The review will be great, first about the hotel, then about Albania as a whole. Let me point out right away that we are seasoned tourists, not spoiled by “five-star all-inclusives”, we have seen everyone all over the world. The hotel itself is an oasis in the midst of unfinished construction and garbage, but garbage is everywhere, but more on that later.
… More ▾
The review will be great, first about the hotel, then about Albania as a whole. Let me point out right away that we are seasoned tourists, not spoiled by “five-star all-inclusives”, we have seen everyone all over the world. The hotel itself is an oasis in the midst of unfinished construction and garbage, but garbage is everywhere, but more on that later. The hosts are a very friendly elderly Albanian couple, who do not understand English, much less Russian, which was sometimes very inconvenient, I had to explain a lot on my fingers, which was also not always successful. The rooms are clean, average shabby, all amenities are there, linen and towels are changed every 3-4 days. The only thing I'll take off the ball is that there was no hot water in the morning at about 5050. The boiler hanging in the bathroom is simply turned off, as I understand it, in order to save money, and the water is heated by the sun, did not have time to wash or did not have time to warm up and that's it, an icy shower. During the day and in the evening everything is fine.
If you decide to buy fish and cook it yourself, it’s better not to do this, there are no conditions, the owners gave out a gas cylinder and constantly stood above their souls so as not to stink of fish. There are no extractors in the rooms. Wi-Fi almost always worked fine, but when a lot of guests arrived, it wrote that the access point was full and did not connect, but it was 5 times at most.
The main advantage of the hotel is that it is not noisy, the train passes 3 times a day, it does not bother you at all and sometimes dogs bark at night, but we are used to them, and with closed windows it is almost inaudible. No discos nearby.
Every day we were treated to grapes and figs. At the end of our stay, our flight was postponed many times, the hostess did not charge us an additional fee, which is very nice.
Further, from the hotel, the road goes through a gravel road and a railway, around unfinished buildings and mountains of garbage. After 100-200 meters you go to the very beginning of the tourist street and you can actually buy a hundred things here, but all the big shops, good restaurants are somewhere a few kilometers away, approximately in the middle between the center of Durres and the hotel. In the heat, stomping there is such a pleasure, in the evening every day they rolled killometers. There are still 500 meters to the beach. Line 5-6 is approximately.
Now I’ll tell you in general about what I saw and why Tommy was so often remembered. The first shock is the mountains of garbage around. Even India seemed cleaner to me. The locals simply do not take a steam bath, they throw everything under their feet, or even if in the trash, they are so rarely cleaned that everything is simply buried in garbage. The streets, the beach, the sea, all in candy wrappers, cigarette butts, napkins. Tin. The second shock is the quality of service. You came to a restaurant and you sit, you sit and you sit… To ask for a menu, to order, to get food, to ask for a bill, to take the money, bring change, you have to call the waiters for a long time. Later, we found several cafes where there is an uncle-foreman who drives the staff and ate there most often. For example, I really liked Delfini Tetova.
We were told that Albania is a country of stolen Mercedes - a stereotype. Nothing like that, 23 Mercedes cars, apparently the main goal of life and the status of every "gypsy" is to have a Mercedes. The culture of driving is also the same, they are very reluctant to let pass on pedestrians, they leave their rattles where they want, in the middle of a zebra it is quite normal.
The most disappointing on the beach, firstly, it is very dirty. There are containers along the shore, after about 15-20 meters (why near the water?? ), they are always crowded, everything is carried by the wind. From time to time, a truck drives right along the water's edge and scavengers very carelessly load the contents of these containers into it. From the trucks and the footpath, the sand along the water resembles asphalt, very hard trodden. I somehow got used to the velvety pleasant, but here everything is rude. There are cigarette butts and broken glass everywhere. Walking barefoot, you can easily cut yourself with glass, I stepped on a burning cigarette butt twice. Next comes a dense strip of sun loungers with umbrellas. Here is the most unpleasant thing, a sunbed costs an average of 10 euros for the whole day. Most vacationers take bags of refrigerators, throw in all sorts of fanta and chips and other things, take off sunbeds and lie on them all day eating it all, along the way wildly littering and scattering cigarette butts everywhere. In the area of sunbeds, the sand is already less dense.
