UNESCO Sites Of Albania Bike Tour Reviews page 5
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★★★★★ Lady Di
Interesting trip
We had a wonderful international group with ages from early 40es to one man turning 78 on the trip. Learning about the history of Albania was very interesting and cycling to sites from BC era was fascinating. It was like someone turned the clock back in time. We stayed in a wide variety of places and all okay with several being very unique in a good way. Food was very good but watch out for the wine in small towns as it’s homemade and not very good but the beer was good. Bikes were okay and front shocks very appreciated. If in doubt get an ebike. Our leader,Ted, and the sag/bike driver were very skilled at leading us and taking card of the bikes.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 23-October 1st.
- How many tours have you completed?
- 8
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Kathy Dudley
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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★★★★★ Jeffrey S.
Albania Adventure
I'll start off by saying that overall I had a great trip. However, there were several things that were a disappointment. Starting with the good-the route, the scenery, and the group of people I was with were wonderful. The bad-the guide and the total number of people on the trip. The guide gave virtually no instructions when we first got our bikes. He spent a fair amount of time in the van rather than biking. He spent more time with his "assistant" (who was clearly his girlfriend) than he spent with guests. Except for in one city, he offered virtually no insight into the Albanian culture of the areas we visited. As for the number of people, there were 20 of us on the guided tour and there were another 8 people on the self-guided tour. The self-guided people stayed in the same hotels as us and that caused, on several occasions for the group of 20 to be split up into different hotels. One night in particular, our group was not only split up into two hotels, but I stayed in a separate house (hardly a hotel-more like a hostel) by myself. It was a very uncomfortable night. Had there been fewer than 28 people in total (guided plus self guided) on the trip, this would not have likely happened. Notwithstanding the above, I had a very good time but I chalk it up to the 19 other travelers in my guided group and the beautiful countryside we saw. One last thing-if you are not a seasoned cyclist-use an e-bike on this trip. Some of the hills are killers.
- What was the date of your tour?
- June 2025
- 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
-
★★★★★ David Loukras
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
-
★★★★★ David Hodgson
Challenging cycling
Physically challenging; 14 of 18 folks on our tour used an e-bike and were glad they made that choice. The guide was excellent and I would recommend the guided package rather than self guided, especially as the meals were included. Excellent scenery. We traveled in mid-September and the weather was comfortable, not too hot. The bikes were of good quality compared to those provided on other European bike tours.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2023
- 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
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★★★★★ Maureen Lander
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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★★★★★ Stephanie H
Such a beautiful country!
We had wonderful support from our guide and our driver. The food was delicious and it was a treat to experience the amazing terrain and sights. The hills could be strenuous at times and the diesel fumes unpleasant.
- What was the date of your tour?
- May 2024
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
-
★★★★★ Bradford Pickett
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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★★★★★ Patricia ONeill
Albania September 2023
Good guides and routes. Somewhat unsatisfactory accommodations because on Day 5 and Day 9, there were not enough reserved hotel rooms, so 2 x I and another solo traveler had to share a room [and bathroom] because the hotel had given 1 of our rooms away. One night was tolerable, but not really acceptable 2 x. It was a large group with the majority of people on e-bikes but we spent a lot of time [sometimes almost an hour] waiting for the non-e bikers [no fault of theirs]. This put pressure on the non-e bikers, guide, and meant that we arrived at the hotels later than expected, with less downtime to enjoy the destination. Our guide was very good, but our group would have enjoyed more cultural and historical conversations since this was billed as the UNESCO tour.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
-
★★★★★ Guy Levy
Great trip with some annoying snags
We were a group of 8 members who did a self guided tour with e-bikes. the route of the tour exposed us to Albania's beautiful landscape, heritage and lovely and warm people. The route is quite challenging due to the mountainous terrain and we were glad that we chose to use e-bikes. All in all we really loved it. Yet, we encountered a few troublesome matters that with due attention can be solved.(i) we had numerous problems with the e-bikes, mostly related to chain falling w/o any reason, back cog-wheel that became loose etc., that ended with replacing two of our bikes and a number cases where on road assistance was required. We understood from comments made by the local agents that these had been common problems with the type of bikes we had been given, hence either bike maintenance needs improvement or a different bike brand should be used. (ii) A much greater portion of the tour then described in the website was on main roads with heavy traffic, which we felt made cycling not very safe and certainly not relaxing/enjoyable. (iii) The maps provided together with the e-files of the routes were not always consistent with actual conditions. A more frequent adaptation, of especially the e-routes, to actual roads conditions seems in order. (iv) the hotels provided could be somewhat upgraded. In many cases they were not up to a par with 3 star hotels in Europe (this had been our 9th cycling tour in Europe so we do have some experience).
- What was the date of your tour?
- August-September 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- 9
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
-
★★★★★ Beth W.
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
-
★★★★★ WSTraveler
An Unusual Experience Not to Be Repeated
The sag driver was great despite limited English in that he was always available to help in any way possible. The tour guide was good and worked very hard but was not good at listening to understand problems with the bikes and was at times totally dismissive. The difficulty of the ride was enormously underrated and BIkeTours was evasive about providing advanced information. The road conditions were in areas extremely poor and the advertised grades were just lies. BikeTours advertised the trip as a max of 16 riders, although there were 20, considered a small group by the guide. Again, less than honest disclosure.
The experience of the country was worth the trip. It was a fun collection of international participants. The accommodations were varied but appropriate to the locale and part of the fun. Food was good and the guide worked to arrange options for dietary restrictions. The sag support was excellent and eager to support the riders. The guide did a good job of keeping the group together and providing navigation guidance despite lack of any cue sheets or gps routes.
- What was the date of your tour?
- Sept 23 - Oct 2
- How many tours have you completed?
- lots
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
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BikeTours.com staff reply from Chloe
Thank you kindly for this review. Overall, we're glad to hear that the experience of the country was worth the trip. We appreciate you sharing with us details regarding the guide and that information provided to you did not match up with your experience. We will follow up with the tour operator regarding the road conditions, grades, and group size to ensure the details provided to future clients are accurate. Thanks again for your feedback.
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★★★★★ Mary M
Fantastic tour of a gorgeous country
The tour took us through some amazing country side at a pace that allowed us to explore our destinations once we finished the active parts of the day. We were given opportunity to see other side trips using local guides that added context to the area and the history. The group was great and we enjoyed meeting and getting to know the others.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 26
- How many tours have you completed?
- 2
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
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