We keep our pricing as simple as the answer deserves: €35 per person, all-inclusive, on the Vjosa — Europe's last wild river. Here is exactly what that covers, why it represents exceptional value.
Get a Price QuoteThe price for a rafting tour with us is €35 per person. That is the complete price. There are no additional charges for equipment hire, no guide gratuity built into a "service fee," no fuel surcharges, and no surprise add-ons. You pay €35 per person, and your group's total bill is that number multiplied by however many people are in your party.
We settled on this pricing model deliberately, because the alternative — variable packages, tiered pricing, add-ons and extras — creates confusion and erodes trust. When people ask us how much rafting costs in Albania, we want to give them a number that is actually the number, not a starting point for a negotiation. Adventure tourism is full of operators who advertise one price and charge another. We are not one of them — see our rafting packages.
What €35 covers is genuinely comprehensive. You get a spot on a professional, well-maintained raft with a maximum of eight guests per guide. You get a certified guide who has spent years on the specific river you are about to paddle. You get a full set of safety equipment — life jacket, helmet, and a wetsuit matched to the water temperature on your specific day — all fitted and checked by our team before you launch. You get the safety kayak that follows your group throughout the tour. You get the pre-trip safety briefing, the first aid provision on the water, and the changing facilities at the meeting point. On full-day Vjosa tours, a packed lunch stop on a river gravel bar is included in that same €35.
What is not included: transport between your accommodation and our meeting point, personal travel insurance (which we strongly recommend all guests carry), and any tips you choose to give your guide at the end of the day. Tips are voluntary, never expected, and always genuinely appreciated — our guides work hard and a tip at the end is the most direct way to tell them they did well.
For those who like a clear breakdown, here is precisely what your €35 per person provides:
A certified swiftwater guide with first aid training and a minimum of one full season's experience on the specific river you are rafting. Our guide-to-guest ratio is 1:8 maximum, and on smaller groups we often run 1:4 or 1:6.
Personal flotation device (life jacket), helmet, and wetsuit selected for the day's water temperature — all fitted to you individually before launch. Equipment is inspected and maintained to international standards.
A trained safety kayaker follows every group throughout the tour and positions at technical sections to assist with any swimmer rescues. This is standard on every trip, not an optional upgrade.
Each raft carries a comprehensive first aid kit and throw ropes. Our guides are trained in wilderness first aid specific to river environments. Emergency extraction plans are known and practised for all canyon sections.
On the Vjosa full-day tour, a packed lunch stop on a mid-river gravel bar is included. This is part of the experience — eating in the middle of a wild river national park with no roads nearby is one of the things our guests consistently mention in reviews.
Both our Vjosa (Permet) and Osumi meeting points have changing areas where you can switch into dry clothes after the tour. Bring a change of clothes and a towel — wet clothes on a bus or car ride home are avoidable.
Our price is a flat €35 per person for everyone, with no separate group rate. What we do offer larger groups (eight or more) is smooth logistics — multiple rafts, a guide in each boat, and a schedule built around your group. Message us with your group size and date and we will sort the details.
What we do give larger groups is priority: a schedule built around you, multiple rafts with a guide in each boat, and one point of contact for the whole booking. The best way to arrange it is to message us on WhatsApp with your group size, your preferred date or date range, and which river interests you. We respond within the hour.
Corporate groups, school and university groups, and extended family bookings are all groups in our definition. We have run tours for corporate team-building days of forty people, for school trips of thirty-five students, and for extended family reunions of fourteen. In each case, the group saves compared to booking individually, and we arrange the logistics — guide assignments, equipment distribution, raft allocation — to make sure the day runs smoothly regardless of size.
One important note for large groups: please contact us as early as possible. Our capacity per day is limited by the number of guides and rafts we can deploy simultaneously. A group of twenty-four needs three rafts and three guides, which requires planning and advance booking to ensure we can staff correctly. Last-minute large group bookings are sometimes possible but are not guaranteed. For groups of ten or more, we recommend booking at least three weeks ahead during peak season (May through August) and two weeks ahead in shoulder season.
If you are planning a visit to Albania and want to make your rafting budget go as far as possible, here is what our experience suggests actually matters.
