Darling angels go to Albania

Is there anything better for the soul than a girls holiday? Not just any girls holiday, but a fabulous road trip across Albania with beautiful sunsets, boujee cocktails, and girl-band levels of coordinating outfits. This girl group was actually only formed around a year ago and it came together in a really organic way. Scarlett and Jess have been best friends forever, I knew them both from school but only reconnected with them last year, and Harriet and Anjeza both met Scarlett through work a number of years ago. After a sunny hike in the peaks last Spring where we got together as a 5 for the first time, we all knew it had girl band potential. Amid girls nights and ladies days, the next logical step was to start planning our summer holiday. The destination was lined up from very early on; Anjeza is Albanian and after seeing all the gorgeous pics she was getting every time she visited home, we obviously had to experience it all together. The date lined itself up nicely too; me and Scarlett are birthday neighbours (her on the 12th, me on the 13th), so we figured belated birthday celebrations in Albania the week after sounded like a gorgeous plan. Albania only has one airport and that's in the capital Tirana, so the plan was to fly there, and then stop at an additional 3 places along the coast, ending up in the Albania Riviera by the end of the week. For anyone with a good memory, they will know I actually went to Albania last year with my friend Alice and we did something similar, but we had one night in Tirana and then travelled directly to Ksamil right in the south, without stopping anywhere else along the way. So for me, it was going to be a little bit of the same, but also a lot of new places which I was very excited for. 

Normally on my holidays, I'm the booker and organiser. But on this one all kudos goes to Anjeza, who sorted the itinerary, all the hotels, and all the taxis, and I merely offered my support as the sub-team leader to her project manager (I just helped with things to do, restaurants, etc). She did an absolutely amazing job with all the accommodation places (as you'll see) - look how gorgeous our place in Tirana was! 

Our flights got us to Albania at around 9pm so forget unpacking, forget settling in and forget about dinner. It was time to get ready and go out out! And I mean out OUT. I honestly haven't had such an amazing, fun and drunken night out in ages. I feel like clubbing in England has died a death and I'd suspected it might just be because I've aged out of it but no, the places in Tirana were in absolute full swing, busier than I've seen anywhere in England in the last 10 years. They were helpfully all on the same street too, so we basically hopped from one place to another. We started at this sort of open garden bar with lovely cocktails, then went onto a music venue that was playing a load of absolutely bangers, and then onto the main clubs. It was amazing because all us girls were on exactly the same wavelength, dancing and laughing and ordering shots with every round of drinks we got. Anjeza was doing vodka shots all night like a boss but then they eventually caught up with her in the chicken shop and she was KO'd (one of the funniest photos from the holiday and our new group chat pic). I had to prove my worth as the sub-team leader by working out what cash we had left, what food to get, where our apartment was, and get us a taxi back to it. Luckily blind drunkenness has always been a strength of mine and so I passed with flying colours.

Something that's never been a strength of mine? Hangovers or bouncing back quickly. I was fully suffering the next morning, as was Anjeza, and so instead of spending the morning bouncing around Tirana exploring the capital, we spent the morning napping in the apartment. I was still feeling like death warmed up by the time we had to leave, but while hangovers may not be my strength, keeping calm and carrying on is. Plus, I've certainly had a lot of practise! Besides, I only had to muster enough strength to bundle myself into the taxi, because we were headed to destination number 2...

A couple of hours later and we arrived in Vlore! This place was lovely because we were all in one apartment this time, rather than two separate ones, and they'd even decorated the place with happy birthday balloons for me and Scarlett! The Hotel Brooklyn was right on the seafront and it had the signature Albania aesthetic of lots of neutrals, rattan and quirky lighting.

We'd missed the sunset the night before by the time we landed, so we were on a mission to see it on our first night in Vlore, and Anjeza and Scarlett found the most perfect spot to do so. The Nobus hotel (presumably an Aldi version of Nobu) was set up on the top of the hill and they had a gorgeous infinity pool and bar area. We timed it amazingly for the most stunning views and photos, and then we had a drink and a fruit plate while we watched the sun disappear behind the horizon. Needless to say, the drinks this time around were mocktails, and we definitely didn't fancy any shots!

