Latest news with #AlbanianRiviera
Times
4 days ago
- Times
The secret, scenic side of southern Albania
The cat's out of the bag. Almost 12 million people visited Albania last year, many of them heading to the riviera on the promise of an affordable, sun-soaked beach break. But the truth is that overtourism is already looming, prices are rising and international investment — including from Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law — means traditional villages are being developed into beach resorts. If the prospect of sunbathing a few yards away from the Trumps or being in a hotel that could be anywhere in the world puts you off, there's a part of the Albanian riviera that package holiday giants and hotel tycoons tend to miss. Undiscovered Balkans, a small British travel company that specialises in offbeat adventures, has introduced a small-group tour to highlight some of southern Albania's less-trumpeted treasures. I joined the trip in May and spent a week exploring lesser-known coastal towns before dipping into the hinterland, where I visited Unesco world heritage sites, swam in hidden waterfalls, stayed with farmers high in the mountains and rafted on one of Europe's last truly wild rivers. We finished on crowd-free pebble beaches 200m above sea level in a fishing hamlet on the shores of Lake Ohrid. I arrived in Qeparo, one of the quieter seaside villages in Vlore county, under darkness after a three-hour drive from Tirana. I woke to views of Old Qeparo, the original farming village in the hillside, spilling down the mountain to meet New Qeparo on the seafront, where beach bars and boat rental centres were gearing up for the season. The first of many feasts of the holiday commenced on the patio overlooking all of this. Our host was the lovely Mirella Kokedhima, an empty nester who runs the guesthouse at her hilltop farm somewhere between the two Qeparos. What she could cook up following a belter of a thunderstorm and resulting power cut was impressive, and done with a smile. Eggs, goat's cheese, yoghurt, salad, homemade chocolate pastries, sausages, and Turkish coffee so thick you could chew it, all came our way. • Read our full guide to Albania This early in the season, the sea was too choppy for kayaking, so we spent the first day hiking along the coast. Our group of eight Brits, ranging in age from thirties to sixties, rambled along karst limestone cliffs with epic views of traditional villages and sparkling water, Corfu a hazy mound across the bay. The scent of wildflowers and thyme hung in the air and birds chirped from nearby branches. Nine miles later we descended to Borsh beach and dipped our weary feet in the crisp Ionian water, a well-earned beer in hand. The next day we turned our backs on the seaside and joined our guide, Alfi Pepaj, in a 4×4 for a scenic off-road adventure through the mountains to Gjirokaster, a Unesco-listed Ottoman-era town. The scenery was all dramatic, green carpeted peaks and wide, open meadows, with nobody around for miles. Along the way, we pulled up seemingly in the middle of nowhere and followed Pepaj down into a canyon, where a waterfall cascaded. As we swam a chorus of Albanian water frogs spectated from their moss perch. An hour or so later we arrived in Gjirokaster and were immediately charmed. Our accommodation was a characterful hotel inside an Ottoman house with furnishings to match. Nowadays, most will know Gjirokaster for its traditional old town and bazaar, which draws similarities with Bosnia's Mostar or northern Albania's Kruje. But the town was also the birthplace of Enver Hoxha, the brutal communist dictator who ruled Albania for 40 years until his death in 1985. It's a wonder how such an evil man could come from such a beautiful and peaceful place. • 10 of the best places to visit in Albania Gjirokaster's remarkably preserved 13th-century fortress gives far-reaching views of the region and its cool stone walls offer respite from the summer heat. The town is very clearly popular with tourists, but prices were reasonable and an Aperol spritz set me back just £6. The following morning we once again headed for the mountains on another 4×4 tour where more of that spectacular karst scenery awaited. We drove along dizzying passes to the village of Hoshteve in Zagoria, the neighbouring county. Several photo stops later, we wandered down the hill to a 12th-century village church which houses some of Albania's best-preserved frescoes and icons, surviving several wars, the Ottoman Empire and Hoxha's dictatorship. We sauntered back up to Kristina and Ladi Telo's guesthouse for another Albanian feast. We ate on their wraparound porch, which was adorned with flowers, citrus trees and swallows nests, not a sound or another soul in sight for miles. I couldn't believe the amount of food (all fresh) that was coming from a kitchen no bigger than most people's pantries. • 16 of the best things to do in Albania Suitably stuffed and with Pepaj translating, I got talking to Kristina and found out they had converted their home into a guesthouse 12 years ago after spotting a market for feeding and sheltering hikers passing through. One thing led to another as Kristina showed me around and the next thing I knew, I was trying on her traditional shepherdess dress and modelling it to the rest of the group. Our next stay was at a 120-year-old restored farmhouse overlooking the Vjosa valley, where the Vjosa, one of Europe's last truly wild rivers flows. To get there we had driven up a rocky dirt track, just centimetres from a sheer drop at