Skip to content
Two Travel Turtles
  • Welcome!
  • Blog
  • Support TTT!
  • Locations
    • Albania
      • Sarandë
      • Shkodër
      • Tirana
    • Bosnia & Herzegovina
      • Mostar
      • Sarajevo
    • Colombia
      • Medellín
      • Minca
      • Taganga
      • Tayrona National Park
    • Ecuador
      • Baños de Agua Santa
      • Cuenca
      • Quito
      • Rumipamba
    • Guatemala
      • Antigua Guatemala
      • Guatemala City
      • Panajachel
      • San Juan La Laguna
      • San Pablo La Laguna
      • San Pedro La Laguna
      • Tikal/Flores
    • México
      • Atlixco
      • Cholula
      • Izamal
      • Mérida
      • Mexico City
      • Oaxaca
      • Palenque
      • Puebla
      • San Cristobal de las Casas
      • Tulum
      • Uxmal
      • Valladolid
    • Montenegro
      • Kotor
    • Panama
      • Bocas Del Toro Province
      • Boquete
      • Panama City
      • Pedasí
      • Playa Venao
    • Peru
      • Cusco
      • Lima
      • Machu Picchu & Aguas Calientes
    • Serbia
      • Belgrade
      • Golubac
    • Spain
      • Barcelona
      • Galicia
      • Madrid
      • Segovia
    • USA
      • Connecticut
      • Florida
      • Massachusetts
      • New York
      • Ohio
      • Rhode Island
  • Tips & Tricks
    • Travel Tools
    • Flight Travel Hacks
    • Food
    • Health
    • Lodging
  • Finances
    • Planning
    • Monthly Budget
  • Contact Us
  • Search Icon
week in Shkodër two travel turtles
Our Fast-travel Week In Shkodër (Albania)

Our Fast-travel Week In Shkodër (Albania)

October 19, 2024 Mark
Home » Locations » Albania » Shkodër » Our Fast-travel Week In Shkodër (Albania)

Believe it or not, we’ve already wrapped up one week in Shkodër (Albania) and have arrived in the capital of Albania, Tirana. Now that we are in Tirana for two whole weeks, this will give us more time to breathe, decompress, and explore the city at our own pace.

But most importantly, we now have the time to write about our time in Shkodër! We had a great time, even if the rain disrupted some of our more adventurous plans.



Why Did We Visit Shkodër?

The city of Shkodër, in northern Albania, is best known for being the gateway for exploring the Albanian Alps.

Many hiking tours originate in Shkodër, some of which are quite extensive. So we thought we would take one or two modest overnight trips in the mountains, presuming the weather accommodated. (Spoiler alert – it didn’t.)

But besides being a hiking hub, Shkodër has other things going for it.

Shkodër is located near the shores of Lake Shkodra, the largest lake in Southern Europe. Once a major route for commerce in the area, the lake is now more suited for recreational purposes, especially biking and hiking its shoreline.

Shkodër is home to several local attractions, including Rozafa Castle, a 14th-century fortress with a fascinating legend surrounding its construction. The city also has a pedestrianized old town, Pedonale, with cobblestone streets, historic buildings, cafes, and bars.

Shkodër is known as the “Amsterdam of Albania”, because of the prevalence of bicycles in the city. Most of the major roads in the city have dedicated bike paths, which considerably opens up exploring the local area. And since our Airbnb provided bicycle use for free, we certainly were going to give them a try!

So we figured that a week in Shkodër would allow us enough time to see all of its greatest hits and assess if a longer return visit is warranted.

How Did We Get To Shkodër (Albania) From Kotor (Montenegro)?

As has been the norm for us in the Balkans, we took the bus!

Using the busticket4me platform, we purchased one-way 8 am tickets from Kotor Main Bus Station in Montenegro to Shkodër Main Bus Station in Albania.

Each ticket cost us $28.76 USD, with stowed luggage costing an additional €2 ($2.19 USD) per bag.

Our minibus to Shkodër.

When we left Kotor on October 7th it was a beautiful day, unlike the majority of the previous 7 days.

Here is the route we took:

Thankfully we had a pain-free border crossing between Montenegro and Albania, taking no longer than about 20 minutes to process our entire bus.

Walking the 100 meters between the Montenegro checkpoint and the Albania checkpoint, where our bus picked us up again.

The entire bus trip took about 5 hours, and there were no issues.

But we were glad we paid attention to the driver when we made stops at bus stations along the way. A passenger got left behind when they didn’t return to the bus within the allotted time for everyone to stretch their legs!

