Shkoder is a pretty, historic town in Northern Albania. It’s a convenient stopping-off point for the evocatively named Accursed Mountains and for Montenegro. We were tempted by the Albanian Alps, but the weather forecast promised rain, rain and more rain in the highlands, so after a whistle-stop tour of Shkoder we planned to head on to Kotor Bay. 

Shkoder has a lake, river, old town and an Illyrian castle, but it really seems to be the place people rest and recharge en route to somewhere else. We had a lovely time marching up the hill to the castle, sampling some delicious Albanian food and wine, doing yet more laundry and lolling by the absurdly OTT pool at the Camping Legjenda. 

Quick campsite comment:

Camping Legjenda’s web presence lives up to its name. It has legendary reviews and was strongly recommended by Rino in Ohrid. As a campsite, it does tick a lot of boxes, but is maybe a victim of its own success. 

The good bits: It’s in a great location, close to town and in the shadow of the imposing Castle Rozafa. There’s an extraordinary pool, a cocktail/snack bar, a restaurant and excellent showers, loos and laundry. There’s a reliable onsite taxi, which was fantastic and the price at €17 a night was good value. 

The bad bits: It’s very busy and the vans are packed pretty closely together. There were big hoardings promoting tours, and large packaged groups of European RVers having presentations and meeting for organised events. There weren’t dance classes in the Hawaiian Ballroom but it was all a bit Hi-de-Hi for our tastes!

In the evening two coaches spewed around 70 teenagers on a school trip to squeeze into dorm rooms and glamping pods. They had a lovely time playing music, laughing, chatting and running around by the pool and in the bar until the early hours. We packed up before breakfast and headed onto Montenegro thankful for the flexibility of #vanlife! Next stop Kotor Bay.