On the Albanian coast, the atmosphere is still summery as the end of the year approaches. At the Fllad hotel club, west of the capital, Tirana, you can swim in the Adriatic, and even if the evenings are cool, the pool bar serves unlimited mojitos and grenadine vodkas. “Before coming here, I knew nothing about this country”recognizes Nancy Mignon, 39, on vacation at Fllad with her partner and a couple of friends. “The travel agency told us: 'Albania is new, it's beautiful and it's cheap. So we tried”evokes this employee in a crèche, who lives near Charleroi, in Belgium.
The small group is pleasantly surprised, like all those met in this club, filled by the tour operator FRAM: the Mediterranean atmosphere, the beach, the visits to Tirana or to the historic villages of Gjirokastër and Berat… And the hotel all new, with its large rooms and sparkling tiles – even if its immediate surroundings, with multiple buildings under construction, are of little interest. “We launched two clubs this year in the country and we brought in 6,000 people: it exceeded all our expectations, book François Perrin, head of Albania at FRAM. We have just signed for a third for 2025.”
One of the reasons for this success is the prices offered, in this country which is one of the poorest in Europe. At Fllad, the clients, almost all French, had paid, for these All Saints' Day holidays, between 500 and 600 euros per week per person, for a full board stay, flight from France included. “It’s much cheaper than Greece or Croatia”notes Franck Legrain, 51, on vacation with his partner. “And it allowed us to discover a culture and a history that we had no idea about”, continues this commercial director in an SME, who lives in Gard.
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Other formulas prove to be just as low cost: Vanessa Lefranc, lamp designer from Fontenay-sous-Bois (Val-de-Marne), estimates that she spent “around 1,000 euros” (excluding flights) for her week here, at the end of October, for her and her children aged 16 and 19. In this country the size of Brittany, the family traveled in a rental car and stayed in a hotel or in rooms on a farm, reserved on the Booking or Airbnb platforms. A trip “ultra exotic” between beaches, lakes and mountains, that his teenagers have “loved”. “We always felt far from the crowds, except in certain sites, like the source of the Blue Eye”relate-t-elle. “We have the impression of discovering Albania at the right time, before the arrival of mass tourism”continues M. Legrain.
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