Having finally recovered fully, I had my first meal since we landed! The restaurant beneath our hotel was really well rated so we decided to eat there and have a chilled night. The pizza that I got was incredible, and they even brought us out a little birthday plate which was very cute.

Ho ho ho and a bottle of rum, it's a pirates life for me. Like I said in my last blog post, a day at sea is always my favourite day of the holiday and we certainly didn't break that rule here. It was amazing. We knew we wanted to do a boat trip at some point and we liked the look of the 3 Fiori one, because they split the group across 3 boats and they seem to divvy you up based on vibes and vibes alone. We dubbed the groups the OAPs (older people and couples), the odd jobs (anyone who was left after sorting the other 2 boats), and ours; the hot girl summer boat. The vibes on our boat were immaculate and our tour guide doubled as a DJ for the day too.

The boat trip was around 9 hours long, which sounds like a pretty long time but we stopped in so many different cool places. First up was a cave and while there was the option to swim in there, none of us took it because the water was freezing! Instead, we took the opporunity to sit and crack open a beer. The boat trip for the day included all our food and drink which was beers, waters, soft drinks and these amazing pastries for lunch called byrek.

We saw loads of gorgeous cliffs and caves as we rode along, but our next proper stop was at this little beach. It was some kind of medieval torture getting from the boat to the beach, as the seabed was super rocky and sharp, but the water was so clear and lovely. This beach was also home to the blue cave, which you have to swim into on your hands so as not to hit any rocks! The view from inside was really worth it though and it really did look as blue as it's come up in the photo.

The next stop was a bit too much of an ask from the hot girl summer boat - we had the option of climbing up on top of the rock and jumping into the sea from it. Needless to say, none of us took him up on it, although he did rope the poor solitary boyfriend from our boat into doing it with him. I have to say, his version of something being 'easy' and mine are clearly very different, because I have the clumsy gene, and climbing up there in the first place looked like a death risk to me. The jumping part looked fun though!

Our last stop for the day was this UNESCO world heritage site, Grama Bay beach. It's really beautiful and not easily accessible by land, meaning it was super secluded and quiet. They did have a little cafe and bar and a couple of the girls got some food, but mostly we just chilled out and had a gossip on the sand.

Since we hadn't noticed us significantly turn in the other direction at any point, we assumed we'd just been travelling further and further south all day. So we weren't all that surprised when we heard that it was a 2 hour boat journey back to our starting point! We were treated to some truly beautiful scenery as we travelled back though, and pulled over for a little drink as the sun started to set (and also so they could corner us to give them a good review on TripAdvisor lol). The best fun though was when we were almost back. The driver took us round in a few donuts, and the main guy from the boat tour company (dubbed by us as ‘bossman’) brought another boat out to do donuts with us too. Overall, an incredible day.

While the apartment in Vlore was beautiful, it did pose one issue - we only had one bathroom between 5 of us. And when we've all been in the sea all day and all of us want to wash our hair, we feared we might not make it out until midnight. But we did the impossible; all ready and out the door in 1 hour and 20 minutes. A timing I mistakenly reported back to Ash and he now has delusions about me getting ready that quickly every time (dream on babe). But for this extremely rare, one-off occasion, it meant we had time for a slow wander to find a restaurant we liked the look of. We chose Magjia and had a really amazing meal. I got beef carpaccio followed by shrimp paccheri and it was all delicious.

We'd explored Vlore pretty extensively by water, but we hadn't actually seen much of it from the land, so we decided to spend the next morning going on a little wander to the old town. It was about half an hours walk and the buildings were all so pretty and colourful. There wasn't necessarily anything specific to do there, but we found a really cute little cafe to sit and have a coffee at. It looked like an ancient Greek bath or something!

Then it was into the mountains towards our next stop, Himare! In a comically small car I might add; the suitcases barely all fit and poor Scarlett was getting them sliding into her with every twist and turn of the road. It was a pretty travel-sickness-inducing journey but wow the hotel was worth it when we got there. We had incredible views of both the mountains and the sea, and the hotel itself was lovely too. Slightly more basic with the decor but I'd exchange every rattan fixture and quirky light for that pool!

