Hotel Facilities: Family run

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Bar Restorant Guesthouse Jezerca

Our pick for nicest guesthouse in Valbona Center. Big, old and authentic, but with new bathrooms and beds. The restaurant is small and basic, but set back next to a little stream. Very pretty.  Host Kelmend is also very active in the community, working to give locals a voice with government.

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Guesthouse Adenis

Guesthouse Adenis is run by a very friendly and charming family. The younger members of the family all speak English.  Rooms are comfortable & clean . Your host Adenis, who is all of 18 years old, has been working with tourists since he was oooh, maybe 7 years old and is now an experienced mountain […]

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Ademi Guesthouse

Adem and Faridja – who to my mind are a bit like the Albanian George Burns & Gracie Allen – welcome you to their traditional highland home. The house has 3 shared rooms with each 5 beds, and one luxurious private room with 1 double bed and 1 single bed in a newly made building, […]

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Guesthouse Lindi

Guesthouse Lindi is a dream of another life, set on a beautiful shaded property in the middle of Gjelaj, with nice green lawns, outdoor seating and dozens of beehives.  Intelligent and charming young summer hostess Aurela speaks good English (and some Spanish and Italian), and lives with the family during high season. She can guide […]

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Danjel’s Guesthouse

Danjel’s family has a nice old house in the Gjelaj.  Most of the family speaks only Albanian, but young Danjel speaks some English & can also serve as a guide. He also has two horses, mostly working to carry luggage over the Theth pass. The family recently invested in some renovations of the guestrooms. Open […]

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Guesthouse Emanuel

Guesthouse Emanuel is run by a lovely family, with two helpful young teenagers that take care of the English communication. They have two simple rooms, one with 2 single beds and a double, and the other with 4 single beds.  The house is solar powered (which is a good thing, given the local government’s tendency […]

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Guesthouse Fatmir

Guesthouse Fatmir (Gjeto Frani) is the warm public center of the tiny village of Gjelaj.  Son Fatimir is a true artist, and built the most amazing café, in which every detail is clever and beautiful, and of course hand-made.  The community gathers here, and waits for tourists on route to the Valbona waterfall, so there’s […]

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Guesthouse Demi Isufi

Lovely old couple. The couple does not speak English, but they do have one relative (Ernesto) in Bajram Curri, who is sometimes around and may function as your translator…but maybe you should not bother with English in this very rustic Northern Albanian mountain house. It has two rooms with 4 single beds. Oh, and you […]

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Hostel House Kukaj

Another on our short list of “Best Places.”  A BEAUTIFUL old 150-year old house, 20 minutes’ hike above the valley bottom on the Maja e Rosit Path (although 4×4 transport is also available to get there), with tasteful modern renovations inside and good bathrooms.  In a place where most people don’t really like animals, this family […]

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Stani i Arif Kadris

Several years ago I was sitting in Arif Kadri’s new ‘stan’ (shepherd’s summer house), which at the time was just a one-room stone hut they built mostly “for fun” (since back then they only used the farm in May and September).  I looked around and asked the obvious question: “Would you let tourists come and […]

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