Come midweek if you can. Our prices do not change between weekdays and weekends — it is always €35 per person — but midweek tours tend to have smaller groups, which means more guide attention per guest and a quieter experience on the river. Weekends, particularly in July and August, fill up fast and large groups can make the put-in point busy. A Tuesday or Wednesday tour in any summer month is a noticeably better experience than the equivalent Saturday, at exactly the same price.
Consider the shoulder season. May and September offer arguably the best rafting conditions on the Vjosa — better water levels than the summer low, better weather than spring, and significantly fewer other tourists. The rivers are quieter, the canyons are less busy, and the experience is more intimate. At €35 per person, the price is the same as July, but the quality of experience is genuinely higher for many people.
Consider more than one day on the water. The Vjosa has several distinct sections, from gentle family floats to punchy spring whitewater, so two days rarely feel repetitive — and at €35 a day it is a fraction of what a single guided tour costs across much of Western Europe. Many guests who plan a single day end up adding a second after the first, so it is worth planning for from the start.
Think about transport as part of the total cost. The tour itself is €35, but getting to Permet or to the Osumi Canyon from Tirana or Berat adds to the real cost of the day. A group of six sharing a transfer costs each person considerably less than a solo traveller taking a taxi. If you are travelling solo or in a pair, consider public transport from Tirana to Berat (cheap and frequent) and then a local taxi to the Osumi meeting point — this is the most cost-effective independent transport option for smaller parties. For the Vjosa, the furgon from Tirana to Permet is the budget option, though the irregular schedule requires planning. See our packages and our group tours for more detail on what is available.
Context matters when evaluating whether €35 is good value, so here is an honest comparison with what you would pay for equivalent guided rafting in other European countries.
In Slovenia — one of Europe's most popular rafting destinations, with excellent rivers including the Soča and the Sava Bohinjka — guided half-day rafting tours typically run between €45 and €70 per person, and full-day tours with similar guide ratios and equipment standards are €80 to €120. In Switzerland, guided river experiences on the Rhône or the Inn region rivers start around €80 and frequently exceed €150. In Austria's Ötztal or Salzach regions, guided rafting is comparable to Slovenia at the lower end but more commonly €60 to €100. In all of these countries you are getting excellent operators with professional equipment and experienced guides — exactly as you are with us in Albania.
The difference is not in the quality of the experience. Our guides are as well-trained as their counterparts in Slovenia. Our equipment meets the same international standards. The rivers we use are, in many respects, more impressive — the Vjosa is wilder than anything that exists in Western Europe, and the Osumi Canyon has no equivalent west of the Balkans. The price difference reflects Albania's stage of tourism development, its lower operating costs, and our deliberate choice to keep rafting accessible rather than positioning it as a luxury product.
This gap will likely narrow over the next decade as Albania's profile as a destination grows. The guests visiting now are getting an experience that compares with the best in Europe at prices that will not last indefinitely. At €35 per person with everything included, Albanian river rafting represents some of the best value in European adventure tourism right now.
Our rafting tours are priced at €35 per person, all-inclusive. This covers your place on the raft, a professional guide, full safety equipment (life jacket, helmet, wetsuit), the safety kayak, and all logistics on the river. There are no hidden charges, no equipment hire fees added on top, and no surcharges. The price you see is the price you pay.
We keep pricing simple: €35 per person for everyone, with no separate group rate to work out. For larger groups (eight or more) we are happy to arrange the logistics of multiple rafts and guides — message us on WhatsApp with your group size and preferred date.
The €35 includes: your place in the raft, a qualified professional guide, personal flotation device, helmet, wetsuit appropriate to the season, paddle, safety kayak escort, pre-trip safety briefing, first aid kit, and use of changing facilities. On full-day Vjosa tours it also includes a packed lunch stop. What is not included is transport to and from the meeting point and personal travel insurance.
Yes. We charge €35 per person for our Vjosa rafting, whichever route or section you choose. We believe in simple, transparent pricing rather than variable packages. The price is the same on weekdays and weekends, in spring and in summer.
We can arrange transfers from Tirana to Permet for the Vjosa. Transfer costs are quoted separately and depend on group size — a larger group splits the cost more ways, making it cheaper per person. Contact us with your group size and pick-up location for a combined quote.
Tell us how many people, which river, and roughly when you are visiting — we will come back with the exact total within the hour. No hidden extras. No surprises on the day.
Get Your Quote on WhatsAppRead more: Beginners guide, Family rafting, Safety guide, or our group tours.
