Standing on a vista overlooking Budva, Montenegro, Lorena Knapp (in the middle with blue top) poses with her cycling group from Cycling Albania on their “Balkan Express” trip. (Photo courtesy Lorena Knapp)
How do you choose your next vacation spot?
Some return to the same place every year in Hawaii, Palm Springs or Mexico. Those with infants or toddlers often head to see family, especially around Christmas or Thanksgiving. Still others have a group they love to cruise with to different seas or oceans.
But that’s not how Lorena Knapp maps out her vacations.
An adventurer by nature, Knapp flies helicopters around Southcentral Alaska for a living.
Even though she loves the outdoors all year in Alaska, she confessed she seeks “somewhere warmish” when she plans a holiday.
Recently, Knapp dodged the breakup season by traveling in April to Slovenia. Plus, she just returned from a two-week journey to Albania.
Both of these areas are off the well-trodden tourist path in Europe. That was part of the allure when Knapp started planning her unique journey.
Slovenia is at the northern edge of what used to be Yugoslavia. Italy lies to the west. Austria shares the northern border. Hungary is to the east and Croatia is to the south.
Bicycling is Knapp’s mode-of-choice for exploring a new destination. “I love cycling trips,” she said. “It’s a great way to see the country. Plus, exercise!”
Part of the research in advance of her trip was to find the right tour.
“I like to book directly with an operator that’s in-country,” said Knapp.
She settled on the Helia Travel Agency, which specializes in cycling and walking holidays.
“They were great to work with,” said Knapp. “We emailed back and forth with suggestions on what to see and do.”
Although Helia offers traditional group bike tours, Knapp opted to ride by herself, guided by an app on her phone with turn-by-turn instructions.
“There were a couple of times where I had to turn around after missing a turn,” she said. “But the instructions were pretty good.”
As part of Knapp’s independent tour, Helia pre-booked the hotels and provided luggage transfers each day.
Lorena Knapp stops for a selfie on her self-guided bike tour of Slovenia. She said the bikes are in good shape and prepared for the gravel roads through the vineyards. (Photo Lorena Knapp)
Helia’s base price for the nine-day package is around 1,500 euros ($1,750).
“The extras, including a few extra days and the single supplement for the hotel came out to about 300 euros ($350),” said Knapp.
Breakfast was included in each of the small hotels where she stayed.
Although Knapp rented a regular bike for her trip, e-bikes are available for an additional charge.
“Even though I rode by myself, I followed the directions they provided to the hotel in the next town,” she said. “I averaged 35-40 miles per day.”
One of the tourist highlights in Slovenia is Lake Bled, a beautiful mountain lake with an island in the middle. It’s about a 90-minute drive from the international airport in the capital city of Ljubljana.
“I booked an extra day at the beginning to get over jet lag,” said Knapp. “Then I followed their recommendation to take their van to the summit of the first pass to start my tour.”
Even though the van ride gave her a head start, the second day was just as challenging.
“It was 2.5 hours of up, up, up,” said Knapp. “But then there was a beautiful downhill stretch. And the bikes were in great shape.”
In addition to the great scenery, the fresh air and the exercise on the bikes, Knapp loved the delicious food she discovered along the way. “The blueberry desserts were delicious and the goulash was good,” she said. She went on to describe the dumplings which are sort of a national dish. Sometimes they’re served with mushroom sauce, with walnut filling — or even cottage cheese.
Knapp’s adventure in Slovenia started at Lake Bled and ended in the Slovenian port town of Piran. Slovenia only has a few miles of coastline, which is sandwiched between Trieste, Italy on the north and Croatia on the south. Knapp ended up taking a taxi back to the airport for her trip back home.
While she was there, though, she learned about an operator who arranged for bike trips in Albania, about 600 miles south along the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Albania is just north of Greece.
In between helicopter trips and summertime adventures, Knapp started doing her research about Albania. The country only recently started welcoming tourists, in 2020.
Knapp settled on an itinerary with Cycle Albania.
As she did in Slovenia, Knapp budgeted an extra day at the beginning of her trip to get over jet lag. “I took a cooking class in Tirane, Albania’s capital, and also went on a walking tour which included the Communist Museum,” she said. “We talked politics quite a bit.”
Unlike her self-guided independent tour in Slovenia, Knapp opted for a more traditional group tour with some extra support. When it comes to tourism-related infrastructure, Knapp felt “Slovenia’s a little more on the radar for travelers.”
Overall, Knapp felt the people in Albania were “super-friendly, kind and generous.”
There were two available bike tours. The first was a weeklong UNESCO Tour of southern Albania.
Knapp wanted a tour that was a little more challenging, so she opted for the “Balkan Express.” This 15-day tour included 11 days of cycling, with more than 26,000 feet of elevation gain on the 392-mile route.
“In Slovenia, you can be in good shape and do the tour,” said Knapp. “In Albania, you need to be a cyclist!”
Knapp said there were nine cyclists in the group, including her and four others who opted for the regular bikes. The rest chose e-bikes for the tour.
E-bikes are great equalizers between die-hard cyclists and hobbyists!
“We had one guide on the bikes with us and one driver in the van with spare bikes,” said Knapp.
In addition to cycling through Albania, the tour included stops in North Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro.
Knapp’s trip also included something unusual: a snowstorm. The group had to modify their itinerary and lose some altitude to accommodate winter’s early arrival.
After riding with the group for a couple of weeks, Knapp discovered several had cycled in many other parts of the world.
“Some in the group had cycled in Madagascar, in Colombia, in Korea and Taiwan,” she said. “Cuba is supposed to have some great biking.”
The cost for Knapp’s 15-day “Balkan Express” bike tour was about 2,200 euros ($2,560), plus her single supplement, a bike rental, some meals and tips.
After her trip back to Alaska, Knapp is pleased with her choice to pick in-country operators for her journeys.
“Find the local people,” she said. “It’s good for them.”
And it was good for her, too, as she starts planning her next bicycle adventure!