Mountain Dajti Hiking Tour from Tirana

My husband and I went to Albania for our honeymoon, and we definitely recommend this hike, and this tour guide (Eri)! First, Eri was amazing! We were actually staying in Golem instead of Tirana, and he drove the extra hour or so each way to get us without any complaints or requests for additional fees. He spoke English well and was very knowledgeable. If he didn't know the answer to one of our questions, he even made a note to look it up later (if we were on a part of the hike without cell service). He was also very personable (he was our favorite guide of the trip!), and we would have loved to have an opportunity to do more tours with him, but unfortunately we had already planned out our trip by the time we did the hike. I also REALLY appreciated his professionalism (while being friendly!). We came during the covid-19 pandemic, and Albanians generally did not seem to be taking it seriously (we saw almost no masks being worn, and most masks that people did wear weren't covering their noses!), which was a bit anxiety-inducing for me. Many of our other tour guides didn't wear masks (and a different tour guide even ate off our plates during our food tour, which would have bothered me even if there was no pandemic!). But this tour guide was completely professional, following our leads completely on the level of protection we wanted to have (without even asking) to make sure that we felt comfortable. If we put our masks on (e.g., in the car) he would notice and immediately put his on, too (covering his nose and everything!), and when we felt comfortable taking ours off (e.g., when outside hiking), then he would take his off, too. He made us feel comfortable and safe during a pandemic in a way that NO ONE else in Albania did, so I feel confident that anyone would feel comfortable and safe with this guide, whatever the circumstances. Second, we really recommend this excursion! The cable car was surprisingly cool! It was much longer and higher than any other I had ever been on, and I would definitely recommend it. The hike itself was more rigorous (but still doable) than we had expected, with pretty steep hills, but Eri was great, accurately telling us what to expect, and collecting appropriate walking sticks at the base to help us with the steep parts. The views were stunning, and absolutely worth the hike (which, to be clear, was also fun)! Oh, and Eri even took great photos of us for us! Third, he took us to Bunkart. I was personally expecting this to be an art gallery that happened to be inside a bunker, as a fun, unrelated, re-purposing, but it was really more of a museum, just telling the history of the bunkers/Albania (sometimes in a slightly artistic way). I wasn't that into this (and would have preferred more traditional art), but my husband enjoyed it, and he really enjoyed the explanations and knowledge from Eri. We definitely recommend this tour, and any other tour you might do with this tour guide.