Customer Reviews

Albania: The Bradt Travel Guide

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Gloyer's book inspired my trip to Albania, and it was useful every step of the way.
She offers tips on how to get through the airport without hassles, which hotels are worth booking, and what to see in just about every part of Albania a tourist might go to. Her writing style is well beyond the norm for travel guides, without a hint of the Weltschmerz that afflicts so many travel writers. She has a sly sense of humor, and will even boldly tell you to avoid a hotel run by the local mafia. Also, there aren't many travel guides that include tips on how to help alleviate poverty and suffering in the country being visited, but Ms Gloyer thoughtfully includes such information. She obviously loves the country and is very fond of its people, and it's quite a gift to Albania to have such an honest and worthwhile travel guide available in English.

If you want to travel around Albania and do more than just hit the few most visited highlights, this is no doubt the book to take.

It is the only English-language guide devoted to Albania alone, and it offers a good coverage of the places and things to see, fairly up to date details of transport and accomodation options, decent maps of both regions and individual towns or cities, as well as well-written background information on culture and history. All the stuff you would expect from good practical guidebooks like the better-known Lonely Planet series (whose coverage of Albania is dismal!).
It is also fairly balanced in covering both budget and upmarket places to stay, something other books often fail at.

So why only 4 stars?
Well, some of the maps would need to be more accurate - they sometimes showed places on the wrong street or corner. Also, in a few cases, practical details were missing, with the existence of accomodation being mentioned, but not the usual details on how much it cost. Same goes for transport info.
Finally, and most mystifyingly, the author has chosen to use non-standard place names ("definite", conjugated forms) even though she herself admits this form is not what you will see in Albania on maps, destination signs of buses or road-signs!

However these shortcomings are well outweighed by all the useful info in the book. If you are planning to tour this little-visited country independently, don't leave home without a copy!

i live in albania as a foreigner employed by the UN. we have found this guide to be mostly accurate. many guides on albania miss things or are just plain wrong. this is one of the better ones--take it fromo a resident who has bought many bad travel guides about this little explored country.

I am American and went to Albania with two 20--something Albanians. We used this book all the time to figure out where to stay and what would be in the next town. A constant question: What does your book say?

Go to Albania. It's fun!

I am writing this from Albania, where we have been travelling for the past week. We have been extremely disappointed by two aspects of the book: first, the appalling lack of practical information on almost every aspect of travelling (comparing this to any Lonely Planet or Rough Guide); and second, the misleading descriptions of places, especially Korca, which is nothing more than a charmless, cheerless transport hub, and the only place in Albania where we have been hassled. It is described by Gloyer as 'quite the most civilised town in Albania.' It is obvious when one comes to use the book that she has not been to some of the places she mentions, and that for the places she did visit, she did not use public transport. That Bradt should publish such a poor guide is a unfortunate.

I spent a little over two years in Albania from 2003-2004. I took the first edition with me, and used it heavily. While there, I actually met the author and provided information to her for the second edition of the book (my name is mentioned in the acknowledgments). I am amazed and impressed that she has a third edition out already.

For the reviewers that mention that maps, bus routes or other information was wrong, be aware that things are changing quickly in Albania in recent times! If you are looking for structured, predictable, on-the-clock travel, Albania may not be the destination for you. Albanians have a strong cultural tradition of hospitality; those you ask for directions will most likely accompany you to the bus stop, query others about when the bus is expected, wait with you (or leave you in the hands of another traveler headed in your direction), inform the bus driver about your travels, see that you have a seat up front, and see that your bag is safely stowed below!

I second the comment about the author's sly sense of humor. In parts I chuckled out loud thinking, "Did she really say that?!"

Albania is a fascinating place to visit, and this is a strong source for good information about travels there.

We lived in Albania for a few years from before the war to some years after it.
We developed a love hate for the country and its people. In hindsight the hate was largely engendered by the dicatorship that a communist system readily allows to exist. Some of the tribal behaviour of the people was and still is, hard to accept.
I am impressed that someone went to the trouble to become so familiar with Albania as a whole, and had sufficient heart to accept it warts and roses. Albania has had a bad image for a very long time and spoken badly of even from by its expatriates.
It was therefore quite a pleasure to read Ms Gloyer's surprisingly comprehensive travel guide.

Very helpful and easy to navigate guide for information about this fascinating country. Good overview of the confusing history! Definately came in handy during my two-week vacation to visit my in-laws.

The guide has lots of side stories about history and people. However, the maps are very basic and show things in the wrong locations. Don't depend on the transportation information since most of it had changed since publishing. I ended up getting stuck since some of the bus connections it mentioned don't exist.

The second edition isnt fully rewritten, there are a lot of things which changed thence, but arent mentioned. ( Banka e Kursimeve since 2005 is Raiffeisen bank )
The style of the second one is for the more stupid travelleres: there is more hotel and restaurant addresses, less history, more advices how to travel by bike and how to tramping, but less about the feeling of the country. And there are a lot of boxes about unimportant english people, who once spent in this country some time, and nothing about the people, who have made more about Albania...