Moj e bukura Shqipëri
Camping in Albania
It was 2021, and Europe was still dealing with COVID restrictions. At the time, planning a vacation was a lot more complicated than it normally would have been. Every country seemed to have its own rules, restrictions and exceptions. We wanted to go camping somewhere, so we started looking into the COVID regulations of pretty much every country in Europe. That's how Albania ended up on our radar.
Compared to many other European countries, the rules seemed more relaxed. It wasn't a country I had ever really considered visiting before, but the more research we did, the more appealing the idea of a little adventure down the coast of Europe became.
A few people were concerned about the idea of us going to Albania. In Western Europe, Albania wasn't exactly an obvious holiday destination. Well, at least not before the campervan and survival trends took off during the pandemic. My experience of Albania ended up being very different from what I had expected.
Getting There Was Already an Adventure
We started driving in Germany and headed south, passing through Austria, Slovenia and Croatia. Because of the COVID regulations at the time, getting through Croatia was a little more complicated than just driving across a border.
At the border, the controls were strict. The officials searched our van, were extremely rude and denied us entry. They told us that we couldn't enter without a Bosnian passport. This was confusing because, according to the information we had found online and the official entry requirements for Bosnia at the time, we should have been allowed to enter.
At this point, we were exhausted. Fortunately, we had just left Croatia and were able to re-enter, meaning that our transit time of 12 hours through the country started over again. We were already considering giving up for the night when the Croatian border officials suggested another option: continue south towards Dubrovnik and try the Bosnian border there. Apparently, that crossing was usually less problematic because of its remote location. From there, it was only a short distance through Bosnia before reaching Montenegro.
After more driving, we eventually stopped and got a few hours of sleep before continuing south. By the time we reached Albania, we had been on the road for more than 24 hours.
Finally: Albania
We usually don't make plans or book any hotels along the way. The idea of a road trip is to go with the flow, find places to camp, and see where the road takes us.
Eventually, we found a small camping spot right by the ocean. At first we were a little sceptical, cause at the end of the road, right by the ocean there was a little container or shelter with a security guard. We already turned around since we didn't want to camp on the beach illegally when a car approached us from behind and flashed its headlights on us. It was night, so it was kind of scary but it turned out to be a guy who wanted to offer us to camp in front of his restaurant at the beach. We didn't really trust the guy but we were also tired so we took the invitation and finally got some rest.
I woke up a couple of times because of wild dogs howling and a few guys drinking and chatting not far from us. But when I woke up in the morning everything was quiet and the
only thing I could hear was the sound of the waves.
The Little Mushroom Bunkers
While driving through Albania, we noticed the countless small, mushroom-shaped concrete bunkers scattered throughout the country. They could be found alongside roads, in fields, on hillsides, and in many other places where you wouldn't necessarily expect to see a military structure.
Today, many of the smaller bunkers are simply part of the landscape. Some have been abandoned, while others have been repurposed. We saw several covered in graffiti, including painted faces and emojis, while others were being used as garbage depots. Some of them were also placed in unusual locations, sometimes seemingly in the middle of an empty field or right beside a road.
We visited Bunk'Art in Tirana, a much larger underground bunker built in the 1970s to protect Albania's highest state and party leaders in the event of a nuclear attack. The complex has five underground levels and more than 100 rooms and is now a museum covering Albania's history, including the communist period.
According to Bunk'Art, more than 221,000 bunkers were planned between 1975 and 1983, of which 173,371 were ultimately built.
After seeing Bunk'Art, we had a better understanding of why there were so many small bunkers throughout the country. While they were originally built for military purposes, many of them have since become part of everyday life in Albania.
Don't Camp in the Wrong Spot...
At first, we weren't sure what was happening. When we realized the vehicle was actually heading towards us, we turned off the lights and decided to pretend that nobody was there.
We heard the people getting out of the vehicle and then saw the beam of a flashlight through the window of our little campervan. A moment later, they knocked on the door and, as far as I remember, announced themselves as police.
They were friendly but serious and immediately asked how many people were inside. We told them there were only two of us. They explained that one of them was an Albanian police officer and that the other was a Slovenian guard working for Frontex.
They asked us to get out of the van and proceeded to search it. It slowly became clear that they weren't looking for drugs or anything like that. They were checking whether anyone else was hiding inside.
They explained that it wasn't a safe place to spend the night, mentioning the presence of wild dogs in the area, and told us to leave and find somewhere else. Even when I mentioned that I had already had a couple of beers, they didn't seem particularly concerned about it. The important thing to them was simply that we left the area.
We followed their instructions, left the area, and eventually spent the night parked on a side street in the nearest town. Even after we drove away, I could still see their flashlights moving around the campsite as they continued searching the area.
The officer and the Frontex guard remained respectful throughout the entire encounter. In the end, it was a strange misunderstanding caused by us choosing a particularly unfortunate place to spend the night.
The Beautiful Side of Albania
Before our trip, we had heard quite a few negative things about Albania and its reputation in Western Europe. Our own experience was very different. Almost everyone we met was welcoming, helpful and genuinely friendly.
English and German weren't widely spoken, although we occasionally got lucky with Italian. Even when there was no common language, communication was rarely a problem. People would use gestures, smiles, a few words and whatever else was necessary to help us out.
And they love inviting you for a raki. I remember a little restaurant on a hill in Berat, where we camped right in the garden, just in front of the terrace overlooking the hillside. For dinner, they brought us little jugs of raki. Nothing unusual. The next morning, when we woke up, they started serving us jugs of raki again. I had to explain that I still needed to drive and really couldn't drink. The waiter looked at me and said, “Wait a minute, I've got something for you.” A few minutes later, he came back with a brownish, sweeter version of raki. Of course, it came in a jug.
One evening, we asked whether we could get some bread and olive oil. The waiter told us he would ask the kitchen. When he came back, he explained that one of his colleagues was on his way into town to buy bread for us and that it would take about twenty minutes. We hadn't expected anyone to go to that effort for us, but this kind of thing happened more than once during the trip.
A lot of the food we encountered also seemed to come directly from the surrounding area. People grew vegetables and other produce in their own gardens, and the food often felt simple, fresh and local. Prices were remarkably low compared with what we are used to, sometimes to the point where the bill was so small that we barely had any change left to give.
And then there is the landscape. Albania has beaches along the coast, mountains further inland, clear natural springs, national parks, historic towns and old architecture, including Berat, the famous "City of a Thousand Windows." Even glaciers can be found in the country's mountains.
For us, the combination of welcoming people, good food, low prices and incredible landscapes made Albania one of the most memorable trips we have taken.
One last tip: If you drive through the mountains and find somebody on the side of the street selling honey, try to get fir honey.
Our Favorite Campsites:
Ksamil Caravan Camping - Easy access · Close to town
Accessible by car, campervan and other regular vehicles, without a difficult access road. Conveniently located close to Ksamil, with shops, supermarkets and restaurants within walking distance.
A secluded campsite for those looking to get away from it all. Getting there is part of the adventure, with a steep, rough access road that can be challenging for some vehicles. Best suited to smaller vehicles, and not recommended for larger motorhomes or trailers.
