The Flamingo Revolution: Is Albania Safe to Visit Right Now?
Way back in the noughties, before Albania was even a dot on the world’s tourism map, I spent a couple of years living in Vlorë with my wife and two (then) young children. There were a couple of other international families that we were working with there at the same time. Summer days were long; the electricity and water would generally come on around five in the morning and grace us with their presence for a couple of hours before disappearing until the early evening (note for people thinking of travelling here; it’s very different now!!).
Therefore, we did what any sane family would do at those times, with the temperature gauge always in the upper twenties and low thirties, and spent the days on the beach.
Our beach of choice was Dalan Beach. A natural crescent shape, sandy, and the sea took a long time to deepen – perfect when you had a four and two-year-old running around. The best part? It was remote. I mean deserted. You could only access it by a sturdy vehicle, and there were no bars, restaurants, or cafés for miles.
So we would load up our Land Rover Discovery and bumble along the seven or eight mile track for the better part of an hour to get there, spending the day together; three families, half a dozen kids, and literally not another soul. When we arrived, we would plonk two five-litre water bottles on the roof of the car, where they would warm all day – so that come home time, we’d shower the kids off, pop them in their pyjamas, and they would fall asleep on the bumble home.
Honestly, it was bliss. As close to heaven as you could wish for.
A Place I Thought Was Our Secret
Dalan Beach sits within an area known as Narta Lagoon. A vast, extraordinarily beautiful natural wetland that is home to the Zvernec Monastery, a medieval island monastery built sometime in the 13th or 14th century and reached by a wooden causeway across the lagoon. The wider area forms part of the Vjosa-Narta Protected Landscape and the Vjosa National Park, one of the last wild river systems in Europe, and is a haven for migratory birds, flamingoes, and seals. It is, in every sense of the word, an environmental paradise.
Back in those early 2000s, it felt like our private corner of the world. Unknown, unhurried, and utterly unspoilt.
Scroll forward twenty-plus years and you can imagine my surprise when this beautiful, quiet, remote place has been thrust into the international spotlight.
What Is the Flamingo Revolution?
The protests now sweeping Albania, and making international headlines, centre on alleged plans by the Albanian government to sell an area that includes Narta Lagoon to international developers, in a project reportedly linked to Jared Kushner, a prominent US businessman and investor. The proposals, if true, would see large-scale development in an area that is not only a protected natural habitat but a place of genuine cultural, historical, and environmental significance.
The Albanian public’s response has been immediate, passionate, and, in the most Albanian way imaginable, beautiful.
The protests have been named the Flamingo Revolution, and their symbol says everything about their character. Rather than the usual paraphernalia of angry marches, demonstrators have taken to the streets of Tirana and other cities carrying giant inflatable flamingoes and cardboard cutout birds. Families, children, grandparents, students; people from every walk of Albanian life, united by a single message: Albania, and its natural beauty and wildlife, is not for sale.
At the time of writing, the protests have extended beyond Tirana to Vlorë, other Albanian cities, and even to London. Prime Minister Edi Rama has found himself at the centre of a genuine groundswell of public feeling.
It is, by any measure, a remarkable moment in Albania’s young democratic story.
But Is It Safe to Travel to Albania Right Now?
This is the question we’ve been asked by a number of our travellers over recent days The answer is unequivocal is yes.
Here’s why.
The protests are geographically focused. Demonstrations have been centred on the governmental buildings in Tirana – a specific and contained area of the capital. They are not spreading through the city at large, and the tourist areas, restaurants, hotels, and attractions that visitors enjoy are operating entirely normally.
They are not violent and show no signs of becoming so. These are not the kind of protests that carry an undertone of menace. You will see families pushing prams. You will see children holding flamingo cutouts. The atmosphere is one of civic passion, not aggression. Albania has a long tradition of peaceful public demonstration, and this is very much in that spirit.
They are not politically or ideologically divisive in the usual sense. This is not a protest that has split Albanian society. Quite the opposite. It has united it. People of all backgrounds and political persuasions have come together around a shared love of their country and its natural heritage. That is a very different thing from the kind of unrest that creates risk for visitors.
The rest of Albania is entirely unaffected. Berat, Gjirokastër, the Albanian Alps, the Ionian Riviera, Shkodër, Përmet. The destinations that make up the heart of any Albania holiday are going about their business entirely normally. The country is open, welcoming, and as extraordinary as ever.
A Voice From the Ground
We asked Suzi Amiti, a resident of Tirana who has been following the protests closely, to share her perspective:
“As a resident in Tirana, I can confirm the protests are actually peaceful and people have been showing up each night with children or elderly grandparents. That’s the atmosphere – we are seeing families stand up for their land and for a better government. There has been absolutely no violent behaviour, and at the end of each evening, protesters have been taking garbage bags to clear the streets of any plastic water bottles left behind.
So for any tourists coming, there is nothing to be wary of – if anything, you may get to witness a time in history where the power of the people make a change. Welcome along!”
– Suzi Amiti, Tirana resident
That last detail, protesters returning at the end of each evening with bin bags to clean the streets, tells you more about the spirit of these demonstrations than any news report could.
What This Moment Says About Albania
I want to say something that goes beyond the immediate question of safety because I think this moment actually reveals something important and rather wonderful about the country.
The Flamingo Revolution is, at its heart, a love letter from the Albanian people to their own land. A country that was closed to the outside world for nearly half a century, that has worked enormously hard to build a modern, open, democratic society, is now standing up and saying: we know what we have, and it is precious, and it is not for sale.
That is not the action of an unsafe country. That is the action of a country with a deep and genuine soul.
Albania has always been a place that surprises people. It surprised me when I first went there in 1993. It surprised me every day I lived there. And it surprises every single traveller we send there today. The flamingoes of Narta Lagoon, the real ones, who have no idea they’ve become the symbol of a revolution, are still there, wading through the shallows of a lagoon that, for now at least, remains exactly as nature intended.
I rather hope it stays that way.
If you’ve been thinking about visiting Albania, whether for the first time or returning, please don’t let the headlines put you off. If anything, this is a moment to visit a country that is showing the world exactly what it’s made of.
We’re here to help you plan a trip that takes in the very best of Albania. Its history, its food, its landscapes, and yes, its extraordinary coastline. And if you’d like to visit Narta Lagoon and the Zvernec Monastery yourself… well, we know the area rather well.
📞 0203 822 0299 ✉️ info@experiencealbania.co.uk 🌍 www.experiencealbania.co.uk
