Bike Tour Reviews UNESCO Sites Of Albania
Guided from EUR € 1190
Self guided from EUR € 950
Guided:
Apr 5, 11, 21, 30*; May 12, 15, 20, 23; Jun 1, 6, 22; Jul 1; Aug 22; Aug 24*; Aug 31*; Sep 9*, 10*, 19*, 20*, 27*, 29*; Oct 6*, 8*, 15, 17, 2024. (* indicates fully booked)
Self-guided:
Daily, upon request: Apr 1 - Jul 1; Aug 25 - Oct 25, 2024.
Description:
The highlights of this magical bike tour include three UNESCO sites, snow-capped mountains, inviting beaches on the Albanian Riviera, a genuine, untouched subsistence culture, and exceptionally friendly local people. Some say that visiting Albania is as…
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★★★★★ Lori Doering 1 month ago
Incredible experience!
Loved exploring Albania on bike! Our guide, Matao, was amazing! He went above and beyond day after day. The Albanian countryside, cities, people and food far exceeded any and all expe.
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★★★★★ Beth W. 1 month ago
Great experience!
This was my first bike tour and time spent in Albania! Overall great experience with a wonderful group. Our guide and driver kept us on point each day to see the beautiful Albanian countryside including mountains and beaches. The food was healthy and good. Several of the routes were on busy roads with narrow shoulders for cyclists. The daily rides were challenging with a lot of rolling hills and climbing. Would be smart to highly consider an e-bike. Albania has a lot of opportunity to welcome tourism post-communism.
- What was the date of your tour?
- October 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Terry Aittama 1 month ago
Trip of a lifetime!
The UNESCO bike trip is definitely ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for organization, bike route, accommodations, food, guide, and van driver/support. Albania is a beautiful country, still relatively untouched by tourism. Our guide Mateo and van driver Roxjens are the best. Mateo is very organized, communicates clearly about the day’s agenda, and has a good sense of humor. We had a luggage delay and Mateo went above and beyond to get our suitcases to us in the most timely manner possible. Roxjens is helpful, ambitious and always had a smile on his face. He changed my flat tire and had me back on the road in record time! The food is delicious and plentiful. There is a fun variety of accommodations, all very comfortable. Highly recommend this bike tour!
- What was the date of your tour?
- October 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- My first!
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Siobhan Knox 1 month ago
Best Guided Tour Ever!
UNESCO Sites of Albania was the best guided tour I have ever done. Not only did the food and scenery exceed their reputations, the accommodations and bikes were excellent. More importantly, our guide and driver/mechanic were extremely efficient, knowledgeable, helpful, and cheerful—they left us wanting for nothing! I highly recommend it.
- What was the date of your tour?
- October 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 13
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Bradford Pickett 1 month ago
A Great bike ride
You might add an extra day in the middle of the ride for some R & R. But it was a great bike ride. The end of the tourist season everybody in Albania was a little tired. Or may that is the Albanian way. The hotels were ok we had scratching all night in the country when we stayed at the log cabins.
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★★★★★ Maureen Lander 1 month ago
Albania is Beautiful!
As far as the biking in Albania, I'd give five-star, A-plus all the way. Beautiful scenery, nice roads with twists and turns to keep things interesting. Lots of uphill -- negated by e-bike -- but rewarded with fun, exhilarating downhills that went on forever and ever. Our fellow bikers were the best, interesting, fun people from all over. It was a true experience being in a country that's emerging from decades and decades of communist rule. They have a ways to go, I'd say, as far as customer service/attitude about tourists, but it looks like they're trying.
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★★★★★ john turco 1 month ago
beyond expectations
our guide Mateo and his assistant Rojxan were amazing. Tour was like a fine tuned watch.
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★★★★★ Vicki Jones 1 month ago
Awesome trip!
