Wild rivers, empty beaches, mountain villages and castles you can climb on — arranged for one family at a time, on your dates, at your pace. Take our ready-made week on the Vjosa, or tell us where you’d rather go.
Not four other families on a fixed departure. Your own group, your own guide, your own dates.
On the Vjosa week, Përmet is home for half the trip — unpack once and let the days come to you.
Best suited to ages seven and up. Younger or older, tell us and we shape the days around them.
Guide, transport, family rooms, most meals, safety kit, and a number in Tirana that answers.
Most family holidays in Europe now mean queueing with everyone else’s family. Albania doesn’t.
The beaches aren’t full, the ruins aren’t roped off, and the people who run the guesthouses will make a fuss of your children in a way that has largely disappeared further west. And the Vjosa is the sort of thing children remember for good: the last big wild river in Europe, never dammed, protected end to end as a national park. Rafting it is exciting rather than frightening — and it is a very short walk from the raft to a thermal spring where everyone sits in hot water arguing about who was bravest.
Europe's last wild river, on the stretches chosen for families rather than adrenaline.
A morning in the saddle for everyone, complete beginners included.
Hot water in the river at Bënja — the reward after a day on the raft, and the bit nobody wants to leave.
One itinerary we’ve built and run enough times to know it works: eight days on the Vjosa, Europe’s last wild river, with four nights in one place so nobody spends the holiday packing.
Albania is small enough to cross in a day and varied enough that a fortnight barely covers it. Families come for the coast, for the mountains, for the lakes, or for a mixture — and because every trip we run is built for one family at a time, the shape is yours to choose.
Warm, calm, shallow water and coves reached on foot or by boat. The easiest week of all with small children, and the usual add-on to any other trip.
Valbona and Tropojë for older children — short walks between guesthouses, a ferry across Koman Lake, and farmyards full of animals at either end.
Ohrid, Prespa and Shkodra: kayaks, boat trips, birdlife and swimming, with towns small enough to let children off the leash a little.
Berat, Gjirokastra, Kruja and Rozafa — real castles with walls to walk and no ropes keeping you off them. History in doses children can take.
A week in the mountains and a week on the coast. Castles for the one who reads and rafting for the one who doesn’t. Tell us who’s coming and we’ll draw it — free, within a week.
The big operators pool four or five families onto set dates. That works — until your children don’t click with the others, or the only departure falls in the week you can’t travel.
We price this trip from two travellers upward. It runs for your family alone, on the dates your school holidays actually allow, at whatever pace your youngest sets. And if you’d like to travel with another family you know, bring them — the price per person falls as the group grows.
Designed around children of about seven to fourteen. Older teenagers do well too; for younger children we simply shorten the active days and add more river and pool.
No long walks and no long drives. Most days involve water, and there is time to do nothing at all.
Licensed river guides, buoyancy aids for everyone, and sections chosen for the family in front of them rather than for the photographs.
Family rooms or adjoining rooms wherever the guesthouse allows, and four consecutive nights in one bed in Përmet.
Plenty of it, generously served, and always something plain for the child who isn't ready for byrek yet.
Përmet has a wet-weather version of every day, and thermal springs are better in the rain anyway.
An afternoon in a village kitchen learning to make what the family eats: pastry rolled to the width of the table, vegetables from the garden behind the house, and something sweet with pomegranate on top. Children who claim to hate cooking have been known to argue over the rolling pin, and everybody eats what they made.
Yes — that is the point of this trip. It runs for your family alone, on the dates your school holidays actually allow, rather than on a departure calendar set a year in advance.
Please do. The price per person falls as the group grows, so travelling with friends makes the trip cheaper for everyone.
The Vjosa has gentle and lively stretches, and we use the gentle ones with families. Licensed guides, buoyancy aids for everyone, and a briefing before anyone gets in a boat.
Short. The trip is built around one long base in Përmet precisely so that nobody spends their holiday in a minibus.
Yes, and remarkably welcoming — children are made a fuss of here in a way that has largely disappeared further west. Our team is on the ground throughout.
Easily. A few nights on the Ionian at the end is the most common addition, and we'll arrange it as part of the same trip.
We’ll build the week around them — and we’ll say honestly if a different shape of trip would suit your family better.
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