Kruje Camping

There’s a lot of Albanian pride in Krujë – this is the birthplace of national hero Skanderbeg, after all, and one of the first things you come across in town is likely to be is his huge sword-wielding statue. Beyond that are the ruins of the castle, where you can take a tour or wander through the gardens. The gorgeous views from here are particularly stunning around sunset. Within the castle walls are a couple of museums: the Skanderbeg Museum (worth a visit to see more huge statues and murals) and the excellent National Ethnographic Museum, set up inside a 19th-century Ottoman house. If you like what you see, head out to the Ottoman-style Old Bazaar to pick up traditional crafts and other pretty bits and bobs. Away from the town, it’s around a half-hour drive to the 2,000-hectare Shtam Pass National Park for a day of hiking, or an hour to the Bovilla reservoir for lakeside walks and some fab corners for rock climbing. Heading in the other direction, it’s about 45 minutes to the Adriatic coastline.