Well, such a vacation does not suit us, we came in the morning to swim, sunbathe a little and then dine normally and for a daytime sleep with a child, then in the evening. In all countries, you just come, spread your blanket on the sand and swim calmly. But then a local businessman immediately runs to you shouting private!!! private!! ! you can't here. And so every day we had a war with them, especially when we bought our umbrella. Once it almost came to a fight, they were afraid that we would call the police. There are a couple of places where people don't pay attention, but it's very dirty and far from the water. In general, the constant tension from the fact that you are not allowed to put your things down just notably spoiled the rest. In the evenings, we swam at the Adriatic Hotel, where it’s a little cleaner. But during the day it is very hot to go there. We mostly swam at a round restaurant (by the way, the prices there are not bad), until we met floating excrement a couple of times, then we began to walk closer to the attractions, they also swam often (
In general, it reminded me very much of India, only without the Indian flavor. We won't be going back to Durres.
If you decide to buy fish and cook it yourself, it’s better not to do this, there are no conditions, the owners gave out a gas cylinder and constantly stood above their souls so as not to stink of fish. There are no extractors in the rooms. Wi-Fi almost always worked fine, but when a lot of guests arrived, it wrote that the access point was full and did not connect, but it was 5 times at most.
The main advantage of the hotel is that it is not noisy, the train passes 3 times a day, it does not bother you at all and sometimes dogs bark at night, but we are used to them, and with closed windows it is almost inaudible. No discos nearby.
Every day we were treated to grapes and figs. At the end of our stay, our flight was postponed many times, the hostess did not charge us an additional fee, which is very nice.
Further, from the hotel, the road goes through a gravel road and a railway, around unfinished buildings and mountains of garbage. After 100-200 meters you go to the very beginning of the tourist street and you can actually buy a hundred things here, but all the big shops, good restaurants are somewhere a few kilometers away, approximately in the middle between the center of Durres and the hotel. In the heat, stomping there is such a pleasure, in the evening every day they rolled killometers. There are still 500 meters to the beach. Line 5-6 is approximately.
Now I’ll tell you in general about what I saw and why Tommy was so often remembered. The first shock is the mountains of garbage around. Even India seemed cleaner to me. The locals simply do not take a steam bath, they throw everything under their feet, or even if in the trash, they are so rarely cleaned that everything is simply buried in garbage. The streets, the beach, the sea, all in candy wrappers, cigarette butts, napkins. Tin. The second shock is the quality of service. You came to a restaurant and you sit, you sit and you sit… To ask for a menu, to order, to get food, to ask for a bill, to take the money, bring change, you have to call the waiters for a long time. Later, we found several cafes where there is an uncle-foreman who drives the staff and ate there most often. For example, I really liked Delfini Tetova.
We were told that Albania is a country of stolen Mercedes - a stereotype. Nothing like that, 23 Mercedes cars, apparently the main goal of life and the status of every "gypsy" is to have a Mercedes. The culture of driving is also the same, they are very reluctant to let pass on pedestrians, they leave their rattles where they want, in the middle of a zebra it is quite normal.
The most disappointing on the beach, firstly, it is very dirty. There are containers along the shore, after about 15-20 meters (why near the water?? ), they are always crowded, everything is carried by the wind. From time to time, a truck drives right along the water's edge and scavengers very carelessly load the contents of these containers into it. From the trucks and the footpath, the sand along the water resembles asphalt, very hard trodden. I somehow got used to the velvety pleasant, but here everything is rude. There are cigarette butts and broken glass everywhere. Walking barefoot, you can easily cut yourself with glass, I stepped on a burning cigarette butt twice. Next comes a dense strip of sun loungers with umbrellas. Here is the most unpleasant thing, a sunbed costs an average of 10 euros for the whole day. Most vacationers take bags of refrigerators, throw in all sorts of fanta and chips and other things, take off sunbeds and lie on them all day eating it all, along the way wildly littering and scattering cigarette butts everywhere. In the area of sunbeds, the sand is already less dense.