Our Airbnb in Shkodër

We arrived in Shkodër at around 1 pm and made the 15-minute walk to our Airbnb, just a few minutes north of the Pedonale tourist area.

Our Airbnb was more spacious than the one we had in Kotor. We had a separate kitchen/living room space, bedroom, and bathroom. And at $32.14 USD per night for 7 nights (including the weekly discount), it was considerably cheaper.

Our living room/dining room/kitchen arrangement. Pretty comfy space to hang out!
A view of the kitchen from the opposite corner. It was nice to have a microwave for the first time in a while! And on the far right you can see our washing machine.
Our functional bathroom. The shower curtain made taking showers a little tight, but we made it work.
Comfy beds and lots of storage in our bedroom. The lack of nightstands made charging our devices overnight a little awkward though.

And the cherry on top of all of this was we had free access to the owner’s spare bikes. So on our first full day in Shkodër, we made sure to use them!

More Wet Weather Hijinks

Sadly, the weather in Shkodër was only a little better than in Kotor, Montenegro. We had about 4 days of solid weather, but they were spread out in such a way that we couldn’t commit to anything longer than day trips around the area.

And when it rained, it REALLY rained.

On the first day of rain, it poured continuously to the tune of 3 – 4 inches. Probably more.

And on the other days, it wasn’t much better.

Basically, it was the kind of rain you wouldn’t want to be caught hiking in, especially on a multiday trip where all of your gear would get soaked.

So we punted the ball on our more ambitious plans and instead stuck to day trips and local explorations. On rainy days we just hung out at home and indulged in our hobbies. But we tried to escape during breaks in the weather, for meals and to keep ourselves from getting too stir-crazy.

Opportunistic Explorations

But it wasn’t all rainy doom and gloom! We did quite a bit when the weather was clear.

On our first full day in Shkodër, we biked along Lake Shkodra’s coast to the village of Zogaj.

This is a well-known local biking route, for good reason. The views are gorgeous!

Although we hadn’t ridden bikes in around 40 years, we had a great time! The weather was perfect and the scenery was striking.

Once we got out of the city traffic, we took a break on the pedestrian bridge spanning Buna River.
Once we reached Shkodra Lake, the views started opening up. Note the nice wide bike path we had for the first half of our ride!
We took a break in the coastal village of Shiroka for lunch. Check out our sweet rides! The duct tape on my bike handles came with no extra charge. 😉
We finally made it to the village of Zogaj, which was the end of the line.
On the stretch between Shiroka and Zogaj there were lots of opportunities to enjoy the view. Such a nice ride! And relatively little traffic, thankfully.

On one of the rainy days when the afternoon cleared up, we went on a free walking tour to learn about the history of Shkodër.

The post-WWII history of Albania was pretty depressing. When the rest of the world was getting back on its feet post-war, Albania turned into a brutal communist dictatorship under the rule of Enver Hoxha. Think North Korea-level brutal, or possibly worse.

And Shkodër, being the center of commerce and intellectualism in Albania at the time, fared poorly under the communist regime. Merchants and free-thinkers were the enemy.

Monument to the citizens who were killed, imprisoned, tortured, or whose families were destroyed under the rule of Enver Hoxha.

On rainy days, when the weather broke we explored the tourist Pedonale area near our Airbnb.

The Pedonale area was much less busy after heavy rain. You can tell you are in the Pedonale from the stone pavers.
One of the quieter Pedonale areas, closer to our Airbnb.

We particularly enjoyed finding new local restaurants to try. Their prices were often quite good, even when they were close to the tourist area!

One of our favorite haunts was Arti Zanave. This mixed menu plate included a giant pressed meatball, moussaka, stuffed pepper, stuffed eggplant, grilled veggies drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, fried potatoes, and fergese. All this for 1000 ALL ($11 USD).

Once the rain clouds left, we scheduled a day trip to sail the fjords of Komani Lake. With bus and ferry transport included, we were happy to pay the $40 USD per ticket to get out of the apartment and take in some scenery.

The ferry departed from the port near Koman (a 90-minute bus ride from Shkodër) and sailed up to the little town of Fierze, about 2 hours away.

The departure port was bustling! And we could get a sense of the scenery to come.
Cruising the fjords, freshly shorn from the previous day’s haircut. It should last me a couple of months!
The ferry that brought us to Fierze. The return ferry was much larger, had multiple levels, and could carry cars.

