Albania — Work Experience

Day 1

First night on the Adriatic

Arrival in Albania

Tirana Airport to the hotel

• On landing at Tirana International Airport the group is met and transferred to the hotel. The rest of the day is free to settle in, unwind and make the most of the pool.

• Meals · Dinner at the hotel

Day 2

A thousand windows, one lagoon

Berat and Karavasta Lagoon

Tirana – Berat – Divjakë-Karavasta National Park – Tirana

• A day of heritage and wildlife. Berat, a UNESCO World Heritage city, is famous as the “city of a thousand windows”, its white Ottoman houses stacked up the hillside below the castle.

• 11:00 · Berat Castle

  A guided walk around the gates, towers, Orthodox churches and the lived-in fortress quarter of Kalaja.

• 11:30 · Onufri Iconographic Museum

  Home to Albania’s finest collection of Byzantine icons.

• 12:30 · Mangalem and Gorica

  A stroll through the cobbled old quarters on either side of the river.

• 16:30 · Divjakë-Karavasta National Park

  The visitor centre, the park’s ecosystems and its famous Dalmatian pelicans.

• 17:00 · The observation tower

  A 360-degree view over lagoon, pine forest and the Adriatic coast.

• Meals · Breakfast and dinner; lunch at own expense

Day 3

Hands dirty by nine thirty

A day in the life of a farmer

Tirana – Lezhë – Tirana

• Students join a local farming family for a working day. Depending on the season that may mean bringing in hay bales from the fields and feeding the cattle and sheep, or harvesting tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers in the greenhouses.

• 09:30 · Hands-on farm work

  Working through the morning alongside the family.

• 12:30 · Patok Lagoon

  Meet local fishermen, learn their traditional methods and take a boat ride across the lagoon.

• Meals · Breakfast, farm lunch, dinner

  The farm lunch at 13:30 is made with produce grown on site.

Day 4

Leave it better than you found it

One day for nature

Tirana – Ishëm – Cape of Rodon – Tirana

Trainers or walking shoes with good grip are needed today.

• Students work with the Center for the Protection of Natural Ecosystems in Albania — a team of biologists and environmental technicians — on a clean-up in the Ishëm area, learning how people and nature can live side by side.

• 09:00 · Environmental clean-up

  A working project near the Cape of Rodon.

• 12:30 · Coastal hike to the Church of St Anthony

  An easy walk past communist-era tunnels to the ruins of Skanderbeg’s castle above the sea.

• 14:30 · Downtime

  At a nearby beach or back at the hotel pool.

• Meals · Breakfast and dinner; lunch at own expense

Day 5

Jeeps, peaks and a hero’s castle

Bovilla Lake and Krujë

Tirana – Bovilla – Krujë – Tirana

• An adventure day. 4x4 jeeps collect the group from the hotel and head into the mountains to Bovilla Lake, set between two ranges.

• 09:00 · 4x4 jeep expedition to Bovilla Lake

  Into the mountains by jeep to the reservoir that supplies the capital.

• 13:00 · Krujë

  The hilltop castle and the National Skanderbeg Museum, telling the story of Albania’s national hero. On a clear day the view stretches along the Adriatic to Montenegro.

• Meals · Breakfast and dinner; lunch at own expense

Day 6

Four centuries in a day

Tirana: capital, stadium and TUMO

A full day in Tirana

• A day in the capital, which has grown from a 17th-century trading town into a city of Ottoman, Italian, communist-era and modern architecture.

• 11:00 · Walking tour from Skanderbeg Square

  City Hall, the Et’hem Bey Mosque, the Clock Tower, the Opera House and the “Albanians” mosaic.

• 12:30 · Air Albania Stadium

  Behind the scenes at the 22,000-seat national stadium: dressing rooms, press room, training facilities and the Museum of Albanian Football.

• 14:30 · TUMO Tirana

  A centre helping young Albanians build careers in technology.

• 19:00 · Albanian Night

  A traditional village wedding celebration, with costume, music and the folk dance valle.

• Meals · Breakfast and dinner; lunch at own expense

Day 7

Office hours, then airtime

Work experience day and zipline

Tirana – Petrelë – Tirana

• The centrepiece of the trip. The group spends the morning inside one of the leading tourism companies in the Balkans. Students are split into teams, each placed with a different department, to see from the inside how a large tourism business runs.

• 09:00 · Workshop day with our host company

  Rotating through the departments of a major Balkan tourism business.

• 14:00 · Zipline Albania

  1,250m alongside Petrelë Castle and over the Erzen River, one of the longest in Europe.

• Meals · Breakfast and dinner; lunch at own expense

Day 8

Home, with something for the CV

Homeward

The hotel to Tirana Airport

• After breakfast the group transfers to Tirana International Airport for the flight home.

• Meals · Breakfast