After a pretty busy few days, it was lovely to spend a few hours round the pool relaxing. Another thing that's lovely? The price of everything in Albania! This pint was about £2.50, which always makes it taste even better.

The best part about going on a girls holiday is undoubtedly getting ready together. Well, that, and being able to borrow each others stuff (I borrowed Anjeza's shoes, Jess' curlers, and Harriet's curlers, and I lent out my shoes, top, bikini, earrings, shoes, bag, eyeliner, eyeshadow and lipstick throughout the week). Getting ready together on the balcony as the sun sets was extra nice, and I would say that Himare was the best place we stayed for the sunsets and the views.

Once we were all ready, we were on a rooftop bar mission. Locca was on the edge of the bay and had a lovely view of the sea, plus this cool loveheart seat. They also did really strong cocktails, which was right up our street as we'd fully bounced back from our first night and were ready to get on it. We ended up having the funniest night ever, with so many in-jokes and so many laughs. Scarlett even got a cheeky marriage proposal!

With our hotel being up the mountain in Himare, it didn't make it super accessible to go to the beach or into the town. While we woke up with grand ideas about going on a big walk, it was only Scarlett and Anjeza that actually managed it - the rest of us had a very horizontal day by the pool. Lots of reading, lots of tanning, the holy trinity of drinks, and a lovely gyros for lunch.

Can you believe that these extreme levels of girl-band-esque outfit coordination were completely unplanned? We all just happened to have planned to wear our pink and orange outfits on the same night. Perfectly timed to match the gorgeous pink and orange sunset too!

We actually managed to go for dinner before midnight this time, unlike the day before, so we had much more choice on the restaurant front. We ended up at a cute little Italian on the seafront and so naturally I had to get seafood. I always get octopus when I'm abroad because it's one of my faves and just not really available at home. We then headed to another rooftop bar, Coba, where we played a cute card game called Talking Hearts, and then watched the fireworks. It's a law in Albania that you can't play loud music in open spaces past midnight, so we noticed a theme where fireworks often went off straight afterwards. Like protest fireworks, if you will.

The taxi to take us to our fourth destination was coming at around lunchtime, so we had a chilled morning around the pool again. Something I love when I'm in that part of the world (Greece/Albania/Cyprus) is the freddo espresso - dairy free but somehow creamy and delicious.

We'd saved the best until last because wow, our apartment in Sarande was breathtaking. So stylish, so spacious and that balcony! Can you believe that for all our accommodation across 4 different places and 8 nights in total, it only cost us £250 per person? Anjeza deserves a second shout-out for sorting all that!

It was a case of another day, another rooftop. The Asi rooftop had an asian twist with a big sushi menu, and we decided to get a big sharing platter. Wow, it was amazing - some of the best sushi I've had. The cocktails were lovely too, as were the sunset views. Honestly you'd become immune to gorgeous sunsets if you lived in Albania because it's another one, and another one, and another one.

The following day was one we'd been excited for all week; Lost Seaside! This Sarande beach club is a nice chilled one that has cocktails and cabanas by day, and then turns into a big party at night. We'd pre-booked 2 cabanas by the pool, as it felt like it worked out to be the best option for the 5 of us. Any of the options on the "beach" are staggered on different levels down to the sea, and we figured that sunbeds in a line wouldn't make it too easy to chat. Our spot ended up being perfect and we started the day with iced coffees and a fruit platter. Although poor Harriet is allergic to a lot of fruit so she kept having to miss out when we ordered these. As you can see, that didn't stop us from keep ordering them (sorry Harriet) and it became a running joke about attempted murder.

When the restaurant opened for lunch, we were in there like a shot. Obviously it had to be seafood again, but this time I took a small plates approach and got some shrimp tacos with fried potatoes. I thought I'd be hungry again later and planned to sample some more of the shellfish section of the menu, but I never ended up needing anything else. Instead, I kept topped up with cocktails (this cucumber spritz was life changing) and then we enjoyed a bottle of Albanian wine as the sun started to go down. A perfect day basically.

