Logo Outdoor Albania
Skanderbeg
Hiking scenic southern Albania
Sea-kayaking with Outdoor Albania

Outdoor Albania is a leading travel operator with 25 years of experience based in Tirana, Albania. We offer group tours with set departure dates, Tailormade tours and Private tours in Albania and its surrounding counties, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece and Bosnia. Our client base is both independent travelers and trade partners.

Our specialties include one-day and multi-day hiking tours and heritage tours. Our tours are focused on both Albanian nature and culture. We have also established ourselves as an authority for outdoor adventure activities in Albania such as cycling, sea-kayaking, rafting, snowshoeing and canyoning.

Our tours are itinerary based, nature friendly tours, with a combination of culture – in other words, we show you around the countries with stops at several different destinations along the way so that you can see, learn and enjoy as much as possible. We don’t run package holidays with a single beach resort and we do not sell flight tickets either.

What transport do we use?
To support sustainable tourism we have decided to work with local transport providers that own the vehicles. We have a reliable network of taxis, mini buses and private coaches, and we work closely with several car rental companies. In addition Outdoor Albania owns Toyota Land Cruisers (8+1) for small groups and off road experiences.

Our logistic experts make it possible to access even the most remote corners of the country at any time of the year. Horse or mule carriage support is also provided in tours away from roads, such as multi-day trekking and mountaineering.

Outdoor Albania Tour Leaders 
All our tour-leaders are fully trained and have a good level of English, Spanish, French and German and are experienced in dealing with western travelers.
Our tour leaders are carefully selected and we value them very highly as we know how important a good tour leader is to the holiday experience of your clients. We are very pleased that most of our tour leaders have been working with us for many years.

Our choice of accommodation
During many years of operating we have established a trustworthy cooperation with small and bigger sized accommodation providers all around the country.
We do our best to use accommodation which reflects the local area and the famous Albanian hospitality. The hotels we use are comparable with European bed and breakfasts or 2/3 star hotels. In addition we can organize a stay in more luxurious accommodations when/if requested.

If you book a place on a tour joining a small-group departure, or as a private departure, then we will let you know the hotels to be used for your holiday a couple of weeks before you leave. If you have specific requests for particular hotels, then please request a tailor-made tour.

How it all began

OUTDOOR ALBANIA

It is 1991, communism has just ended and Albania opens its borders. The first curious tourists enter a country that has kept its beauty to it self for many years. A language quite unlike any other, limited infrastructure and little information about where to go made Albania in to a destination for the adventurists and pioneers pur sang.

A pioneer and adventurist on the Albanian side was Mr. Illir Mati, an electronics engineer retired from fixing submarine sonars for the Albanian Navy. Curious to meet people from other countries and with pride for his country he started organizing “Journeys in the Albanian Nature and Culture.”  

Together with his old Ford Transit, lovingly nicknamed ‘The Periscope’, Illir allowed trekkers, climbers, skiers, kayakers, rafters, journalists, archaeologists, anthropologists, geologists and other brave hearts to discover this new opened country.

This all was done with great hospitality and a big heart, which gave tourists the feeling as if they were on the road with a personal friend.
22 August 1991, a big date in the history of Outdoor Albania. Illir Mati registered the company, at that time still called “Aulona SUB TOURS”, at the county of Vlorë. Laying the foundation for what later would be renamed into Outdoor Albania. In the years that followed family members, friends and many other travel enthusiasts got involved and together they experienced growth, success and difficult times, while always keeping their travelling spirit alive.

Inspired by his father, Gent Mati also got ‘bitten by the travel bug’. After working with his father, while finishing his study, Gent meets kayakers from Italy. They invite him to come to Italy and for several summers to follow Gent works on the Italian rivers as an instructor. After a few summers Gent decides to expand his borders and travels the world as a safety kayaker.

Eventually in 2003, Gent meets Laura Payne his Dutch partner in business and life and together they decided to go continue trail-blazing the Albanian tourism industry. The business expended and grew in to what Outdoor Albania now still stands for; a tour operator specialized in cultural round trips and active tours bringing travellers the pure and authentic Albania and its neighbouring countries.

Certificate Outdoor Albania Self-guided Outdoor Albania cultural discovery walking hiking swimming cycling trekking rafting snowshoeing river hiking tours holidays travel family kayak ski yoga trekking day trip Western Balkans Peaks of the travel
Team history Self-guided Outdoor Albania cultural discovery walking hiking swimming cycling trekking rafting snowshoeing river hiking tours holidays travel family kayak ski yoga trekking day trip Western Balkans Peaks of the travel
Biking Self-guided Outdoor Albania cultural discovery walking hiking swimming cycling trekking rafting snowshoeing river hiking tours holidays travel family kayak ski yoga trekking day trip Western Balkans Peaks of the travel