Walking in Valbona Valley National Park

You hear the bleats of the sheep long before you see them, as you approach the remote smallholding where you’ll pause for lunch while walking in Valbona Valley National Park. At this height the sweeping views over the valley and the mountains are breathtaking. Lunch is a chance to really absorb the scenery, as your shepherd hosts ply you with fresh cheese and milk, while your local guide translates the pleasantries.

The national parks of northern Albania are no longer as ‘off the beaten track’ for international travellers as they once were. Popular trails get very busy in the summer, and villages like Valbona and Theth now have more of a resort feel to them. But our walking holidays escape the day-tripping crowds, and forgo the huge hotels that are increasingly being built in favour of small, locally run guest houses and experiences so you can enjoy a genuine taste of rural life.

After you’ve arrived in the afternoon, slipped out of your boots and exchanged a few greetings with your hosts, you might be invited to pick mulberries and plums in the garden for dinner, help milk the sheep, or pitch in with preparing the evening meal. “The way tourism develops in these untouched places is not always ideal but Valbona Valley is definitely not spoilt,” says Emma Heywood, co-founder of our partner Undiscovered Balkans, who organise some of our Albania walking holidays. “You still get amazing hospitality and views, the mountain tourism there is wonderful.”

“This is a golden era of opportunity for northern Albania, we have been craving this tourism boost,” says Marjana Koçeku, who advocates for the preservation of Albanian nature, cultural identity and traditional life. “We have a rich history and culture here, hundreds of years of untouched tradition due to our isolation.” Marjana’s family home is a traditional kulla house. These houses are emblematic of the northern mountains, handcrafted from stone and wood that had to be carried in by hand or on people’s backs, often for hours. “I tell guests that ‘sustainability’ is a word that’s only been in use for a few decades but in Albania we’ve been practising it for centuries. I dream of abandoned villages being restored by tourism, starting with kulla houses.”

Our walking holidays in Valbona Valley National Park are usually bookended by time in Shkodra, on the southern shore of Lake Shkodra, and the capital, Tirana. From Shkodra you travel 50km east to the town of Koman, from where you take a memorable two-and-a-half-hour ferry ride up Lake Komani to Fierza. The journey is comparable to voyaging along the Scandinavian fjords, with turquoise waters surrounded by steep, densely forested walls. Sadly, parts of the lake are badly polluted with plastic – our holidays help by following Leave No Trace principles, providing water bottle refills, and working to reduce single-use plastic packaging. Finally, a short minibus ride from Fierza takes you into the heart of Valbona Valley National Park.

This mountainous region, where some of the last remaining pockets of true wilderness in Europe can be found, is full of mystery, legend, and fascinating history. It is a land of blood feuds that can last for generations, where people will give up their own beds to make a stranger comfortable in their home, where nothing is as important as one’s sense of honour. Brown bears, chamois, lynx, wolves and wild goats roam the imposing jagged peaks of the Albanian Alps, also known as the Accursed Mountains, while eagles and kestrels soar above.

One of the most popular (and busiest) walks in the region is the high mountain pass between the villages of Valbona and Theth, which can take up to eight hours. In Theth you can visit the ancient kulla house that was historically used by families sheltering from blood feuds, and which now serves as a museum of the tribulations of life in self-imposed exile. Other routes include the White Circle Trail, following shepherds’ paths to the foothills of Mount Jezerca, the highest mountain in Albania, and old caravan routes where you might be accompanied by mules and muleteers. There’s also the option to combine Albania with Kosovo and Montenegro, as the Accursed Mountains span all three countries.

Our Valbona Valley walking holidays explore dense forests of pine and beech, dramatic karst rock formations, and, at higher elevations, expanses of juniper and alpine bluegrass. The Valbona River flows through the valley, with numerous swim spots available. You’ll walk to isolated hamlets across meadows blazing with wildflowers; stop in at the homes of shepherding families to learn about their milk- and cheese-making practices and how they knit clothes from the wool of their sheep, to share herbal tea with local families, and to picnic by waterfalls.

Another common feature of the landscape in Valbona Valley National Park, indeed everywhere across Albania, are the abandoned concrete bunkers. They were built in the late 20^th century on the orders of the former communist leader Enver Hoxha. Paranoid about invasion, he wanted the Albanian citizenry ready to repel the enemy using guerilla warfare. While some of the bunkers have been converted into dwellings, or museums, or animal shelters, most are crumbling slowly away, a curious reminder of a futile endeavour.