About Us

Hi, I’m Ben.

I studied Roman and Byzantine archaeology in college, then worked for 13 years as a journalist and editor covering travel, wine, restaurants, entertainment, art, history and more, reporting from Beijing to Long Island, but mostly from my desk in Midtown Manhattan.

By the time spring of 2021 trudged in, I felt burned out from an extremely commonplace American pandemic experience, having lost my relationship of three years, then my job of 11. I fantasized about beaches, mountains, trekking through 2,000-year-old ruins, 5-course dinners—the sorts of things that seemed less and less like mundane 9-to-5 fantasies than actual make-believe.

So, with a little bit of severance pay, I left the U.S. for a country I’d never visited, where I knew no one and spoke not a lick of the language. Within a week, I tore apart, quite literally, my car’s transmission in a tiny village I’d managed to get lost in. Eventually, an older gentleman emerged from a nearby house. He began talking excitedly in Albanian, gesturing for me to pop the hood. After some head-scratching, he returned to his house and reemerged with kafes, cigarettes and, for good measure, his mechanic’s license to show me. He and a friend towed me to the nearest shop, where the team fixed the old Fiat—and then declined any payment. “This is Albania, not New York,” declared the boss. 

“Thank you,” in Albanian is “Faleminderit.” I think I finally got the pronunciation down that day.

Since then, I’ve traveled the country north to south and east to west to soak up as much as I can. I’ve been lucky to meet and learn from hospitality and tourism pros, business leaders, amateur and professional historians and folklorians, whiz-bang chefs, enterprising winemakers, and more mechanics. One such stand-up fellow is my collaborator, Gysi, who began guiding his friends on hikes as a lark at age 19 and now operates one of the most esteemed tour companies in Albania, Exploring with Gysi; he has led expeditions for the ambassadors from the U.S., Sweden and Greece, and regularly appears as an industry expert on TV.

I’d love to introduce you to my adopted home and these people who make it what it is.