ALBANIA: Remote Albanian villages welcome tourists looking for an adventure off the beaten track

Record ID: 561450

  • Title: ALBANIA: Remote Albanian villages welcome tourists looking for an adventure off the beaten track
  • Date: 27th August 2009
  • Summary: CHILDREN HERDING SHEEP (SOUNDBITE) (Albanian) HAN OWNER PREK HARUSHA, SAYING: "The food that we offer is local, this is exactly what tourists like: original local products like vegetables, meat, milk, yoghurt, cheese, butter these are all bio foods, and this is one of the good sides of the tourism here as tourists want fresh food that was just picked up from the garden, in other words natural." (SOUNDBITE) (Albanian) PREK HARUSHA, HAN OWNER, SAYING: "Not so long ago we received travellers without any money compensation, sometimes ten or fifteen people would come and we welcomed them as we are highlanders and in our tradition this is the way we treat guests, and I'm not talking about Theth only but the region of Shala and Dukagjini. Today we still keep the tradition and we receive guests without money compensation, but the times are changing and the tourists that come here have money and we have very fair prices." KULLA ROOM NEW BATHROOM BEAN FIELD STONE HOUSE-"KULLA" CORN FIELD PLUMS HAY STACKS IN FIELD BEE GRAZING VARIOUS OF MEMORIAL OF BRITISH TRAVELLER EDIT DURHAM DUTCH TOURISTS RESTING DUTCH MAN LIES DOWN SUNSET OVER THETH MOUNTAINS
  • Embargoed: 11th September 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Albania
  • Country: Albania
  • Topics: Lifestyle,Travel / Tourism
  • Reuters ID: LVA5B9Q93IPJ2FL2KHX9Q0QF3B8
  • Story Text: A century ago, a famed British travel writer fell in love with the rugged villages of traditional stone houses in northern Albania, a region she praised for its magnificent isolation.
    Theth is just as rugged and pure today as when Edith Durham visited in 1909.
    Following a century of wars, Stalinist rule and economic turmoil, the villagers see its remoteness as a lure for foreigners seeking the thrill of escape.
    Theth's traditional two-story stone houses, known as "kullas," with steep wooden roofs are nestled in a valley and the lower slopes of mountains covered with beech, pine and other trees below.
    The peaks tower above at 2,000 to 2,694 metres, where pockets of snow linger throughout the year.
    Westerners seeking pristine nature pass by Durham's portrait carved on a stone relief and bearing the words "Highland Queen" on the road to Theth among a crown of rugged peaks.
    Czech tourist Andrej Rapant came to Albania to get away to the mountains but avoid the tourists who crowd the Alps in Central Europe every summer.
    "A few years ago we travelled a lot around the Alps in central Europe, but we did not like the place anymore because there are a lot of tourists so now we are looking for some pure nature and we are trying to find it here in these mountains because it is so natural. So this is what we like here: beautiful mountains, pure people and beautiful nature,"
    Jana Pachlopnikova, also Czech, was attracted by the wilderness.
    "If I compare it with Austria or with Switzerland it is less touristic and it is nice because you can be in the mountains alone without people as there are not many tourists around, it is more wild."
    After generations of rugged self-reliance, local highlanders were sceptical about the tourist potential of their region.
    Three years ago, locals told an expert from Germany's GTZ agency which encourages international development that his talk of tourism here was that of "an alien from another planet".
    In fact, many local landlords had already abandoned the region, citing the lack of power, the absence of schools and doctors, a road blocked by winter snow and other woes.
    GTZ issued a televised appeal to discuss tourism, and agency experts advised locals how to spruce up their stone houses to receive guests.
    Seven families accepted GTZ's offer of 2,000 euros worth of beds, toilets and showers.
    Three years on, everyone now wishes they had done the same.
    GTZ calculate the initial 14,000 euro cash investment has already translated into 100,000 euros in tourism spending in Theth, sums beyond the dreams of most locals.
    Showing his no-frills but clean house with Western style bathrooms funded with a mix of GTZ and his own money, host Prek Harusha said his children have picked up English and serve as his translators.
    His 50 sheep and two cows assure tourists paying 20 euros for board and food that they have a choice of fresh produce:
    "The food that we offer is local, this is exactly what tourists like: original local products like vegetables, meat, milk, yoghurt, cheese, butter these are all bio foods, and this is one of the good sides of the tourism here as tourists want fresh food that was just picked up from the garden in other words natural," said Harusha.
    "Today we still keep the tradition and we receive guests without money compensation, but the times are changing and the tourists that come here have money and we have very fair prices," added Harusha.
    Tourists can trek mountain peaks, visit a waterfall, church, water-run grindstone mills and a tower that served as jail for those awaiting trial by elders, after killing rivals under the ancient blood-feud code of the Albanian mountains.
    The drive from Tirana takes three and a half hours, the last hour and a half of which is on a dirt road. One of two auto routes is a mix of stone and dirt which and dates back to the Italians who annexed Albania during World War Two.
    Such isolation has its rewards and risks.
    Three young Czechs vanished while visiting the area eight years ago.
    But for many the remoteness of it all and the thrill of reaching a pristine mountain top make it well worth the trip.
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