The Journey to Valbona, Albania

Albania is home to a bucket list hike: the Valbona Pass through the Accursed Mountains. This 17km hike between Theth and Valbona offers nonstop jaw-dropping mountain vistas. (More in the next post).

Theth and Valbona are both small villages with limited services. So, hikers usually drop off their luggage in Shkodër, then complete this trip as a loop. On the advice of Kitti Around the World, we decided to go in the direction of Shkodër -> Valbona -> Theth -> Shkodër. Two busses and a ferry are needed to get you from Shkodër to Valbona.

We got up bright and early to catch the first (and only) bus departing from Shkodër at 6:45am. Luckily, as this is a popular route, there was already a cafe open near the pickup point.

We next took the packed but gorgeous 2.5 hour ferry ride up Komani Lake.

Finally, another minibus dropped us off at the Lazer Cardaku guesthouse in Valbona at around 2pm.

This guesthouse offered picturesque views, wonderful hospitality, and two adorable cats who try to steal your food.

We had a bit of time to explore the village of Valbona, which is really just three guesthouses in a trench coat. There are no stores, ATMs, etc. There are, however, stunning mountain views on all sides. Stay tuned for the big hike!