Albanian Alps: Theth, Valbona and the Koman Lake Ferry

1. Day 1: Arrive in Tirana

   Tirana International Airport to your hotel in Tirana

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Tirana
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Tirana International Airport (TIA) at Rinas, about 17 km north-west of the centre, where a driver meets you in arrivals for the 25 to 40 minute drive to a central hotel. 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

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

2. Day 2: Tirana to Shkoder and Rozafa Castle

   Tirana to Shkoder

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

   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. 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. 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

   Free time: Evening free in Shkoder

   Activity: About 2 hours on foot in Tirana, and a short steep walk on stone paths at Rozafa Castle.

3. Day 3: The Koman lake ferry to Valbona

   Shkoder to Koman, by ferry to Fierze, then Valbona

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Valbona
   Day 3 details

   We leave Shkoder at about 7 am, the one early start, because the summer ferry leaves the Koman dam at about 9 am. The drive takes about an hour and a half, east along the Drin and up a narrow mountain road to the dam. The ferry runs for about two and a half hours on Lake Koman, a reservoir that fills a deep gorge: limestone walls rise straight from green water, the channel narrows to a few dozen metres in places, and the boat stops at landings for farmers from villages with no road. 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. 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

   Free time: Late afternoon free in Valbona

   Activity: Bring a warm layer for the ferry deck. The afternoon walk is about an hour on flat, stony ground.

   

4. Day 4: Up the Valbona valley

   Valbona to Rragam and back

   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Valbona
   Day 4 details

   A walking day from the guesthouse door, gentle by design: it lets you find your legs and lets your guide judge the group's pace before the pass. With a local mountain guide we walk up the valley on paths and farm tracks beside the river, through beech woods and meadows, with the walls of the Accursed Mountains closing in on both sides. The valley floor is a wide bed of white stones that the river spreads across in spring. 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

   Easier option: Walk out to Rragam and take the vehicle back, about 6 km on foot, or spend the day at the guesthouse.

   More active option: With the local guide, a steeper climb through beech forest to the high pastures on the side of the valley, about 600 m more climb, back for dinner.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Valbona

   Activity: About 12 km and 300 m of gentle climb, 4 to 5 hours with stops.

   

5. Day 5: Over the Valbona Pass to Theth

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

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Theth
   Day 5 details

   There is no road between the two villages. 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. 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

   Easier option: Walk up to the pass for the view and back down to Valbona, then join the vehicle. Or skip the walk: the vehicle goes round the mountains by road, a full day of driving that we time and confirm before you travel, and the one exception to our driving cap, for those who choose it. You meet the group for dinner in Theth.

   Activity: The hardest day: from Rragam about 10 to 14 km, about 800 m up and 1,000 m down on a rocky path, 6 to 8 hours. Walking poles help on the descent.

   

6. Day 6: 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
   Day 6 details

   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. 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. 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

   Easier option: Ride to Nderlysaj and walk about 40 minutes each way to the Blue Eye, then visit the Grunas waterfall on a short walk from the village.

   More active option: Walk both ways, about 16 km in all.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Theth

   Activity: About 16 km return on forest paths and tracks, with a few hundred metres of descent and climb back, 5 to 6 hours with a swim stop.

7. Day 7: Theth morning, then Shkoder and Tirana

   Theth to Shkoder, then Tirana

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Tirana
   Day 7 details

   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. 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. 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

   Free time: Morning free in Theth

   Activity: Mostly in the vehicle; about 1 hour on foot in Theth.

8. Day 8: Tirana and home

   Tirana to Tirana International Airport

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 8 details

   Breakfast, then the day is yours. 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

   Free time: Free morning in Tirana

   Activity: Any flight time works; for the cable car or a museum, book a flight leaving after about 2 pm.

Wildlife and weather: June to September is the walking season. Snow can lie near the Valbona Pass into June, July and August are warm in the valleys with afternoon thunderstorms in the mountains, and September brings clearer air and fewer walkers. Expect cool mornings in both villages.

• Tirana1 night
• Shkoder1 night
• Valbona2 nights
• Theth2 nights
• Tirana1 night