I'd go back to Albania

Seven days later, with the suitcase still not fully unpacked, the question on my mind wasn't whether Albania had been worth it. I'd already known that since day two. The real question was how long this destination would take to stop being a secret.

It's a country that still feels authentic, without the overcrowding of other Mediterranean beach destinations I already knew. We came back talking about Vlore, about the Ionian islands further north, about everything we left out of this 7-day route — the classic "next time" conversation you have as soon as you land back home.

A single trip gives you the energy of a capital in full transformation, the history of a coastal city with views of another country, and water I still find hard to believe was inside Europe.

What stuck with me most, more than any particular beach no matter how beautiful, was the feeling that money went so much further than we're used to in any other European beach destination — without that meaning giving anything up, not the food, not the accommodation, not the plans.

If you ask me whether Albania is a "once in a lifetime" destination or one you go back to, my answer after this trip is clear: it's the second kind, without a doubt. And I suspect that, in a few years, a lot more people will be saying exactly what I'm saying now.