Balkan Unveiled: Albania, Kosovo, N. Macedonia 8-Day Gems

We did the tour with our guide Ardit. He has a mountain of knowledge with a good sense of humour. We saw beautiful scenery, experienced local food and learnt so much about the history of the 3 countries that we visited. I would highly recommend this tour and our guide Ardit.

Our 9 day private tour of Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia was excellent. The itinerary offered a good balance between cultural/historical versus natural history destinations. The trip planning and coordination was top notch. With one exception, the hotels were first class. Our guide, Juljan Bradasheshi, was very warm, knowledgeable, and efficient. Thank you!

This extraordinary journey through the Balkans (Albania, North Macedonia and Kosovo)allowed me to explore a diverse range of cultures, experience breathtaking landscapes, and create memories that will last a lifetime. The itinerary was perfectly crafted, offering a well-balanced mix of iconic landmarks, hidden gems, and authentic cultural encounters. We loved st Naum and Prizren and our guide Juxhin was excellent If you're looking for an extraordinary travel experience that combines three Balkans countries into one unforgettable journey, I wholeheartedly recommend this tour and Choose Balkans.

Best trip ever,I and my family enjoyed so much The hotels and the tour guide Eltoni are amazing I reccomended all my friends to come and visit Balkans and especially Albania

This tour is a perfect combination of the Balkans countries. Choose Balkans and Sirma were very helpful pre and during the tour

We spent three and half weeks in the Balkan countries and we used Choose Balkans to book almost everything. Without a train system or another option for public transit, I felt like it was our best option. During the trip I realized it was the right thing to do - to navigate the roads/cities with a rental car would have been overwhelming. Over the course of our visit we took: 8 Day Gems of Albania,Kosovo and North Macedonia Tour, a day trip to Vlore, we joined at the end of an exisiting tour to Montenegro & Bosnia/Herzogovina and took the 5 day tour of the Albanian Riviera. From the time we started planning in February, Choose Balkans was an incredible resource. Our complicated itinerary changed multiple times over the course of the five months leading up to our trip including a relatively big addition just a few weeks before we arrived. Every reservation, change, update and addition was met with patience and excellent service. Sirma was our contact and she was responsive, kind and very capable. In addition to the tours, we used a Choose Balkans apartment during our time in Tirana and I can highly recommend that as well. The building we were in felt very secure, was in a great location and had a doorman around the clock. It was reasonably priced and we were allowed to use the wash machine in the unit which was so helpful due to our long visit. CB also arranged our transfers from the airport. Sirma checked in with us throughout our tours to make sure all was well. There are always ups and downs when traveling and rarely will everything go according to plan - especially for a trip as long as ours. There were a few times during our trip when we wanted to make changes to the itinerary or there were issues with hotels/vehicles…CB and Sirma were responsive to the issues we faced. I am GRATEFUL for their flexibility and willingness to figure out solutions with us. Room for improvement and a word about the hotels: some of the accommodations were very nice and some were not. When booking, go ahead and get a quote for the regular “3 star” rooms and also for the upgraded rooms. Choose Balkans was very receptive to my feedback regarding the quality of the accommodations. I think they are a young company and are still perfecting their partnerships with hotels. I appreciated their willingness to take constructive feedback and going forward I hope they will make adjustments for other visitors. One other issue was the pricing differentiation between the different tours. The Balkans are very affordable countries to travel to, however, the prices of the different tours we took were disproportinately priced - I think this is based on when we booked them. Try to book as far in advance as possible to avoid price fluctuations. The Balkans are amazing and I am so happy we were able to visit.

