The details given in the book on the sites to visit are very good and detailed. A good addition would be more maps that show how to get there, since there are normally no sign and if you don't have a local tour guide or driver, it's difficult to find. The recommendations for hotels and restaurants could be better. Overall, a good book to travel around in Albania and it has been very helpful to me. The writer seems to have a good knowledge of the sites.

I am a devoted academic researcher on Albanian culture and this is the best guide book out on the market that offers wonderful information on travel into Albania and Kosovo. This guide book not only has useful information on travel conditions and the best way to explore the area, but it also has some wonderful information regarding the culture and history of the Albanian nation. This book is a must have for anyone that is interested in travelling to this culturally complex region in the Balkans. This book is the first thing that I am taking with me when I set off to travel to Shqiperia and Shqiperia e Madhe (Albania and Greater Albania). It is a shame that Lonely Planet has not produced a guide book into this part of the world. It would be fantastic if they did. For the meantime this Blues Guide has everything you need to make your trip into the region a successful and productive one.

This author is to be congratulated on an absolutely masterful work! This is a fantastic book that is crammed full of useful travel, as well as historical information to an almost unbelievable degree. If this guide book had been written in a less condensed format it would easily have ended up being twice as long. I noticed that during my travels in southern Albania, the author seemed to have ethnic and historical information on villages so small that they didn't exist even on the most detailed maps that I was able to purchase. On that basis, I would recommend this book even for those not contemplating a trip to Albania, as it provides for many hours of interesting reading for those just wanting to learn more about the culture and history of the region.

Although the author's approach of writing a guidebook which includes all areas of historic Albanian inhabitation (Kosovo, Northern Greece, and Western Macedonia) rather than just the present day country is somewhat unusual, he does the reader a great service as many visitors to Albania entering from these adjacent regions are provided with detailed information which is usually lacking in other guidebooks (i.e. Guidebooks on Greece have little, if any information on regions around the Albanian border areas).

I would not contemplate travel to Albania without this publication!

This guide is rather lacking in a many areas. Most notable information on hostels and campgrounds and such. However, it contains a lot of historical background on churches and other areas of intrest in Bulgaria. Unforunately this information dominates most of the guide. If you are looking for a travel guide I recommend Bulgaria a Rough Guide it contains much more pertinent information for the world traveler.

In keeping with it's tradition of excellence, the Blue Guide series has produced another marvelous travel guide, this time to the little known treasure that is Bulgaria. The Blue Guide series does not focus on hotel and restaurant infromation but rather provides unparalleled information on history, architecture, culture, and geography. That is what the Blue Guide does, and it does it better than anyone else. I use the series in concert with another guide such as one of the Lonely Planet series for hotel and restaruant information, although in this case I would recommend the Rough Guide to Bulgaria. To get the most out of your Bulgarian holiday make sure you have The Blue Guide in your glove box!

This book was indeed very useful and relevant as a travel guide when it was released nearly six years ago, but the changes in Albania since that time have been so sweeping that much of the practical information, such as accommodation, is nearly obsolete. I can personally testify that it is a fantastic and gorgeous nation of diverse cities and landscapes worthy of a long stay. For anyone who doesn't have the benefit of personal connection to serve as guidance there, an updated objective travel guide on Albania is certainly overdue.

So you want to go to Europe, but want a change? Somewhere different, unusual, off the beaten path and not crowded by tourists? Go Albania.

For 50 years Albania was literally shut away from the rest of the world by a fanatical communist dictator. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of European Communism released the proud and warm people from the deep sleep. Slowly they are coming alive to the rest of the world. While previously it was nearly impossible for Westerners to visit Albania, the door is now wide open. But be forewarned, Albania is the poorest country in all of Europe, and there are still many practical difficulties for the common tourist. The first place to start is with a tour guide.

Since Blue Guide: Albania is the only guide to this country in print, that alone makes it a valuable travel aid. Blue Guides are published by W.W. Norton and are unique travel guides that strongly promote a country's history, culture and archaeology.

Author James Pettifer, a Balkans expert, has selected the easiest places in Albania to visit; namely, places where accommodations can be found. He furnishes the traveler with good, practical information, although it is dated since it was written pre-1996. The hotels and restaurants listed are almost non-existent and fall bellow the most remedial standards of travel guides for other countries. The guide's strengths are history, culture and archaeology - and in this area Pettifer excels.

If you are traveling to Albania, this guide will be a good asset - conditionally recommended.

The Blue Guide is the best guide for Albania. This guide has informations about everything (history, culture, language, places to have seen, hotels, restaurants) and mentions everything that can be visited. Unfortunately, the maps are really bad. The situation in Albania changes very quickely - the traveller has to know this. But all the other guides are older and have more wrong informations. James Pettifer knows Albania very well and visited all the country.

Most writers when they write, whether it is fiction or non-fiction, tend to do some sort of research. I find that Mr. Pettifers writng is based not on unbiased research, but based on
his "patrons" distorted view on history. Mr. Pettifer has taken a one-sided approach to the Kosovo conflict. By referring to the region as "Kosova", he legitimizes the aspirarations of separtists terrorists in that region.
From his previous writings to this latest "reportage" I would guess that Mr. Pettifer could not make it as an investigative reporter, but instead choose to write for a public relations firm that has terrorists for clients.
I would recommend Salonicus Terminus, by Fred A Reed, for unbiased reporting on the Balkans as well as (the Republic of) Macedonia!

This tired collection of essays managed to miss the entire flavor of the country and the question. The lack of perspective on the issues is obvious - there is not a single Macedonian contribution or perspective in the mix.

Reviewed by Zhidas Daskalovski (School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London) E-mail: daskalovski@hotmail.com _________________________________________

In less then a year time span, the academic world was offered two accounts of the so-called Macedonian Question. First, in 1999, James Pettifer edited The New Macedonian Question, and then, in 2000, Victor Roudometof presented his The Macedonian Question. Both books were compiled by visiting professors at academic institutions based in Thessaloniki, Greece, Petiffer at the Institute of Balkan Studies, Roudometof at American College Of Thessaloniki. Given the political situation in the Southern Balkans, this fact raises the question about who wants to reintroduce a "Macedonian question" in the academic and indirectly, in the policy making world, and in whose interest this might be. An informed observer would immediately notice that both monographs are biased in the selection of essays and themes covered. Roudometof, for example, writing a book concerning Macedonia, does not include a single contribution from authors originating from Republic of Macedonia, while Petiffer has two reprints of articles and only one new piece written by a Macedonian sociologist.

For a thorough review on Macedonia, see John Shea's book "Macedonia and Greece: The struggle to define a new balkan nation"