Hello fellow travelers,
My friend and I will be traveling to Albania and Macedonia in mid October and we would like recommendations for private drivers or tour companies who can provide drivers. Some of the roads in southern Albania seem a bit daunting to driver on although we did survive Romania and Bulgaria where the roads were good but the drivers .....I'll leave it to your imagination.
Kim McKeon
I had some friends, a couple in their late 60's, do a trip to Croatia, BiH, Montenegro and northern Albania. I suggested they call the travel company that I use in Montenegro. They did and the company did have an Albanian company that they work with, so they were able to arrange the full trip. The company will book like a typical tour company or will just assist you in planning a trip that you book yourself. I am a bit of a control freak so usually do my own bookings, but I got lazy this year and let them do my full trip to Montenegro in June. Nice not to have to worry about anything. I have used them and have known them for so many years that I just trusted this time.
But no matter who you use, do use someone in Albania and N. Macedonia (don’t forget the "N" or the Greeks get nervous). Not that you can’t do it all yourself, TexasTravelMom did her own a few years ago. But she spends 9 months a year traveling and taking tour groups all over the place so she sort of knows what she is doing. Countries like these there is so much that isn’t in print or easy to find if it is in print and if you want to suck all the fun you can out of the trip it sure helps to have a local to talk to. For instance, I never see the olive orchard / tasting or the Oyster Farm for a meal or the hillside abandoned 500-year-old village that hides a winery, or the prosciutto hanging house lunch or the local cheese listed. Okay, I like food .... or the boat that will take you out for Red Fish and then the restaurant in town that will cook it when you bring it. Yes, more food.
Then a driver vs driving yourself. If part of the enjoyment is getting a deeper understanding of the culture and the people it never hurts to spend time with the local people. I get a lot out of it. So far I have had three driver/guides over the years that brought me home to meet mom and have dinner (Albania, Montenegro and Bulgaria). You cant beat that with a stick; and I dont even like people.
We had a very good tour of Albania, using Adrian Duqi as our driver. I booked our hotels and provided Adrian with our itinerary. He added various sights along the way to enhance what I had put together. He drives throughout the Balkans. We were happy to not be driving ourselves.
WhatsApp: +355 69 399 3192
We used Explore Macedonia to visit Mavrovo National Park with a private driver and guide, and were extremely happy with the service: https://explore-macedonia.mk/
They do private transfers etc as well. I would definitely recommend them.
When we visited Albania, we rented a car, and driving around southern Albania wasn't too bad, although the tiny Dacia they rented us struggled a bit in the mountains.
Good luck with your planning, this is a beautiful part of the world!