We booked two tours which include 8-Day of 5 Countries in Balkans (Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia & Albania) and 2-Day Valbona Valley Hiking Tour. It was a mixed experience with good and bad ones as below: 1. Tour Guides (3-Star Rating). Our 8-Day tour guide (Sokol) was exceptional. He drove carefully to ensure we arrived our destinations safely. He was passionate and knowledgeable to share the history and culture of the places we visited. On top of that, he gave good recommendations to try out the local traditional cuisine. He was witty with good sense of humour as we enjoyed his company throughout the journey. He deserves a 5-Star Rating. Sadly, our second tour guide for 2-Day Valbona Valley tour (Ervis) was a great disappointment. Upon arrival after the boat ride, he left two of us behind and let us figure out ourselves in the rain on which bus to get in. Worse still, he did not even realise one of the nine people in the tour was absent before starting our hiking after our lunch till we prompted him. He seemed like a nice guy, but his carelessness and haphazard way in guiding the tour was unacceptable. Hence, the rating for tour guide was pulled down by him despite excellent job done by Sokol. 2. Customer Service (4-Star Rating). Sirma was helpful and responsive whenever we needed her assistance. The arrangement to pick us up using a taxi driver to the Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina border should inform us in advance so that we were not caught by surprise as we were in foreign country in an unfamiliar place. Also, the hiccup that we were not allowed to enter the ferry could have been prevented. Despite Sirma had solved these issue immediately, it was after the discounted experiences. 3. Tour Itinerary (3-Star Rating). Some of the destinations were lovely and interesting. Those we enjoyed very much include Mostar, Sajevo, Kotor, Prizren, Shkoder and Valbona Valleys. But some feedback for future improvements to include nature/ scenery sightseeing instead of visiting all cities in the 8-Day Tour in Balkans. For example, Kravica Waterfall could have been included in the itinerary when visiting Bosnia & Herzegovina. 4. Accommodation (2-Star Rating). Most of the accommodations provided were with staircase without elevator which is very inconvenient for us with 3 medium luggage and 1 small luggage even though the tour guides did help to carry some of the luggage. Place at Ulcinj was the worst with broken toilet seats for both rooms we stayed. Overall, the accommodation arrangement was below our expectation. 5. Overall Experience (3-Star Rating). Since the expedience was mixed with good and bad ones. Hence, our overall experience would be an average one as we did enjoy majority parts of the tour, but the hiccups and inconveniences during the tour could be spoilers during the tour too.

If you are contemplating visiting Albania, we would like to highly recommend Choose Balkans (choosebalkans.com) as your tour guide. We just returned from their 8-day “Visit 4 UNESCO World Heritage Sights” tour and cannot endorse them enough. This tour which gave us a wonderful overview of the country and showed us fabulous scenery. We went from mountainous areas to beaches. The tour included transportation, hotel rooms, breakfast and all entry fees. The hotels were high quality and very clean. Alban, the CEO of Choose Balkans, is impeccably honest and held our deposit for two years while we waited for Covid to settle down. We are in our early 70’s and had to be careful, but wanted to make sure we completed this bucket-list trip. Mandi, our tour guide, went out of his way to make sure we understood the historical aspects of every sight and the general history of the country. He also went out of his way to help us as we visited sights that were more of a challenge at our age. In short, Choose Balkans will cater the trip to your needs. This tour far exceeded our expectations, and we cannot recommend ChooseBalkans.com more highly or recommend more highly that you visit Albania. It would be difficult to do this tour on your own as the driving would be a challenge, many Albanians speak very little English, and the transportation infrastructure is still limited (no trains and few buses). Choose Balkans made this tour fun, interesting and a good value.

Alban and his professional team organized an incredible group tour for 23 guests. The hotels, and tours all exceeded our guests expectations. Our local guide Lecko was the crown jewel of the trip. He is the ultimate storyteller and does an excellent job keeping our guests informed and entertained. He is a true ambassador to his country. Any one considering a small or group trip should 100% book with this company. They listen to every detail and customized our trip to fit our needs. Alban and Sirma communicated daily with me to make sure we were all satisfied. If we needed anything all we had to do is make a phone call. Our group left very happy and I look forward to working with this professional team again for future trips.

What a brilliant tour! As an Albanian myself, I went on this tour with friends visiting from Germany and Austria, and learned so much more about my home country and the Blakans. We were within a small tour group of 6, with Sokol as our tour guide. It was such an enjoyable eight days in the UNESCO Sites that exceeded our expectations. I would definitely recommend this tour!