Cycle Albania

Customer Reviews

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  James

  · April 22nd, 2023
  Experiencing the varied landscapes and cycling through the small villages while getting a very knowledgable fun, commentary from our wonderful guide
  Trip date: April 2023

  Review collected by Explore!
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  Denise

  · May 27th, 2023
  Cycling along Lake Ohrid, the Ionian Sea, and visiting the Blue Eye & the archeological sites.
  Trip date: May 2023

  Review collected by Explore!
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  Robert

  · May 28th, 2023
  The Albanian countryside scenery and Gjirokaster, also the Albanian riviera
  Trip date: May 2023

  Review collected by Explore!
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  Kathleen

  · June 18th, 2023
  Great scenery. Good mixture of efforts and downhill cycling. Visits to cities of historic interest.
  Trip date: June 2023

  Review collected by Explore!
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  David

  · September 9th, 2023
  Berat and the initial off/ quite road sections.
  Trip date: September 2023

  Review collected by Explore!
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  Shirley

  · September 12th, 2023
  The mountain scenery was fantastic - I couldn't get enough of it. The food - fresh and great. The stay in the forest - nicely different. Butrin - worth visiting.
  Trip date: September 2023

  Review collected by Explore!
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  David

  · October 2nd, 2023
  Riding in remote places and engaging with locals. Agri stay in the nountains.
  Trip date: September 2023

  Review collected by Explore!
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  Jennifer

  · September 30th, 2023
  Everyday brought a new high light, the scenery was fantastic and cycling 15k decent in thunder and lightening and hail stones, was pretty memorable.
  Trip date: September 2023

  Review collected by Explore!
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  Charles

  · September 23rd, 2022
  First of all the whole trip was excellently organised. This includes all admin arrangements, such as hotels, restaurants, site of interest visits , coffee stops etc worked like clockwork. It was a blessing to be complete free from thinking about arrangements and focus solely on oneself , the task in hand and enjoying oneself. They had a guide Besi who led in all aspects including on his bike and guide Toni with a support vehicle which was there for repairing bikes, recovering exhausted people and transporting and storing bikes as needed. Both guides could do the other’s job, and one had a bike repair shop in Tirana. They were both excellent and did their jobs superbly and were great fun to be with as well. I cannot recommend them highly enough. The countryside we cycled through was lovely, started some 2-hour drive from Tirana to Lake Okrid, then we cycled up into the mountains over the next 2-3 days emerging at the coast in the South Western end of Albania and then cycling northwards along the coast. The going was quite tough, but happily the training I did seemed to work well enough for me to get into gear and not disgrace myself. There were some parts which due to the gradients and lengths of climbs were somewhat taxing. I was surprised at how the fitness level increased as the days progressed. There was often that start of day feeling, asking why on earth am I putting myself through this; this vanished quickly on the bike as the day unfolded with the lovely scenery. The heat at 30 degree plus played its part in adding difficulty, some of the team had to step back on particularly hot / taxing periods. I used padded shorts but not the gel seat and had no real problems. I suspect that training on my old Dawes was a great way to condition as not only was the posterior able to cope, the superior gearing on the hybrid bikes made for easier cycling. That said, a steep hill is a steep hill and there were a few times when the lowest gear was applied and even that became hard. The group of nine was great; I went with two school friends and the others varied between late thirties to mid fifties. All participants were interesting with varied degrees of fitness. We had some great evenings and eat some fabulous food. I hope I have captured the flavour of what it was like, I would certainly do one again as in that curious masochistic, sense of achievement way I really enjoyed it and felt a lot better for having done so.
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  Explore! commented on this review

  Glad you had a nice trip. Thanks for your detailed feedback. The Explore Team
  Trip date: September 2022
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  Alison

  · May 17th, 2019
  A superb week cycling in the Albanian countryside. Expertly looked after by our wonderful guide Bledi and bike mechanic/support driver Claret. Highlights were; seeing this beautiful country by bike, quiet roads, relaxing in the hot (warm!) springs, great bikes, the satisfaction and feel good factor from cycling place to place, and relaxing at the end of the day over a good meal and few drinks with a lovely group. Couldn’t have asked for a better week!
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  Explore! commented on this review

  Thanks for your review and praise for Bledi and Claret. Glad you had a great trip! Hope to travel with you in the future.
  Trip date: October 2017