Tirana & beyond in the north

Tirana, we know, is the only airport for Albania , and as it was our first time, we were excited yet nervous as to what to expect , will we or won't we enjoy it, especially with 3 children We used 2 tour guides during our 2 days here, we stayed 1 night at the wonderful Mondial Hotel. We got the Luna bus from the airport and it is €4 each person. Where you get off is 2mins from Skanderbeg Square. We ate lunch in the Smokehouse & Grill and it was fantastic value, definitely look them up on instagram. There you can see pictures of the meat platters At 4pm, we took the Tirana Free walking tour, meeting each day by the Opera steps to the left hand side facing it. We had Abour as our guide. the tour is not strictly free, but to pay what you can, it is nice as it is done by locals. Once the tour was finished just after 6pm , we were close to the Sky tower bar, and decided to go in here before going somewhere for dinner. The Sky bar, on the 18th Floor, is a 1st come 1st served place , no reservations, you can pick any seat and slowly it actually turns so you get views 360° ! So everyone gets to enjoy the view. You can bring children up till any time , and the only thing not accepted is sports clothes and flip flops. You can enjoy cocktails, beers, coffee, juices , water, and some small food plates. If you would like to eat in the restaurant this is just below the Sky bar. After the skybar , the children wanted to go into the park on route back towards restaurants for dinner. there are fountains with lights and the play park was quite large various a pirate ship, wooden climbing area, slides , smaller kids area and swings. It is nice to see the city lit up of an evening too so definitely enjoy taking it all in. The hotel Mondial we had a family suite which had a entry hall and 1 bedroom to the left with twin beds , then a seperate bedroom to the right which has a double sofa bed and a king-size bed. Both rooms had their own seperate balconies too which were the length of the rooms. This hotel is a good standard 4* and the rooms were such a good size too. On the second day we had a buffet breakfast in the hotel, which was nice, usual options expected such as hot and cold options , cereals etc , and various juices. We were picked up by our private guide for the day and I'm so please I organised our tour with Rexhino. He was an absolute credit to us all day. Polite , knowledgeable and a true local. He was fantastic with us all, especially being a family group of 5. We explored the bridges , followed the river , had lunch by the dam with a gorgeous view which you can see, and extremely reasonable and friendly customs, along with delicious food! Try the local bread and cheese you will not regret it! plus a local village salad, great meat & also a fish 🐟 caught from the local lake ♡. From here we went to Kruje , visited the castle and the bazaar. After this we stopped at a hotel around 15mins away from the airport to see the sunsetting , grab a drink and our youngest played in the children park which is also here. The place was called Nord Park. We were then dropped off back to the airport. all in all we had a tour from 8am till 6pm and were treated with great respect , and felt safe at every point . Feel free to check out more on my instagram @ mummyessextravelagent #travel #travel #travel #tirana #citybreak #familytravel #myitinerary #travellingdreams #mummyessextravelagent #citydaytours