My husband and I had never been on a trip like this one, where we were driven from place to place and guided through the sites. I was excited... read more about the prospect of it: the length and how much territory it covered, and happy that we did not have to reserve our own accommodations.
Belgrade, Serbia: We enjoyed our Choose Balkans (CB) tour guide. But we were disappointed that the tour was so short and that we would see so little of Belgrade. We had to book our own hotel in Belgrade. Getting there from the airport was not easy. Afterwards, we wondered why even start the tour in Serbia, if we were going to see so very little of the country and have to be driven so far to get to Sarajevo.
We could have used some help in Sarajevo, where we felt we’d been dumped by our driver. Jet-lagged and hungry, we found it difficult to navigate on the crowded cobblestone streets and find a place to eat. The culture shock was extreme. We had a difficult and exhausting first day. No help from CB. The hotel room was very small, personnel almost non-existent, very difficult to get into with the keys and the door opening out onto the narrow street. The bed was comfortable and skylights let air in, which was appreciated. The breakfast was dismal. We learned that this is how it was going to be for many of the hotels: fresh food provided for breakfast was usually good, such as the fresh tomatoes and fresh cheese. But processed food, such as yogurt and cereal were very poor quality. Pastries in vending machine type wrappers. Until later on in Albania, the hotels were mostly disappointing.
The next morning we met Mario (our guide and driver for the rest of the trip, we were told) and the tour officially began. We found him to be personable and knowledgeable. However, one of things I was interested in seeing was the Museum of Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide in Sarajevo. Mario never mentioned it and I forgot to bring it up because of my jet lag. (I later leared that we missed a lot. Many important museums and sites were not mentioned. We went only to the UNESCO heritage sites at each place. For example, In Prizen, he did not even know what "the American corner" was.)
The next visits, Mostar, Shkroder, Prizren, Kotor, and Budva involved a lot of driving and stops at fascinating (but difficult walking up and down steep hills on round stones embedded in concrete) UNESCO sites, but we were never told an overall plan for the day, such as how long we would be in the car, where we would stop for lunch, or a rest break. Even though we had interesting discussions with Mario about the history of the places, he was young and inexperienced as a tour guide, and we eventually learned that he did not know how to properly take care of tourists.
He had suggestions about where to go for for dinner, for example, only when we were in his home country of Albania. We never stopped for lunch or bathroom breaks. He dumped us at our hotel on many occasions without giving us suggestions about where to go and what to do. And played awful 1980s disco music while driving (which we asked him to change, and he did, but it was no better).
We were hot and tired on the way to Kotor. We had been driving and driving. Finally, when we requested, Mario stopped so we could use the toilets at a petrol station, but they were broken. The owners sent us to the next door café, but they would not let us use them without buying something which I refused. We went onward to Kotor to see the Medieval town. We had never stopped all day for any kind of break. So Mario left us in Kotor to find something to eat and find a toilet (not an easy prospect) and then came back after a while (after meeting some friend he ran into), and gave us a quick tour, which we were hardly in the mood for at that point.
Then we drove on to Budva. He dropped us off at our hotel. I asked: “So what do we do for dinner?” He said, it’s like a neighborhood around here, just walk around and you’ll find something. We walked down a street and ended up going to a restaurant that was bad. We probably should have crossed the highway to the seaside where the nicer hotels were, but we didn’t know.
Tirana, the capital of Albania, was next, halfway through the tour. We were getting very frustrated. We wrote to CB to ask about eliminating 2 or 3 of the days and going to Corfu early. We met our very nice CB representative in person at our hotel in Tirana. She wanted to know what our concerns were and how they could improve the tour. It was difficult at that time to process and say all that was problematic. We were told that if we wanted to shorten the driving, we should skip Ohrid in North Macedonia and Meteora, Greece.
But, now, after being home and researching what we missed, I am angry, particularly, that we missed Meteora, which looks like the most spectacular of all the places.
Then, on our last night in Tirana, we learned that our guide/driver would change! His name was Ilir and he was wonderful. We later learned that he was supposed to be our guide for the entire trip, but something interfered so they called in Mario at the last minute (who did not typically work for CB).
And, as our tour continued with Ilir, we began to understand what a professionally guided trip could be like. Also, Berat and Gjirokastor were so much better as were the hotels. This had a lot to do with having a wonderful guide who provided options, explained where to eat, told us about when our breaks would be and to be sure and tell him if we needed anything. He never played music (and said he thought it was not appropriate). He also understood much more about the culture, and we had very interesting discussions rather than just hearing historical events recited back to us.
We should have been told we would be getting a different guide. If we had had Ilir as our guide from the start, we doubt that we would have cut the tour short.
On the last day he asked us if we wanted to see The Blue Eye, a natural lake in the mountains (not a part of the itinerary). On the way to the Blue Eye, Ilir learned that we had CB book 11:00am tickets for Corfu. He was surprised, said he did not know that, and quickly changed course to take us directly to the port to get there in time. He told us that he’d contacted CB that morning to ask if he could take us to Blue Eye. Then why did CB say 'yes' he could, if they knew we had to get to the port for the 11:00am ferry? There was no time and they certainly knew that!
A bit more about Ilir: Even though he was both driver and guide, which I now think is not the best way to run a tour, he did well with both and it was very interesting to talk to him about the culture and history of the Balkans, and Albania in particular. His maturity and thoughtfulness made it a pleasure to spend time with him and see the interesting places with him. (We learned more about the American corner in Prizren from him. He told us that he takes his tourists inside to read some of the materials there. We felt disappointed; Mario didn’t even seem to know about it when we asked him.) Ilir also told us, when we were in the old market of Tirana, that if we wanted to buy anything in the bazaar, we should haggle for it. A couple of days earlier, when we were in Kruje with Mario, I wanted to buy a rug and asked him if I should “haggle.” He didn’t know the word. So I said “barter.” He still didn’t know what I meant, which surprised me.
To conclude, my husband and I were quite disappointed in the entire trip. We spent a lot of money and energy on it. CB should have reimbursed us for the 3 days we cut short. We would not recommend it. However, we were happy to experience the Balkan countries and Albania in particular. We enjoyed all the people we met.