We had a slow start to that night because we wanted to have a few pre drinks in the apartment (and actually make the most of the beautiful apartment by spending some time in it). Problem number 1 was that our kitchen wasn't equipped with a corkscrew and the two bottles of wine we'd got were both cork. After I attempted some fighting with a fork, a key, and a knife, Scarlett saved the day with her charm by going and foraging one from the neighbours. Problem number 2 was that the wine, once we'd actually got it open, was disgusting. A far cry from the delicious Albanian wine we'd had at Lost Seaside a couple of hours before! Luckily the second one was drinkable so we got into that while we played a monopoly card game.

It was cocktail o'clock once we headed out into Sarande, and then we eventually went out for dinner and had by-far the worst meal we'd had all holiday. We should've taken it as a bad sign that the British woman on the door trying to get us in was loudly bragging to us that she'd just washed her feet in the sea. We still had the funniest night, in spite of the bad food, and Anjeza and Harriet got into it about how much they loved High School Musical and the music of its stars... before we realised they were literally giving Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale.

We woke up to our last full day (booo) and headed down to the cafe attached to our apartment block for some breakfast. This was basically the exact spread that we had any time we'd had breakfast; omelette, feta, some meat (sausage or ham), tomatoes, cucumber, and then a side of these amazing little fried pancakes (they were more like a donut than a pancake imo). Honestly I loved eating like this and the best part every time without fail was the tomatoes. I've got half a mind to start a government petition for us to get some Albanian tomatoes over to the UK.

I was back on familiar turf then, as we were spending the day in Ksamil, which is where I stayed last year. It was just as beautiful, and I was reminded once again why it's dubbed the Maldives of Europe. The sea is just so blue and gorgeous. The beach is basically made up of a lot of restaurants that also have sunbeds, so you basically pick the one where you like the look of the menu and then set up camp on the beach. It also means you can get drinks to all the sunbeds, so we had a few Coronas over the course of the afternoon and then finished up with an ice cream before leaving.

We'd agreed earlier in the week that we'd all save our best outfits for the last night, so we were dressed up to the nines! I'm absolutely obsessed with this mermaidy dress that I got recently - it was only a Shein one if you can believe ('if you can believe' based on the quality, not based on the fact it's the number one place I shop). Anjeza was my fellow goddess in green and she proved just how committed she was to being the group's top photographer when she stepped backwards trying to take this catwalky pic and ended up tumbling over! and guess what, she still got the shot. So I think she earned her top photographer title! We actually created a shared album for the holiday and it was the best idea ever. Rather than trying to send them all to each other, we could just grab the ones we liked out of it and save them. So photo credits for this blog post go to me, Anjeza, Harriet, Jess and Scarlett.

The castle is the place to be in Sarande for gorgeous sunsets and views and even though we felt like we'd been spoilt on both fronts all week, that's where we decided to go for our last night. It was exactly as advertised - completely beautiful. Although it was pretty busy and crowded so getting good pictures proved to be a challenge. Once we'd watched the sun go down, we went and grabbed a table at the restaurant. But we had a thumb through the menu and nothing was jumping out, plus it was pretty expensive. So we abandoned ship and opted for the casual eating place a level down instead. Can you really go wrong with pizza and wine? We certainly didn't think so. 10/10 decision.

I was definitely starting to wish the holiday never had to come to an end. I think normally when you go away for over a week, you end up grating on each other or nipping at each other a little by the end of it. But not us! I feel like we were still as high energy and having the same amount of giggles on day nine as we were on day one, which was amazing. Sadly though all good things have to come to an end, so we spent basically all of Sunday travelling home. It was a 5 hour drive back to Tirana airport (would've been 4 and a half but we got stuck in a cow traffic jam), then a 2 hour flight, then a 2 hour drive from Luton. We were all so sad to have to wave goodbye to each other once we were finally back!

I think it's a rare and beautiful thing to find a girl group with pure good vibes and no bitchiness. These are the kind of girls who all hype you up when you come out dressed for the evening, who give you advice without judgment, and who make you laugh until your sides hurt. We had such an amazing time in Albania and I'm so grateful that this new little friendship group came together. Considering next year is the year we all turn 30, I hope we have more, even bigger and better holidays on the horizon.