me. One of the Americans told me that her family was close to Donald Trump, but she had never met him.

I remember that we spent a lot of time between the Albanian and Montenegrin borders because on that day, the passport scanning machines were down and the customs officers had to do everything manually.

Upon my return to France, I ran into the two girls at Tirana airport; we took the same flight. I had a layover in Vienna before heading to Paris, and they were going to Vienna for the next part of their journey.

Albania, Shkoder

We stopped in Shkoder for a coffee that Ilir paid for before we headed to Montenegro.

Sveti Stefan

Budva

Kotor

Perast

Day 6 - Albania, Tirana

That day, I was supposed to go on a tour, but it was cancelled due to bad weather. So I wandered around Tirana, went to eat at Komiteti, and then booked a walking tour with a guide to learn more about the city. I was the only participant on the tour. The guide was lovely.

Komiteti restaurant

Guided tour

Day 7 - Albania

I was unlucky again, my excursion was canceled because I was the only participant. I was offered another one at the same price. The plan was to visit a canyon and go hiking. Fortunately for me, I had sneakers. However, I was not warned that I needed extra clothes for the canyon. Indeed, we walked in the water (the only shoes I had that could go in the water were sandals with a very thin sole, so it was very uncomfortable to walk on the large rocks and it slowed me down) and there were places where the water rose up to my waist. Fortunately for me, the weather was nice and my leggings were able to dry quickly.