OK, be honest, how much do you know about the Balkans ?

• Mother Teresa was Albanian and their only Nobel prize winner. Her full name is Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu and no, I can’t pronounce it either.
• Albanians nod when they mean “no” and shake their head when they mean “yes”.
• Albania was never part of the USSR but fiercely communist.

Don’t worry, you are not alone! Albania and the Balkans has been described as Europe’s last unexplored corner, with stunning mountains, sandy beaches and boasts more than 3,250 species of plants, around 30 per cent of all the flora in Europe. Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro sit just across the Adriatic and Ionian seas, only 45 miles from Italy, where the Strait of Otranto squeezes the Adriatic to its narrowest point. Greece is to the south and Croatia to the north, and it’s backed by high mountains.

After World War II, Albania became a Stalinist state under Enver Hoxha, and remained staunchly isolationist, even from Russia until its transition to democracy after 1990. The 1992 elections ended 47 years of communist rule. Having spent nearly half of the 20th century isolated from the rest of the world, Albania remains somewhat a land of mystery. While ‘the land of eagles’ may be better known for its stormy communist past (with some 750,000 concrete bunkers still scattered around to prove it), it has a rich and diverse historical and cultural legacy.

After our first recce in 2022 we loved this country, very friendly, great offroad driving, stunning wild camps and fascinating villages. For 2026 we are including a few days to recce Kosovo and Montenegro. The huge network of forest and mountain tracks are rough, rocky and typically neglected as a program of major new road building has taken place. Expect some winching and slow progress, this is about as wild as you can get in Southern Europe.