Albania

[David A]

Hi there, first post on the forum, so please be gentle with me!

I stayed in the village last year and we absolutely loved it. I seem to remember talking to a lady outside a travel shop, about 100 yards along from El Greco, about a day trip to Albania. Unfortunately, we could not book it up due to my mate's ill-health at the time, but as I'm visiting as a solo traveller this year, I'm keen to find out if the trip is available during my week (Mon 12-19 Sept)?

I look forward to hearing from you.

David

[swedebasher]

San Stefanos Travel on the road to the beach past Margartitas supermarket does them.

Every Tue,Wed,Thu,Fri,Sat & Sun 07:30-20:45 €29
For those who want to explore another culture and history, a trip to the once Communist ran Albania is a must. Spend the day in St. Saranda (40 Saints) or take a guided tour to the ruins of Butrinti with views along the way right over to Kassiopi, here in Corfu. Customers must have passports and there is €10 extra for port taxes. The guided tour, which includes a plentiful buffet lunch, is €23 per person.

[Dupnica]

 It's an interesting trip,I did it about four years ago.
A word of advice, take a packed lunch and some water, the "plentiful buffet lunch" is less than appealing and not very plentiful.
 Welcome to the forum and don't be nervous, some of us are quite nice.

[IrisG]

Must agree about the food, we found it inedible.
The ruins at Butrint are fascinating,though, well worth a visit.

[David A]

Sounds like a plan - thanks for the helpful advice!

[rilo57]

Sounds like an expensive day out if you take guided tour..120euro for 2..we had a car for 3 days and 2 nights accomodation for the same price in august..

[David A]

I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Albania last Sunday, however the ferry trip over was scary, to say the least, thanks to the rain and thunderstorms.
The only down side was the lack of organisation - having paid the additional 23Euros for the trip to the ruins in Butrint, I ended up on a bus full of Russians and Poles, with no-one speaking English. However, when we eventually stopped at a Hotel for a coffee, I managed to get on the correct bus, but one of the guides (he'll know who he is) clearly thought that I'd not paid and even pulled me up again during the tour of the ruins which was totally uncalled for.

Apart from that, Butrint was amazing and the Albanian lady who showed us around was really informative and enthusiastic. When we returned to the Hotel for lunch, I was pleasantly surprised - the buffet was a lot better than I'd been led to expect by the earlier comments on here! Finally, I spent an hour in a pub in Sarande watching the last half of the Man Utd game whilst chatting, in broken English. to the locals and enjoying their brand of lager - an experience I'll never forget.

All in all, a very interesting day!!!!