some points, but it was well worth the effort. Now a listed building, Kristaq Cullufe's family home was lucky not to have been seized by the communists and for a long time it lay abandoned. The village is a shadow of its former self, with many having left to find work elsewhere. Following the collapse of communism in 1991, Cullufe's family returned from nearby Permet city and set about restoring the farmhouse. In the first-floor bedroom stood his mother's peja, a wooden chest Albanian brides would fill with things to take to their marital home. On the patio, where we ate to the sound of the Vjosa gushing through the valley below, were more artefacts, including old farming tools, sewing machines and telephones. More of that bucolic mountain scenery filled our windows the following day as we drove to Lake Ohrid, our final stop. But not before we had some fun on the Vjosa, whitewater rafting, cliff diving and wild swimming. We arrived under darkness once again, leaving the lakeside views a surprise until morning. Straddling the border with North Macedonia, the Unesco-protected Ohrid is one of Europe's oldest lakes. We stayed in the sleepy fishing village of Lin, which is a tourism destination well and truly in its infancy and the kind of place where people own a boat rather than a car. Our final day was an active one, hiking and kayaking to secluded pebble beaches in the morning and cycling the length of Albania's share of the lake in the afternoon. There are no overpriced sunbeds to fight over here. The pleasant 12-mile ride took us past allotments, overgrown bunkers, quiet enclaves where ducks quacked from behind the reeds, and fishermen selling their catch on the roadside. We stopped in the larger town of Pogradec, which has a real British seaside feel to it: children giggled on the fairground rides, the smell of candyfloss and doughnuts wafted in the air and old men puffed cigarettes and sipped raki as they played checkers on the promenade. Pogradec is a resort town that's got the balance right with tourism — buzzing, but not too crowded. If you prefer to spend your holiday flopping on the beach sipping cocktails, this trip probably isn't for you. But if you're looking to experience a more authentic side to Albania, with outdoor adventures and priceless cultural exchanges, it just might Sanders was a guest of Undiscovered Balkans, which has seven nights' full board from £1,195pp on a South Albania Activity Holiday ( Fly to Tirana
The Sun
11-05-2025
- The Sun
Dark side of ‘Europe's Maldives' where Brits can bag 77p pints… but resorts are prowled by mafia & human traffickers
A SMALL Balkan nation with crystal-clear waters and rugged mountains is rapidly becoming a favourite with tourists - with over 120,000 Brits visiting each year. But while the resorts in " Europe's Maldives" may look idyllic, holidaymakers are being warned of mafia groups who allegedly own luxury hotels to launder vast fortunes from organised crime. 11 11 11 Albania has become increasingly known for its Instagrammable "Albanian Riviera" - but it's also a backdrop for dozens of mafia-style assassinations. Albania's diverse landscape and low-budget prices have made it highly appealing to tourists - with flights to the capital, Tirana, costing as little as £19 on Ryanair. After a three-hour flight, tourists then often make their own way to the coastline with destinations like Vlore and Ksamil several hours away. But Albania is also a key drug trafficking route and there are reports that mafia groups have infiltrated tourist hotspots along the Riviera, using resorts and bars to launder money and mask criminal operations. Albania is a transit country for heroine trafficked from Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan to Europe, according to The Global Organized Crime Index's 2023 report. It's also a transit hub for cocaine smuggled from Latin America into Europe and the UK, the report says. Over the years, heroin and cocaine processing labs have been discovered in cities like Elbasan, Fier and Tirana. Albania is also one of the largest producers of cannabis in Europe - with production worth as much as €4.5 billion (£3.85 billion), according to Italian authorities in 2016. Besides drug trafficking, the main criminal activities attributed to Albanian mafia groups - both domestically and internationally - are human smuggling and trafficking, as well as money laundering. Criminology Professor Xavier Raufer of Paris-Sorbonne, who has researched Albanian and Italian mafia for decades, told The Sun: "In the whole of Albania, there are maybe 30 big mafia families, with some of their traditions dating back to the Middle Ages. The author of 'At the Heart of the Balkan Chaos: The Albanian Mafia' believes their historical roots make these Albanian groups "true mafias" rather than just "organised crime" networks. This, he said, makes them more dangerous as they operate "with very strict rules" and "secretly". In 2022 alone, Albania witnessed 23 killings, with 10 attributed to mafia-style assassinations. Notably, the murders of individuals like Erion Çela and Aleksandër Sadikaj in Tirana, and Nazmi Bandula in Shkodra, are unsolved, revealing the mafia's ability to operate with impunity. Raufer explained that different mafia clans control various regions, with key areas in the north near Shkodra, the capital Tirana and the south near the Greek border. 'You'll find these families all over Albania - of course, the most powerful being the one along the sea because it's better for trafficking," he said. People "involved in real estate and tourism are increasingly linked to organised crime", according to Albania's crime index report. 