7 days in Albania
A seven day Albania route that treats the northern mountains as a season rather than a stop, and says which way to walk the pass.
Last updated . Mountain seasons, ferry and bus timetables, fares and cash acceptance all change, and the seasonal notes here are the fastest moving of them. Recheck the official sources below before travelling.
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Compare the travel services first, then use the itinerary below to plan each day.
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An Albania trip is really two trips joined in the middle. The north is a ferry down a flooded canyon and a walk over a mountain pass, and it has a season. The south is Ottoman towns and coastline, and it does not. That asymmetry is what should drive your dates, because getting the mountains wrong does not make them harder, it makes them closed.
How many days do you need in Albania?
7 days, which fits the Komani ferry, the Theth to Valbona hike and one southern town without moving hotel every night.
Ten days is what people take when the Riviera is also on the list. Below 5 days the honest move is to drop the mountains rather than compress them, because the hike costs two days once the ferry and the transfers are counted.
When can you walk from Theth to Valbona?
Roughly June to October, so about 5 months of the year. Early June is the earliest that is usually safe, and the pass holds snow well into spring in some years.
This is not a soft recommendation. People have died attempting the crossing too early in the season, and April is far too early in any year. If your dates are fixed in May, plan the north as a valley visit rather than a crossing, and check conditions locally rather than against a calendar.
Should you walk Theth to Valbona or Valbona to Theth?
Valbona to Theth has the shorter and less steep climb, so it is the easier of the 2 directions for most walkers.
The argument for going the other way is that the descent into Theth is long and far less alpine, which is better underfoot if there is still snow near the pass. Snow decides it, not fitness. The route below goes Valbona to Theth because it also puts the ferry at the start, when it is a highlight rather than a chore.
Do you need cash in northern Albania?
Yes. Guesthouses and huts are largely cash only, so draw Albanian lek in Shkoder, the last dependable machine before the 2 mountain villages.
The 2 mountain villages have limited services and no dependable cash machine. Budget for the guesthouse, the transfers and food, and carry more than you think you need.
The plan at a glance
- Day
- 1
- Where
- Tirana
- What needs booking
- Nothing fixed
- Day
- 2
- Where
- Shkoder
- What needs booking
- Nothing fixed
- Day
- 3
- Where
- Komani ferry to Valbona
- What needs booking
- The ferry and the Valbona guesthouse
- Day
- 4
- Where
- Valbona to Theth on foot
- What needs booking
- The Theth guesthouse
- Day
- 5
- Where
- Theth valley
- What needs booking
- Nothing fixed
- Day
- 6
- Where
- Berat
- What needs booking
- Nothing fixed
- Day
- 7
- Where
- Tirana and departure
- What needs booking
- Nothing fixed
| Day | Where | What needs booking |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tirana | Nothing fixed |
| 2 | Shkoder | Nothing fixed |
| 3 | Komani ferry to Valbona | The ferry and the Valbona guesthouse |
| 4 | Valbona to Theth on foot | The Theth guesthouse |
| 5 | Theth valley | Nothing fixed |
| 6 | Berat | Nothing fixed |
| 7 | Tirana and departure | Nothing fixed |
The route at a glance
4 mapped stops · 7 days
Live route map
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Route stops
Follow the numbered order through each day.
Day 1: Tirana
- 1Skanderbeg Square · about an hour
- ·Bunk'Art 2 · about 2 hours
- ·Blloku · about 2 hours
Day 2: North to Shkoder
- ·Tirana to Shkoder · about 2 hours
- 2Rozafa Castle · about 2 hours
- ·Draw cash and buy supplies · about 30 minutes
Day 3: Komani Lake ferry to Valbona
- ·Shkoder to Koman · about 2 hours
- ·Komani Lake ferry · about 3 hours
- ·Fierze to Valbona · about an hour
Day 4: Valbona to Theth on foot
- ·The Valbona pass · 6 to 9 hours
- ·Descent into Theth · included above
Day 5: Theth valley
- 3Theth church and the lock in tower · about an hour
- ·The Blue Eye of Theth · about 4 hours there and back
Day 6: South to Berat
- ·Theth to Berat · most of the day
- 4Berat castle quarter · about 3 hours
Day 7: Tirana and out
- ·Berat to Tirana · about 3 hours
Day 1: Tirana
One day is the right amount for the capital, and it is genuinely more interesting than its reputation.
- On foot
- About 5 km on foot, all flat
Morning
Skanderbeg Squareabout an hour
The centre of the city and the orientation point for everything else. Pedestrianised, which makes it the easiest place to start.
Bunk'Art 2about 2 hours
A bunker under the centre turned into a museum of the surveillance state. The smaller of the two Bunk'Art sites and the one you can walk to.
Afternoon
Bllokuabout 2 hours
The district that was closed to ordinary Albanians until 1991 and is now where the city eats and drinks. The contrast is the point.
Day 2: North to Shkoder
The staging post for the mountains, and the last place to sort cash, supplies and transport.
- On foot
- About 4 km on foot
- Book before you go
- Tomorrow's ferry transfer, arranged through your guesthouse
Morning
Tirana to Shkoderabout 2 hours
Around 2 hours by bus or furgon. Frequent enough that it does not need booking, but it does need doing in the morning.
Afternoon
Rozafa Castleabout 2 hours
Above the confluence of three rivers, with the view that explains why the town is where it is.
Draw cash and buy suppliesabout 30 minutes
Not a sight, but the most important thing you will do today. This is the last reliable cash machine before the mountains, and the guesthouses up there do not take cards.
Day 3: Komani Lake ferry to Valbona
A long transfer day that happens to contain one of the best boat rides in Europe.
