Would you recommend a honeymoon trip to Albania?

Simon Calder answers your questions on post-wedding getaways, New Zealand visas and ticket office closures

The country is scenic but it may be the wrong choice (iStock)

Q My daughter is considering taking her honeymoon in Albania in mid-September. All the hotels she’s looked at have rave reviews and it’s comparatively cheap. What are the drawbacks and do you have any recommendations or alternative suggestions that may be cheap? She’s on a tight budget.

Richard S

A Congratulations to your daughter and her spouse-to-be on their marriage – and inspired choice of southeast Europe for a honeymoon. Albania is certainly a budget destination, with friendly and hospitable people and plenty to see – as well as a 240-mile Adriatic coastline, where the water will be warm and the beaches largely empty in September. I recommend anyone with an interest in off-beat destinations to travel to Albania and explore widely. Yet for a honeymoon, I fear the Albanian experience may be just a little too erratic. It does not have the touristic sophistication of its neighbours on the Adriatic, Greece and Montenegro. Those alluring destinations are much more expensive, but I wonder if I may offer another neighbour, North Macedonia? This fragment of former Yugoslavia shares with Albania the beautiful Lake Ohrid, and at the northeast corner the town of Ohrid is a gem.