Two cruise ships bring 1,000 tourists

TIRANA, June 10 – Two cruise ships with around 1,000 tourists on board visited Albania during the first week of May, says the Durres Port Authority. The first cruise ship to anchor in Durres Port on June 2 was the Nautica flying an Icelandic flag with 663 people on board, most of whom from the U.S, Australia, Canada and the U.K.
The Sea Cloud cruise ship flying a Maltese flag was the second to visit Durres on June 5 with 115 tourists on board.
In their 14-hour stop to Durres Port, tourists most of whom from Finland, visited Durres, Kruja and the UNESCO World Heritage town of Berat.
After picking Albania as a top destination for 2012, the Globe and Mail, Canada’s largest national newspaper, has also put the coastal city of Durres, Albania’s second biggest city, on top of the eight exciting new cruise ports to explore. Featuring a picture of crowded Durres beach, the Canadian newspaper describes Durres as “a handy jumping off point for tours of the coast and castle tours.”
“Durres, Albania: Here’s your chance to see Adriatic beach resorts that for years were heavily guarded enclaves of the country’s elite. Albania second-largest city is a handy jumping off point for tours of the coast and castle tours,” writes Canada’s Globe and Mail.
Founded in the 7th century BC under the name Epidamnos, Durres has been continuously inhabited for 27 centuries and is one of the oldest cities in Albania. The city boasts a Roman amphitheatre of the 2nd century A.D, one of the largest in the Balkan.