- On foot
- Very little walking, but a full day in transit
- Book before you go
- The ferry, and the Valbona guesthouse
Early morning
Shkoder to Komanabout 2 hours
A minibus over a rough road, usually leaving very early to meet the boat. Arranged through your guesthouse rather than booked online.
Middle of the day
Komani Lake ferryabout 3 hours
The boat runs the length of a flooded canyon with walls rising straight out of the water. It is a working ferry rather than a cruise, and it is the reason many people come north at all.
Fierze to Valbonaabout an hour
A taxi or shuttle of roughly an hour from the far ferry landing up into the valley. Everyone on the boat is doing the same thing, so transport waits for it.
Day 4: Valbona to Theth on foot
The crossing itself: around 17 km, marked the whole way, and a full day whichever way you walk it.
- On foot
- About 17 km with a sustained climb to the pass and a long descent
- Book before you go
- The Theth guesthouse, before you leave Valbona
All day
The Valbona pass6 to 9 hours
The climb out of Valbona is the shorter and gentler of the two ascents, which is why this direction suits most walkers. Most people take 6 to 9 hours including stops. The trail is marked and does not need a guide, but it does need attention.
Descent into Thethincluded above
Long, and increasingly wooded rather than alpine. There are cafes on the trail in season, which are cash only like everything else up here.
Day 5: Theth valley
A recovery day that is worth having as a plan rather than as an accident.
- On foot
- About 8 km if you walk to the Blue Eye, less if you do not
Morning
Theth church and the lock in towerabout an hour
The stone tower where men under blood feud sheltered, which is the single most direct explanation of northern Albanian history you will find in one building.
Afternoon
The Blue Eye of Thethabout 4 hours there and back
A spring pool reached on foot up the valley. Note this is not the better known Blue Eye near Saranda in the south, which is a different place entirely.
Day 6: South to Berat
Out of the mountains and into the Ottoman half of the country.
- On foot
- About 4 km on foot, much of it uphill in the castle quarter
Morning
Theth to Beratmost of the day
A long transfer, usually via Shkoder or Tirana. Treat this as a travel day with a good afternoon at the end rather than as a sightseeing one.
Afternoon
Berat castle quarterabout 3 hours
A hillside of Ottoman houses whose windows give the town its name as the city of a thousand windows. People still live inside the castle walls, which is what makes it feel unlike a preserved site.
Day 7: Tirana and out
Back to the capital with enough margin that a delayed bus does not become a missed flight.
- On foot
- About 2 km on foot
Morning
Berat to Tiranaabout 3 hours
Around 3 hours. Leave more time than the schedule suggests, because intercity buses here keep loose timetables.
Albania in outline
A ferry, a pass and a hill town
Two countries in one trip: an alpine north that has a season, and an Ottoman south that does not.
Illustrations generated with FLUX for RoamWeek, August 2026. Stylised artwork rather than photographs of the places named.
The options below are separate choices rather than a package. Read how RoamWeek chooses and orders suggestions before using any of them.
Book the separate parts
Book the parts that need booking
The two mountain nights are the ones with genuinely limited beds. Everything else on this route can be arranged a day ahead.
You book each service directly with its supplier. These separate bookings do not form a RoamWeek package.
- Flights
Tirana is the only practical way into Albania for most visitors, and low cost fares from Europe swing widely between the shoulder season and August.
Search on Aviasales
- Stays
Both villages have very few rooms and they fill in peak season, which makes these the two nights on the trip where turning up without a booking is a real risk.
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- Activities
The ferry day is four separate legs stitched together, and a packaged transfer removes the part of this trip most likely to go wrong for someone without Albanian.
Search on GetYourGuide
What is worth the time, and what is not
Worth your time
- The Komani Lake ferry. It is a working boat through a flooded canyon and it is the single most memorable thing in northern Albania, independent of the hike.
- A rest day in Theth. Arriving over a mountain pass and leaving the next morning wastes the valley you just walked into.
- Berat over Gjirokaster, on a short trip. Both are Ottoman hill towns and Berat is the easier of the 2 to reach from Tirana, which matters when you are already spending a day getting south.
Skip it
- The crossing before June. Snow on the pass turns a marked day walk into something else, and the season is not negotiable by fitness or optimism.
- Adding the Riviera to a 7 day trip. The coast is at the far south of the country and reaching it properly costs another two travel days you do not have here.
- Arriving in the north with only a card. The mountain villages are cash only and the nearest reliable machine is back in Shkoder.
Why this order
The route is built around one fixed point, the ferry, and everything else arranges itself around it. Tirana and Shkoder come first because they are where you sort cash and transport, and because Shkoder is where the mountain logistics are actually arranged. The crossing runs Valbona to Theth so that the boat comes at the start of the mountain section rather than the end, when you would be doing it tired and in reverse. Berat comes after the mountains rather than before because a hill town is a much better recovery day than a warm up, and the last day is deliberately light so that a late bus costs you nothing.
Read next
- 5 days in Montenegro
The obvious next country north, and reachable overland from Shkoder in a morning.
- 5 days in Bosnia
The third leg of a Western Balkans overland run, and the cheapest of the three.
What we checked
- Albania, national tourism portal read 29 August 2026
- National Agency of Protected Areas, Albania read 29 August 2026
- Visit Tirana, official city tourism read 29 August 2026
- Gjirokastra Foundation, Albanian Ottoman towns read 29 August 2026
Why this page exists. This is the only RoamWeek route that states both sides of the Theth to Valbona direction argument and what actually decides it, which is snow on the pass rather than fitness.