"Beautiful beaches, weddings and fireworks & Maya" Top 5 Page for this destination Vlore by budapest8

Vlore Travel Guide: 57 reviews and 152 photos

view from our hotel balcony (Hotel Bologna)

2 days and nights in Vlora before hitting Tirane

MORE COMING SOON
WATCH MY VLORA VIDS!
You must listen to local artists Maya or
Juli Baka.....
We became instant fans after hearing the music
on Radio Top Hits...or was it Radio Vlore..??

Vlore is the 2nd largest port in Albania after Durres
and takes it's name from Greek and means 'valley'.
It has a population of 125,000 but suspect maybe more
with tourists and the university housing many students.
It is one of the oldest cities in Europe dating back to
6th Century BC. But you wouldn't guess that walking down
the main street, I couldn't spot a single building older
than me...
In 1851 it suffered severely from an earthquake.
Ismail Qemali declared Albania's independence in
Vlorë on November 28, 1912, during the First Balkan War.
The city became Albania's first capital but was invaded by
Italy in 1914 and occupied until 1920. Italy again invaded
Vlorë in 1939, following which Nazi Germany occupied
the city until 1944. The biggest outside influence is probably
still Italy with car,passenger and Cargo ships travelling between
Brindisi and other Italian ports, but even at the beginning of September
I never heard or saw any Italians, but did see the ferries from
our hotel balcony. Probably with hoards of Immigrant Albanian
workers and refugees, Italians have got some wrong ideas about
the land that the people who have done the dirty and hard jobs
for them for many decades.

Foreign powers come and go

view from our hotel balcony (Hotel Bologna)

During World War II, the island of Sazan in Bay of Vlorë became the site of a German and Italian submarine base and naval installations; these were heavily bombed by the Allies.

After WWII, under communism, the port was leased to the Soviet Union as a submarine base, and played an important part in the conflict between Enver Hoxha and Khrushchev in 1960-1961, as the Soviet Union had made considerable investments in the naval facilities and objected strongly to the loss of them as a consequence of Albania denouncing the USSR as 'revisionist' and taking the Chinese side in the split in the world communist movement. The Soviet Union threatened to occupy Vlora with Soviet troops in April 1961, and cut off all Soviet economic, military and technical aid to Albania. The threat was not carried out, as a result of the simultaneous development of the Cuban missiles crisis, but Hoxha realized how vulnerable Albania was, and, after the USSR invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, he built the tens of thousands of ubiquitous concrete bunkers that still litter the entire Albanian landscape. Under Hoxha Vlorë was an important recruiting centre for the Sigurimi, the secret police.

the island of Sazan in Bay of Vlorë now houses the Italian coast guard ...The Navy base 20 kms south of Vlora is a no go zone and not recommended to take pictures round that area..
Vlora was even at the centrew of the riots in 1997 which came after the collapse of the dodgy pyramid schemes that caused a near civil war and the Brits to flee the country in that famous footage of the British Embassador in a Bentley or a Rolls with mini union jack flags flapping on the front of the car leading a convoy of cars from Tirane to the beach head in Durres waiting to be rescued by the Italian Navy...

view from our hotel balcony (Hotel Bologna)

Pros and Cons

Pros:good internet connex, new buildings everywhere, clean beaches, boom town on the beach, Maya
Cons:water and electric cuts in budget places, still undeveloped full possibilities, little tourist info.
In a nutshell:We showed no passports or were asked in advance for money for our room, just an honour system. DON'T ABUSE IT those who come after us!

Last visit to Vlore: Sep 2008
Intro Updated Oct 10, 2008
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Reviews (7)

Dancing to Maya and Juli Baka Nightlife (3)

Although we had eaten a huge meal at our hotel, my companion was in the mood for anything, so she ordered a huge pizza,... more travel advice

Dancing to Juli Baka Nightlife (3)

Next destination was to find one of the discos supposed to be open after mid night on that lovely Saturday night. A... more travel advice

Pashaliman Bay with Sazan Island - Vlore

Drive down the coast to Orikum Off The Beaten Path (2)

In Orikum are ruins of an antient town, located in the southwest Albania, south of Vlorë . The town was built in the... more travel advice

Drive down the coast to Orikum Off The Beaten Path (2)

We rented a taxi for a few hours and made the trip south in a brand spanking new Merc with A/C and although I usually... more travel advice

Hotels (2)
See All Best view of Vlora port and beach

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Travelogues (1)

Written Sep 23, 2008

8 photos

Vlora September 2008

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Comments (4)

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HORSCHECK Oct 24, 2010 at 2:52 AM

Tim, fantastic little page with a gorgeous and detailed story in the "Nightlife" section. After Shkoder we will sooner or later definitely explore more of lovely Albania.
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kyoub Feb 8, 2009 at 5:03 AM

Super view from your hotel. Great info on history.
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VeronicaG Oct 7, 2008 at 7:20 PM

That was some story!
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JLBG Sep 27, 2008 at 1:34 PM

Wow, what an adventure !