Albania

A south-to-north road trip through one of Europe's most underrated countries: Ionian beach clubs and speedboat coastlines, two UNESCO Ottoman towns, mountain hiking in the Accursed Alps, and a capital city that has quietly become one of the Balkans' most energetic places to eat and drink.

Albania arrived late to international tourism and is making up for it fast. The Albanian Riviera, a stretch of Ionian coastline between Sarandë and Vlorë, now draws beach-seekers from across Europe with water that rivals the Greek islands across the channel and prices that are a fraction of them. The UNESCO hilltop towns of Gjirokastër and Berat have been drawing slower travellers for over a decade, their Ottoman castle architecture and stone lanes genuinely unchanged in character since the 18th century. In the north, the Accursed Mountains hold some of the most dramatic hiking in southeastern Europe: the Theth to Valbona trail cuts between two national parks over a high alpine pass, via Komani Lake, which alone justifies the logistics of getting there.

And then there is Tirana: a city that was, within living memory, one of the most sealed and controlled capitals in the world, where private cars were banned, colour was treated as subversion, and contact with foreigners was a criminal offence. The pastel-painted apartment blocks, the Bunk’Art Cold War bunker museums, and the café culture that has established itself in the former Party elite neighbourhood of Blloku are all direct products of that history. The city is cheap, lively, and improving fast.

This route works best with a rental car. Albania’s public transport is cheap and functional in the cities but limited for the coastal and highland sections that make the country distinctive. The south is the headline; the north is the revelation; Tirana is the bookend that makes sense of both.