11 Hidden in plain sight This overlap comes as no surprise to experts. Raufer noted that those in the mafia often have regular jobs that mask their involvement in criminal activities. He explained: "No tourist will ever see it. If you go there, you are not even able to guess it because it's a secret." Former Albanian MP Rudina Hajdari told The Sun that she blames Albania's mafia issues on government corruption. This "corruption has gotten higher and higher", she said, explaining that these criminal groups' links with the government have only strengthened in the past ten years. Hajdari said that in 2015 Rama's government passed a law on strategic investments that offered generous tax breaks, including zero income tax for up to 10 years to developers building four- and five-star hotels. "There have been allegations that many of these hotels in southern Albania were funded by drug traffickers,' she added. They set up bank accounts through friends or relatives and gradually invest, buying large amounts of property to launder their money, according to Hajdari. Albanian mafia often pose as legal businesses with employees tasked with securing, transporting and distributing drugs, the crime index report says. Hajdari explained that these criminal groups are known for bribing the police and being protected by politicians. In turn, politicians use these large criminal networks to win votes, she explained. There have even been reports that customs officials in Durres, a key port city in northern Albania, have been discouraged from checking certain vehicles, allowing for the smuggling of drugs in cars, buses and trucks. In Himare, a southern seaside tourist town, the mayor was arrested last year on corruption charges for allegedly creating fake documents to secure government land for a private tourist resort. Hajdari said: "There's a lot of money going into Albania that is primarily dirty. "The government clearly allows that - whether they think it's a good idea to invest in tourism, infrastructure or just keep them in power.' Albania's government, led by Edi Rama, has come under fire for allegedly turning a blind eye to the mafia - and even being complicit in their activities. Two of Rama's former interior ministers have faced scandals over drug trafficking - one jailed, the other forced to resign over a family link. But Hajdari stressed "this does not in any way reflect Albanian people - Albanians are just the most generous, welcoming, nicest people when people come and travel.' She concluded: "Albania's lack of opportunities and high corruption have created the ground for these illegal activities to flourish." Despite the murky backdrop, Albania welcomed 11.7 million tourists in 2024 - its tourism sector growing by 8 percent year-on-year and almost doubling since 2019. Meanwhile, a tiny, uninhabited island named Sazan around 30 minutes off the coast of mainland Albania is set to become a luxury resort. The request was made by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald Trump in March 2024. His plans to turn the island into a holiday resort are estimated to cost €1.4 billion (£1.2 billion). A government decision regarding the island reads: 'The projected investment of 'Sazan Island Touristic Resort' of €1.4 billion fulfils the criteria foreseen in the legislation on strategic investments. "The projected investment fulfils the criteria on the number of jobs as requested by the legislation on strategic investments. "During the development and operational parts of the investment, the employment of 1,000 people is foreseen." The history of the Albania mafia The Albanian mafia's rise is rooted in the collapse of communism in Albania during the early 1990s, which led to widespread economic and political instability. With the country facing an economic crisis, some Albanians turned to illicit activities to survive. It allowed organised crime to flourish, particularly in drug trafficking, smuggling, prostitution and human trafficking. The lack of government control and widespread poverty further aided their expansion. By the late 1990s and early 2000s, Albanian criminal organisations expanded into Western Europe, especially Italy. They became involved in drug and arms trafficking, often collaborating with other international criminal groups. Albanian gangs are known for their decentralized structure, operating through multiple clans with strong family ties. They are also known for their brutality and ability to infiltrate legitimate businesses, using corruption to protect their businesses. The Albanian mafia has a reputation for extreme violence. While not always overt, mafia members can be ruthless in carrying out attacks and murders to maintain control and eliminate rivals within Albania and internationally. Today, the Albanian mafia has a strong international presence, particularly in Europe and South America. They control a significant portion of the European cocaine market and are involved in various other criminal enterprises. They have established trafficking networks across North Africa and the Balkans, and have expanded into countries like the UK, Germany, and Ecuador. The government decision notes that the project will occupy around 562 hectares, of which some 45 hectares will be developed. The island was once a military base belonging to Italy from 1920 until after World War II, during which the Italian authorities built a lighthouse and naval buildings. 11 11 11
