Albania

Albania sits along the Adriatic and Ionian coasts, wedged between Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Greece. The beaches around Ksamil and Dhërmi rival anything in Croatia or Italy, but at a fraction of the price and crowds, at least for now—tourism has grown fast in the past decade, so timing your visit outside July and August helps.

Tirana, the capital, mixes Ottoman-era mosques, Italian fascist architecture from the 1930s, and Communist-era apartment blocks painted in bright colors under former mayor Edi Rama. The Bunk'Art museums, built into old Cold War bunkers, explain the isolationist paranoia of Enver Hoxha's four-decade dictatorship, which left the country with over 170,000 concrete bunkers scattered across the landscape.

Inland, the Albanian Alps around Theth and Valbona offer hiking through villages still practicing traditions like the Kanun, a centuries-old code of customary law. Berat and Gjirokastër, both UNESCO sites, have Ottoman stone houses stacked up hillsides.

Food leans Mediterranean and Balkan: byrek pastries, grilled meats, fresh seafood, and local raki. English is spoken less outside cities, but people are direct and hospitable. Roads can be rough, and driving takes patience.