Day 5 - Transfer back to Tirana, VH Broadway Hotel and Smoke House Bar and Grill

After another breakfast at the Hotel Lubjana, we asked the hotel to call us a taxi and agreed a rate of 1000 Lek to the coach terminal, called “Terminali i Autobuzave te stacioni i trenit Durrės.” I note that the trips from central Durres / old town were 1500 Lek, and trips back to the beach were 1000 Lek. There is a straight route out from the beach towards Durres town, but on the way back the taxis have to take a roundabout route on the motorway so is a longer trip distance-wise, perhaps explaining the difference.

Like Tirana, the bus station is just an open parking lot, though no where near the size of the station in Tirana. We easily found our pink coach, and same procedure as heading out of Tirana, but the bags in the hold, get on the coach and pay after the coach has set off. Same price as the trip out – Lek 180.




The trip took about 45 minutes into Durres, and from there a taxi for 1500 Lek to our next hotel – the VH Broadway Hotel south of the river.

VH Broadway Hotel

Booked this hotel for two nights on Hotels.com, which came to £51.16 collected by Hotels.com and another €51.60 collected by the hotel on check-in, so a total of around £94.61. I say around, as the hotel wanted the locally collected part in cash.

The hotel itself is more rundown than the photos on the hotels.com suggest. The exterior of the hotel, including the deck out front that used to have bar and coffee maker is now rotting away and mostly unused. Never saw the colourfully lite up exterior as displayed on the website (though they still do have the glass elevator in operation). The interior is pretty dark, and breakfast wasn’t included in our rate.

There are also photos of a pool on the hotels.com website, and there is definitely not a pool at the hotel.

The hotel was clean, and the service from the cleaners was very good and responsive. Water in the bathroom was good with pressure and adjusting to our desired temperature, however the tropical rain spout didn’t have the face plate attached, so wasn’t useable – but there was the regular shower head was fine. The front desk staff was indifferent, though did cover off their obligations when asked.

Overall, I would not recommend the hotel. It was one of the least expensive I saw on the website, and I think you can get a nicer place for only a £10 or £20 more.


Beds


Desk and TV


Shower with missing face plate on the overhead shower head, though hand-held was good.


Bathroom


Balcony, though not much of a view other than the building across the street – was nice to sit and read there, though.







After checking in, we did a short wander around the area of the hotel, called “Blloku” or "The Block". Used to be a restricted residential area for the Albanian politburo during the communist era, but since has become a trendy area of shopping, restaurant and bars. I’ll cover it along with the other parts of Tirana we saw in the next entry.

Smoke House Bar and Grill

After traditional Albania for the first two days, and seafood for the next two days, we were after some good steak. Google Maps reviews gave a steak place called the Smoke House Bar and Grill. We wandered by earlier, and it looked a bit basic, but the reviews were very positive and the prices were high enough to suggest we should have good expectations.

It is a quirky place, the interior filled with knick-knacks and the tables and chairs looked more like modern Japanese than a steak house.






The steaks on the menu are generally for sharing between two or three people. We choose a tomahawk steak (also known as a rib steak or a cōte de boeuf) that was brought out and presented to us. 1182 grams at 5673 Lek (€56). We asked for our steak to be prepared medium rare.




To accompany the steak, we got some pickles and olives and a village salad, and the steak itself came with a small side of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots.





The steak was excellent, the salad and pickles and olives were very good and overall it was an excellent meal.



With the addition of a couple of beers, a lemon soda, a water, Bakllava for desert and a 100 Lek per person table cover, and total bill was 7903.6 Lek. The most expensive meal we had in Albania, but was definitely the best we had (followed by the seafood from Spiranca in Durrės). It might not be a posh looking steak house, but the food was excellent.

We went out and got a couple more drinks in The Block area before retiring for the evening.