Blue Guide Albania & Kosovo

I lived and worked for 18 months in Tirana and traveled throughout the country from Kukes to Korca to Saranda to Shengjin and I always, always carried my Blue Guide. It was indispensable for my personal exploration of the country and allowed me to act as "tour guide" for visitors. I used the Albania-only edition until this edition came out and immediately upgraded. Any book can tell you how to get to a country or which hotels are available, but they quickly become obsolete. By focusing more on the history, culture, and environment, Pettifer avoids that trap. Albania changes every day and any attempt to recommend which hotel is good, which is safe, which is cheapest will be oudated before the ink is dry. This book tells you more about why things are the way they are. It also covers more areas off the beaten path. Yes, I own the Bradt guide too, but prefer the more detailed, denser content of the Blue Guide.

I am a devoted academic researcher on Albanian culture and this is the best guide book out on the market that offers wonderful information on travel into Albania and Kosovo. This guide book not only has useful information on travel conditions and the best way to explore the area, but it also has some wonderful information regarding the culture and history of the Albanian nation. This book is a must have for anyone that is interested in travelling to this culturally complex region in the Balkans. This book is the first thing that I am taking with me when I set off to travel to Shqiperia and Shqiperia e Madhe (Albania and Greater Albania). It is a shame that Lonely Planet has not produced a guide book into this part of the world. It would be fantastic if they did. For the meantime this Blues Guide has everything you need to make your trip into the region a successful and productive one.

This author is to be congratulated on an absolutely masterful work! This is a fantastic book that is crammed full of useful travel, as well as historical information to an almost unbelievable degree. If this guide book had been written in a less condensed format it would easily have ended up being twice as long. I noticed that during my travels in southern Albania, the author seemed to have ethnic and historical information on villages so small that they didn't exist even on the most detailed maps that I was able to purchase. On that basis, I would recommend this book even for those not contemplating a trip to Albania, as it provides for many hours of interesting reading for those just wanting to learn more about the culture and history of the region.Although the author's approach of writing a guidebook which includes all areas of historic Albanian inhabitation (Kosovo, Northern Greece, and Western Macedonia) rather than just the present day country is somewhat unusual, he does the reader a great service as many visitors to Albania entering from these adjacent regions are provided with detailed information which is usually lacking in other guidebooks (i.e. Guidebooks on Greece have little, if any information on regions around the Albanian border areas).I would not contemplate travel to Albania without this publication!

James Pettifer has written a fascinating guide to the Albanian speaking areas of the southern Balkans, which will be invaluable to anyone living and working in the area. The format, which follows language and ethnicity rather than the present day borders is unusual, but this should not put anyone off buying this very detailed guide to the wealth of antiquities in the area.

The Blue Guide is the best guide for Albania. This guide has informations about everything (history, culture, language, places to have seen, hotels, restaurants) and mentions everything that can be visited. Unfortunately, the maps are really bad. The situation in Albania changes very quickely - the traveller has to know this. But all the other guides are older and have more wrong informations. James Pettifer knows Albania very well and visited all the country.