Many of the passengers who sailed with us to Fierze were then picked up by minibuses taking them to other destinations. We just hung out at the cafe for 45 minutes, sipping coffee and eating our packed lunches until the return ferry was ready.

In Fierze, waiting for our return ferry (not in picture). You can see the cafe in the background, which we took advantage of.

So although our trip wasn’t exactly as adventurous as we would have liked, we at least managed to get into the great outdoors!

Here are some pictures from our voyage.

And on our final day in Shkodër, we hiked to Rozafa Castle, a real jewel in the area. Although the castle is no longer fully intact, the remains are still beautiful and were fun to explore.

View of Rozafa Castle during our approach on foot.

At 400 ALL ($4.43 USD) per ticket to get in, we thought it was absolutely worth the price of admission. And at an additional 200 ALL ($2.22 USD) per ticket, the connected museum was also worth a look, although we wouldn’t call it required viewing.

View from the ticket area.

One of the things we liked most about the castle was all of the less well-trodden paths leading to neat hidden features. And for some reason, we were the only ones exploring them! Most tourists just stuck to the main path leading to the cafe and museum area at the rear of the castle campus.

The first entry gate.
Entry gate number two.
The road leading into the castle interior (behind us), from the second gate.
From a distant corner in the castle, we tried to get a picture of the entire campus. Such a great strategic position!
The walls of this castle were not easy to siege!
View of the castle church, whose site is thought to be thousands of years old.
Lots of defensible lookout points along the main walls.
The museum and cafe area. Castle battlements are behind us in all directions here.

And the views of Shkodër were as good as you can get!

View of Shkodër from above the first entrance.
Selfie from the battlements at the cafe courtyard.
View of Shkodra Lake from the eastern battlements. You can see the bridge we cycled across when we toured the coastline!

There was even a cafe built into the castle grounds. Rhonda was perceptive and noticed a hidden cafe sunroom with overlook-quality views of the surrounding area!

I ordered two cappuchinos (200 ALL/$2.22 USD each) while Rhonda scouted the area for seating.
We have no idea why others weren’t using this cafe sunroom! Crazy view.

We couldn’t believe we were the only tourists enjoying this part of the cafe.

Our visit to Rozafa Castle was a great way to wrap up our time in Shkodër! We were surprised at how much we enjoyed our time there. We probably spent 3 hours exploring and enjoying our excellent cappuccinos.

Highly recommended.

Closing Thoughts On Our Week In Shkodër

We really enjoyed our week in Shkodër! It was a bummer that the rain disrupted some of our plans, but we still saw quite a bit and had very memorable experiences.

Our only regret was that if we had more consecutive days of good weather, we would have taken an overnight trip to Theth National Park to soak up the outdoors and get some real hiking in.

If we return to Shkodër, we might just do that. Or, if we are feeling ambitious, we might take a crack at the 8-day Accursed Mountains hiking tour we’ve seen advertised.

But we’d have to wait for Summer to do that. Food for thought!

Until next time…

Thanks for reading!

If our posts have saved you time, money, or are enjoyable in some other way, BUY US A COFFEE! It helps cover the costs of our blog, keeps our blog ad-free, and motivates us to continue posting about our experiences.

And leave a comment below and subscribe to get email notifications whenever we post!

Follow Two Travel Turtles on Facebook and X.

Subscribe and never miss a post!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Thanks for subscribing to Two Travel Turtles! Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.



Check Out These Related Posts:

  • lima peru two travel turtles
    Moving Day - Our New Home in Lima Peru
  • airbnb in sarande two travel turtles
    Moving Day - Our New Airbnb in Sarande (Albania)
  • two travel turtles february 2025 budget
    February 2025 Budget Report (Sarande, Albania)
  • PXL_20250219_120643152.MP
    Our Second Slow Travel Month in Sarande (Albania)
  • october 2024 budget two travel turtles
    October 2024 Budget Report (Montenegro & Albania)
  • san pedro la laguna
    San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala - Our New Home for 1 Month

Albania, Locations, Shkodër
airbnb, fast travel, museums, parks

Post navigation

PREVIOUS
Our Wet Week in Kotor (Montenegro)
NEXT
Two Fantastic Weeks In Tirana (Albania)

Leave a Comment! Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Follow Us On Facebook


WHERE ARE WE NOW?

CONNECTICUT, USA


WHERE ARE WE GOING?

OHIO, USA



Archives


Popular Posts

© 2025   Two Travel Turtles. All Rights Reserved. | TTT Privacy Policy
Turtle icons created by Freepik - Flaticon | Suitcase icons created by Freepik - Flaticon