The Secret Roads of a Different Europe (Albania)

Six nights in a Balkan loop from Thessaloniki on a Royal Enfield, crossing into Albania and skirting North Macedonia, and it is a new addition to the operator’s European range.

Thessaloniki opens it, then Kastoria in Greek Macedonia, a town built on a peninsula in Lake Orestiada that has made its living from fur for five centuries. The border crossing follows into Albania and Gjirokaster, the Stone City, UNESCO listed for its Ottoman houses of slate and stone stacked up a hillside below a fortress.

The Devoll valley comes next by way of the Vjosa, one of the last large wild rivers in Europe, undammed along almost its whole length and now protected as a national park, and Berat, also UNESCO listed and known as the City of a Thousand Windows for the Ottoman houses of the Mangalem and Gorica quarters facing each other across the river. The citadel above it is still lived in.

Lake Prespa follows through rural valleys, at the point where Albania, Greece and North Macedonia meet, which is a serious wildlife area and holds the largest colony of Dalmatian pelicans in the world, with the village of Lemos nearby. The return to Thessaloniki crosses the northern Greek mountain passes. Bike rental is included and the price is quoted per person. Albania has improved its roads enormously over the last decade while keeping the emptiness, and the combination of two UNESCO towns, a wild river valley and three countries inside six nights is a lot of variety for the distance covered.