Albanian Alps: Theth, Valbona and the Koman Lake Ferry

Arrive in Tirana

Tirana International Airport to your hotel in Tirana

• Welcome dinner
• Stay in Tirana
• Drive about 30 min

Evening

Plan to land by mid-afternoon to make the evening briefing; the exact time comes with your final itinerary. If you arrive early, Skanderbeg Square is a short walk away, and the Blloku district, closed to ordinary Albanians in the communist years, is now a grid of cafés and bars. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group to go through the week: the boots and layers you need, how your bags travel over the mountains, what the guesthouses in Valbona and Theth are like, and the easy and active choices on each walking day. Then we walk to a welcome dinner of Albanian dishes such as fërgesë, grilled meats, salads and byrek.

Included

• Pick-up at Tirana International Airport (TIA)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Welcome dinner

Tirana to Shkoder and Rozafa Castle

Tirana to Shkoder

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Shkoder
• Drive about 2 h

Morning

After breakfast your guide walks the group through the centre of Tirana: Skanderbeg Square below the mosaic of the National History Museum, the small Et'hem Bey Mosque with its painted walls, and the Pyramid, built as a museum to Enver Hoxha and reopened in 2023 with steps you can climb for a view over the city. Late in the morning we drive about 100 km north to Shkoder, under two hours on the main road.

Afternoon

Lunch is in the old centre, then we visit the Marubi National Museum of Photography on the pedestrian Kolë Idromeno street, which holds more than a century of portraits and street scenes taken by one family of Shkoder photographers. In the late afternoon we drive up to Rozafa Castle on its rock above the town, where the Drin and Buna rivers meet and Lake Shkoder stretches north towards Montenegro.

Evening

The evening is free. Tomorrow is the only early start of the trip.

Included

• Tirana walk with your guide: Skanderbeg Square, the Et'hem Bey Mosque and the Pyramid
• Sit-down lunch in Shkoder
• Marubi National Museum of Photography, Shkoder
• Rozafa Castle in the late afternoon

The Koman lake ferry to Valbona

Shkoder to Koman, by ferry to Fierze, then Valbona

• Breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Stay in Valbona
• Drive about 2.5 h

Afternoon

We land at Fierze around midday and drive about an hour past Bajram Curri into the Valbona valley, where we stay two nights in a family guesthouse. Lunch is at the guesthouse.

Evening

In the afternoon your guide takes an easy walk along the wide stony bed of the Valbona river to stretch your legs, and dinner is cooked by the family.

Included

• Koman lake ferry from Koman to Fierze
• Lunch and dinner at the guesthouse in Valbona
• Short riverside walk in the Valbona valley with your guide

Up the Valbona valley

Valbona to Rragam and back

• Breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Stay in Valbona

Afternoon

We go as far as Rragam, about 6 km up the valley, the last hamlet where the road ends and tomorrow's climb begins, so you see the start of the trail, and stop for a packed lunch from the guesthouse at a café or in the shade. The walk back is downhill, and you are at the guesthouse by mid-afternoon. The rest of the day is free: sit in the garden, dip your feet in the cold river or pack your day bag for the crossing.

Included

• Guided valley walk to Rragam with a local mountain guide
• Packed lunch
• Dinner at the guesthouse

Over the Valbona Pass to Theth

Valbona to Rragam, on foot over the Valbona Pass, down to Theth

• Breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Stay in Theth
• Drive about 15 min

Afternoon

We leave at 8 am, after an early breakfast, so we are over the top before the afternoon heat and the thunderstorms that build on summer days. Your main bag goes separately; you carry water, a packed lunch and a layer. Our vehicle takes us the 6 km up to the road end at Rragam, and from there the path climbs through beech forest, then zigzags up open, stony ground to the Valbona Pass at about 1,800 m, where the views run back down Valbona and ahead into the Theth valley. The descent to Theth is steep and rocky at first, then winds down through forest to the village at about 750 m. Measured from the road end at Rragam, where we start walking, it is about 10 to 14 km to Theth depending on the path the local guide chooses (the full trail from Valbona village is about 17 km), with about 800 m of climb to the pass and about 1,000 m of descent, 6 to 8 hours with stops.

Evening

Dinner and bed are at our family guesthouse, for two nights.

Included

• Guided crossing of the Valbona Pass with your guide and a local mountain guide
• Main bags carried separately to Theth
• Packed lunch
• Dinner at the guesthouse in Theth

Grunas waterfall and the Blue Eye

Theth to the Grunas waterfall and the Blue Eye at Kaprre, and back

• Breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Stay in Theth

Morning

A slower morning, then a walk down the valley with a local guide. The path leaves the village past stone houses and fields to the Grunas canyon, where the river runs in a narrow slot, and on to the Grunas waterfall, which drops about 30 m into a pool. From there we follow the Shala river south through forest and the hamlet of Nderlysaj to the Blue Eye at Kaprre, a deep turquoise pool fed by a small waterfall.

Afternoon

We reach it before midday, ahead of most day visitors from Shkoder. Swim if you want to: the water is very cold even in August. We eat a packed lunch by the water or at a small café nearby, then walk back up the valley, or ride from Nderlysaj if your legs say so.

Evening

The evening is free in Theth, and the light on the cliffs above the village is at its best just before sunset.

Included

• Guided walk to the Grunas canyon and waterfall
• The Blue Eye at Kaprre
• Packed lunch
• Dinner at the guesthouse

Theth morning, then Shkoder and Tirana

Theth to Shkoder, then Tirana

• Breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Stay in Tirana
• Drive about 4.5 h

Morning

The morning is free in Theth until late morning. Your guide walks the group to the Lock-in Tower, a fortified stone house where men in a blood feud under the Kanun, the old customary law of the mountains, shut themselves in to stay alive, and to the small stone church of Theth, built in 1892, which stands in a meadow with the peaks behind. Then we drive out of the valley over the Thore Pass and down to Shkoder, about 75 km and 2 to 3 hours on a winding mountain road, with a stop at the top of the pass for the view.

Afternoon

The day's driving totals about four and a half hours, over our usual cap, because there is no shorter way out of Theth; the pass stop and a sit-down lunch in Shkoder break it into three parts.

Evening

We reach Tirana in the late afternoon, with time to rest before a farewell dinner together.

Included

• The Lock-in Tower and the church of Theth with your guide
• Sit-down lunch in Shkoder
• Farewell dinner in Tirana

Tirana and home

Tirana to Tirana International Airport

• Breakfast
• Drive about 30 min

Morning

Breakfast, then the day is yours.

Afternoon

If your flight leaves in the afternoon, ride the Dajti Express cable car up Mount Dajti for the view over the city and the plain towards the sea, visit Bunk'Art 2, a Cold War bunker turned museum of the secret police, or the House of Leaves, the surveillance museum in a former secret police building. Your guide helps you plan the morning and checks your flight time. The airport transfer is included at a time that suits your flight: Tirana International Airport at Rinas is about 17 km from the centre, 25 to 40 minutes depending on traffic, and you should be there two hours before departure. The hotel can keep your bags after check-out. If you would like more time in Albania, the southern Albania trip to Berat, Gjirokaster and the Riviera starts from Tirana, and we can add nights in between.

Included

• Drop-off at Tirana International Airport (TIA)

Optional experiences

• Dajti Express cable car
• Bunk'Art 2
• House of Leaves