Perfect way to experience Albania! The itinerary was a good mix of city and countryside. The scenery was beautiful and the people were super nice. The length of time on the bikes each day was perfect- starting out slow and ending with a bang. We were glad that we got e-bikes. We got a little exercise but able to enjoy every minute. The food was great- always fresh and local. Our guide Mateo was very attentive, informative and helpful. His fluent English made things easy. Roxhens, the van driver
was always attentive, making sure we had plenty of water and charged batteries. This was our first guided bike trip and we highly recommend to anyone wanting to experience Albania!- What was the date of your tour?
- October 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 6
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat easier
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ David Loukras 1 month ago
Great trip highly recommended
What a great way to see Albania. Each day brought new sights, history and great roads. Perfect weather in mid-October. Accommodations were clean and well equipped. Food was nutritious, traditional, plentiful and delicious. Bikes were good for most with a couple of small breakdowns for some. Most were on e-bikes and there was always enough batteries for everyone everyday. Great guiding to ensure everyone knew where to go, but not so much to burden the flow of the ride. Most of the roads were exceptional twisty winding roads with minimal amount of “highway” with truck traffic. Views of the mountains and Ionian Sea were breathtaking. We downloaded the map files provided and uploaded them to Komoot so we always knew where we were and where we were going.
- What was the date of your tour?
- Oct 7 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- This was my first guided bike tour. I will do more.
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Kathy Dudley 1 month ago
Eye opening tour
Biking through Albania was certainly an eye opening experience. Observing the development of the country following so many years of communism was eye opening for us. Riding through villages with donkeys and wheelbarrows onto major highways with tourist buses was quite a juxtaposition. The country is beautiful yet full of trash. The people were warm amd welcoming and made the trip a wonderful experience. Our guide amd driver were fun and efficient. We would recommend better bike repair equipment or back up bikes and a first aid kit. It would be nice to have tours with e-bikes separate from those with manual bikes to decrease the waiting and the pressure of those riding manual bikes to keep up.
- What was the date of your tour?
- October 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 4
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Tom Gihring 1 month ago
Wonderful views riding through this mountainous landscape
One of the best value cycle tours to be found. First class meals provided, including fresh prepared local dishes. Guides take good care of the bikes and give daily briefings before each ride. Wish there were more cycle paths to relieve riders from dealing with motor traffic.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 8
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Rhonda Peckham 1 month ago
Sampler of Albania's beauty
The tour itself was well organized and lodging overall was pleasant and comfortable. While instructions and direction for the ride were made clear by the guide, the UNESCO sites were not explained as to their significance and designation. Understandably, the guide appeared fatigued and distracted with this the last tour of the year for him. Technical support for and repair for some of the equipment seemed to be an issue. One safety concern noted from the trip: Medical supplies and first aid skills that would adequately address injuries related to cycling seemed to be lacking and was a cause for concern in the event of an emergency.
- What was the date of your tour?
- October 2024
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Mary Patno 2 months ago
Great Bike Tour
The bike tour brought us to places I would never have visited, so it was a great way to see Albania up close and personal. The hotels were a mixed bag and you never knew what to expect. Being a single I tended to get shorted; a room that smelled badly of wood smoke and not clean, another with no windows (and we were at the beach), another I had to share b/c of a shortage of rooms. Not entirely what I was expecting. However, the meals were great and healthy. Our guide was excellent and offered much history about Albania. The support guy was fantastic too, always at the ready when needed. I would recommend this trip, just don’t expect frills.
- What was the date of your tour?
- Sept-Oct
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ shelley spivack 2 months ago
An Amazing Adventure
All I can say is WOW!
But actually I will say a bit more.The scenery, the food, the people, the guides and of course the climbs- all made for an amazing 8 day journey in Albania.
Our guide Arjan was simply the best! He quickly got to know all 19 riders and made sure that we were comfortable with our bikes, rooms, etc His encouragement kept me going on those long and arduous climbs. Our driver and bike mechanic was a whizz on the road and with bike tools.
