Хороший отдых в Албании Nice holiday in Albania

I travel a lot and often (usually 5-6 times a year, I have been to 42 countries of the world, with the exception of 2020). The desire to make a review in this case about the hotel Regina City 4 * Vlore arose in general for the first time. Visited the hotel from July 27 to August 03.2020 on the FB system. A group of four people. Perhaps the review will be useful to someone, as the experience of visiting Albania. For the flight, we used the services of the tour operator Joinup. I had to change the previously purchased (in January) tour from Italy to Albania. I learned about the possibility of this tour to the hotel on the Join up website. Similar information is available on the website of the meeting company in Albania Aler Travel.
When choosing a hotel, I always use the data of tour operators' websites, reviews of tourists from various sources. I look through all possible photos, evaluate the tour taking into account the informational ratings of the hotel. I always approach this issue very responsibly, I don’t want to let down not only myself, but also other accompanying persons. I think that the choice of the hotel itself and its position (on the map) is at least 70% of the organization and success of your holiday and its results.
The Sky Up flight (used the services of this carrier 8-10 times before) for the first time passed in both directions without delays in departure, even with a decrease of 15 minutes in the declared flight time. The meeting party of Aler Travel, girls from Ukraine and Belarus, are very pleasant and conducted cognitive programs in both directions of the transfer. The claimed transfer time of 4 hours from Tirana Airport to Vlore hotels was actually even less, with a stopover of 15 minutes, it took no more than 2 hours and 30 minutes, after the flight this is very important.

Now about the hotel there were some inaccuracies in the description:
1. The hotel positions itself as the 1st line. Permissible. The beach of the hotel is not far, 150 meters, across the embankment of Vlora. But, the hotel has an L-shape, one side of it looks at the mountains, the opposite side from the sea, and the second one goes onto the road directed towards the sea perpendicularly. Another building of the same L-shape and similar configuration of 8 floors is attached to the hotel, but it is closer to the sea, overlooking the road and overlooking the sea itself.
2. The sites of two tour operators have data that all rooms are standard hotel, have safes and balconies. This is not true at all. For example, room 403 faces the courtyard, four walls can be seen from the window. Similarly, about 4 interior rooms of each floor (there are rooms on the following floors 2.4-7) do not have balconies, and the view of the inner (gray) courtyard will not please any tourist. There is only one safe in the hotel, only the manager who accepts your documents and money in a package has access to it. It does not provide you with any document. The safe does not have separate chambers and cells for individual storage, it is simply one and common. The guarantee of storage and return raised some doubts in me. It should also be noted that access to the safe and your documents will not always be available. When there is no responsible person, receptionists (who work around the clock) simply do not have one. It's not very convenient. I personally had to spend 6 hours of my rest time to move from room 403 to room 512 with a balcony and an additional 3 hours (until 23-00) they brought me to my room and secured an individual safe. In this part, the attitude of the Regina hotel chain towards tourists is not clear, is it really a problem to install safes in the rooms, the cost of which is 75-90 Euros, moreover, the site information will be brought into line.
Everything else in and out of the hotel was perfectly normal.

1. Beach. Adriatic sea, sand. Equipped with sunbeds and umbrellas, for hotel guests free of charge, for strangers 500 lek. When leaving the beach, there is a shower and the opportunity to rinse your feet from the sand. Water on the Internet indicated +24.5, in fact it was +26.5, which was very pleasing. About 150 m from the shore, the depth is no more than 1.5 meters, then it will be deeper. Many vacationers with children. As a rule, the sea is calm, there are a few waves and the water unfortunately loses its transparency. There is always a caretaker who keeps order and cleans the beach.
2. Nutrition. There isn't much of it, really, but it's all very tasty. Breakfast and dinner buffet. Lunch waiter service. Every day from Dorado or Sea Bass fish dishes. Pasta and pilaf with seafood. The meat stew is just amazing. Meat in the form of chops from the ham and ribs of pork has always been hard and not tasty. Similar cooking is in cafes near the hotel and even in the mountains, when we had lunch on an excursion.
3. Location of the hotel. The best for Vlora is not possible to imagine at all. Closer to the port part and the city center, the beaches are more dirty. And closer to the center, in general, there is no beach strip of sand, in the presence of a large number of hotels, it is not entirely clear where their own beaches are. Our hotel is located right on the embankment, the length of which is 5-6 km. If you walk along the promenade from the hotel to the left, you can get through the tunnel to the beaches of the Ionian Sea, about 2-2.5 km. At the moment, the embankment is being reconstructed and it is not possible to walk on foot, there are no sidewalks. Near the hotel there are many markets (all non-GMO), cafes and restaurants. Everywhere very tasty desserts, ice cream. The pricing policy of food products is the same as in Ukraine, imported alcoholic drinks (especially Italian ones) are even cheaper. Ready-made restaurant-type meals are even cheaper than in Ukraine. Examples: pasta with seafood 500-700 lek, beef steak 600-700 lek, salads (Greek style) 150-200 lek, Margherita pizza - 400 lek, beer 200 lek. Given the exchange rate of 1 dollar - 100 lek, 1 euro - 120 lek. It turns out very acceptable.
4. Administration, waiters and cleaning. Everyone in the hotel is very friendly and try to resolve any issue that has arisen. At the entrance to the hotel there is a kind of porter (youth) who welcomes and opens the doors. Everyone is always very grateful for tips. We left $ 1 for cleaning, not a single misunderstanding, everything is clean and tidy. In general, it is worth paying attention to the fact that the country has not yet been spoiled by tourists and everyone is very friendly.

5. Excursions from Aler Travel, those that were me:
First, the cost is 50 euros. Departure from the hotel. Stop for coffee. Stop at the observation deck, the opportunity to go down to the beach by parachute (+60 euros). Llagora beach (Ionian Sea, pebbles) for an hour and a half. The town of Dhermi and a visit to the Temple of the Fallen Angel. On the way back, the opportunity to buy sage honey 500 lek, local tea Male 100 lek, cold-pressed olive oil 1 liter 800 lek. And other. Lunch included in the price.
Second, the cost is 55 euros. Departure from the hotel to the port. On high-speed boats for 10-14 people a trip to the island of Sazan. Abandoned military base on the island. Beautiful views and landscapes. Visiting the Cave and the possibility of swimming in it (water +16). Transfer to the beach of the Calabourne peninsula. Lunch is taken with you. On the beach you can relax on the wild (free of charge on towels), or 1000 lek for an umbrella + 2 deck chairs. Beer is expensive 500 lek. Drive back to port and hotel.
These excursions were superbly accompanied by the guide Irena. The information is very informative, wise, a lot of useful tips and history, from ancient Rome to this day.
EPILOGUE: despite some misunderstanding during the check-in at the hotel, which were settled, I have no complaints at all about the hotel, the operators accompanying the tour, or the rest in Albania itself. Everything went great. I think to visit Albania again, perhaps more than once. I will even advise my friends, given this year's prices for Turkey, Croatia, Montenegro.