Well, such a vacation does not suit us, we came in the morning to swim, sunbathe a little and then dine normally and for a daytime sleep with a child, then in the evening. In all countries, you just come, spread your blanket on the sand and swim calmly. But then a local businessman immediately runs to you shouting private!!! private!! ! you can't here. And so every day we had a war with them, especially when we bought our umbrella. Once it almost came to a fight, they were afraid that we would call the police. There are a couple of places where people don't pay attention, but it's very dirty and far from the water. In general, the constant tension from the fact that you are not allowed to put your things down just notably spoiled the rest. In the evenings, we swam at the Adriatic Hotel, where it’s a little cleaner. But during the day it is very hot to go there. We mostly swam at a round restaurant (by the way, the prices there are not bad), until we met floating excrement a couple of times, then we began to walk closer to the attractions, they also swam often (
In general, it reminded me very much of India, only without the Indian flavor. We won't be going back to Durres.
Like
You like
Show other comments …
They chose it as a place to stay for the night, most of the time they spent at sea or on trips. Very convenient location, 300 m shop, exchange office, and the beginning of the promenade, with shops and restaurants. To the beach 600 m. Bus stop, near the bus station. Very comfortable accommodation! The car was parked in the yard, the hostess opened the gate even after 23:00.
… More ▾
They chose it as a place to stay for the night, most of the time they spent at sea or on trips. Very convenient location, 300 m shop, exchange office, and the beginning of the promenade, with shops and restaurants. To the beach 600 m. Bus stop, near the bus station. Very comfortable accommodation!
The car was parked in the yard, the hostess opened the gate even after 23:00.
Very responsive hosts! They speak Albanian, but with the help of an interpreter, they even managed to drink coffee and talk together.
They wrote about the train, yes it passes, in the morning, but this did not bother us in any way.
The room has a bed, a sofa (three people can stay), a table, a kitchen with utensils, a refrigerator. Shower room.
They cleaned every day, in 7 days they changed the bed 4 times.
The car was parked in the yard, the hostess opened the gate even after 23:00.
Very responsive hosts! They speak Albanian, but with the help of an interpreter, they even managed to drink coffee and talk together.
They wrote about the train, yes it passes, in the morning, but this did not bother us in any way.
The room has a bed, a sofa (three people can stay), a table, a kitchen with utensils, a refrigerator. Shower room.
They cleaned every day, in 7 days they changed the bed 4 times.
Like
You like
Apartments near the sea. Very good, friendly hostess Sabriya. Very clean. During the week of our stay, the bed was changed. At our request they gave towels, although they were not included in the list of services.
… More ▾
Apartments near the sea. Very good, friendly hostess Sabriya. Very clean. During the week of our stay, the bed was changed. At our request they gave towels, although they were not included in the list of services.
Like
You like
• 4
Good budget hotel. Good location. 5 minutes walk to the sea, 2 minutes to the bus stop. Opposite the stop there is a shop with everything you need. Near the store there is a communication salon where they change currency. Across the road is a local bakery. From the shops, the promenade begins towards the center of Durres.
… More ▾
Good budget hotel. Good location. 5 minutes walk to the sea, 2 minutes to the bus stop. Opposite the stop there is a shop with everything you need. Near the store there is a communication salon where they change currency. Across the road is a local bakery. From the shops, the promenade begins towards the center of Durres. There is a variety of souvenir shops, bars, restaurants. There are abandoned and unfinished buildings around the hotel, spoiling the picture a bit. But this is probably all over Albania. The hotel room was on the second floor. There is everything you need - an electric stove, a lot of different utensils, a large refrigerator. Wifi is good in the room. The room itself is fresh, only the handles on the furniture are broken and the water in the shower drains from the floor for a long time. The owners of the hotel are elderly Albanians, very kind and positive people. They only speak Albanian. You can download Albanian to translator in advance. We were treated to free coffee and crayfish (homemade vodka). The sea itself is shallow, the beach is sandy. Everywhere sunbeds are paid, but there are places where you can lie down with your own towel.
Like
You like
• 2