I loved the variety of places in which we stayed- from farmstays to luxury seaside hotels.
And the food- this is one of the only bike tours I have been on where every meal was provided. And it wasn't just peanut butter sandwiches. We were treated to a wide array of Albanian dishes - including lots of veggies, cheeses and freshly caught fish.
I am 70 and chose a road bike. While it was incredibly difficult at times, I am glad I stuck with my own pedal power. However, e-bikes are a fantastic option and unless you are a proficient climber, I would highly recommend an e-bike.
We had an incredible group of riders from around the world- from Australia to the US with numerous European countries in between.
The value of this tour was amazing. I give the tour company a lot of credit for providing a fantastic tour at a reasonable price.
The only recommendation I would have is to either limit the group to a smaller number or add an additional guide or helper.
Thanks for am amazing adventure!- What was the date of your tour?
- September -October 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- at least 20
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ wendy poppen 2 months agoSeeing Albania On two wheels
This was a most amazing tour… Filled with so many different areas and fantastic food! Both of our guides (Driver and rider) were very knowledgeable and fun.
The only comment I would make is for a group of 19 I feel there should've been two people on bikes, one in front one and back and also one driver.
Other than that, I would suggest this trip to anyone wanting to see the authentic Albania.
Wendy -
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★★★★★ Natalie Cleary 2 months ago
Well organised tour
A great way to visit the country of Albania. Unless you're a very strong cyclist, e-bikes are a necessity. Huge mountains and idyllic coastline with monuments inbetween. Very well organised and only one of the hotels was sub-standard. Twenty riders made this a perfect group size.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- Six
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Colin Mable 2 months ago
UNESCO Sites Albania Bike Tour
The Tour was very good. The Tour guide was excellent. Spoke perfect English and was very informative with sites along the way. His Assistant who followed us from behind was also excellent. The electric bikes were Giant in good condition and we had no problems and travelled 450km on the roads of Albania. My only issue was the meals at some locations were a bit light on and we felt hungry after the meals. It would have been good to supply some snacks along the rides each day. I was very glad I did the ride with an electric bike as there were lots of very big hills to travel through Albania. The electric bikes made the ride very enjoyable and gave you opportunity to observe the scenery rather than pushing hard to get up the hills.
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★★★★★ Patricia Hill 2 months ago
passed all my expectations.
We had a group of 20 and we were all likeminded people who loved cycling. The E-bike we had was nearly brand new and were amazing and made the hilly cycling trip so much more enjoyable. The guide we had had was very experienced and helpful. I was sick for a few hours one day and I couldn't cycle and the leader organised for the support vehicle to pick me up and take me to the hotel.
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★★★★★ Paul Banken 5 months ago
Awesome trip
I rarely post reviews but wanted to share my experience with a recent cycling tour; the 10 day UNESCO tour of Albania. The tour was led by Armand and Mario. It was a fantastic experience. The tour was well organized, really well run, fun, the country beautiful, the local people friendly, the food incredible and quite varied. Our group of 19 were from many countries but really bonded well. The last days ride was unnerving for some due to strong winds and large vehicles; but the sag van was usually close behind if someone wanted to take a break. Not everything went perfectly, but Armand’s upbeat, energetic, and positive attitude in quickly handling the issues made things go quite smoothly. All in all; one of the very best, most enjoyable tours I have taken out of the 20+ to date.
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★★★★★ Tina Nef 6 months ago
Fantastic trip
This was a wonderful tour. Everything was perfect. The biking and scenery were top notch - a few days in the high mountains of Albania and then a few days biking along the coast with swimming in the Ionian Sea after a day in the saddle. The guide was super knowledgeable and organized. He ran a great tour. The food, bikes, hotels etc were all top notch. There is one very long climb on the last day (over 5,000 ft). That would have been a good day for an e-bike!
- What was the date of your tour?
- May 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 10
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
