Hotel Enkelana

Don’t be fooled by the nice appearance of this place – the service is absolutely awful. I asked for a simple tomato salad with no greens, and not only did they mess up the order, but there was actually a WORM in the salad. Disgusting! The chef didn’t even have the decency to come out and apologize. Totally unprofessional, careless, and unacceptable. I would never recommend this place to anyone.

The hotel staff is helpful. The location is very good. It has amenities like access to a pool, sauna, fitness center, and a privatized lakeshore beach with deck chairs and shade umbrellas. You can get your laundry done for an extra fee. The wifi could be much stronger and more consistent. The rooms are clean and the views, even inland, are very pretty. The hotel has a restaurant, a bar/café with a large patio, and a pizzeria/café that extends out over the lake. Its outdoor dining options are among the best in town. The free breakfast is not that good, with margarine instead of butter and similar corner-cutting. And unfortunately, you are not allowed to bring it to your room so if you want to eat on the balcony for respiratory disease safety, you are going to have to contend with cigarette smoke. Not really an appetizing choice. If they put some effort into the free breakfast and allowed guests to take a reasonable amount to their room (not food smuggling, but just eating the meal in the room), it would really elevate the rating.

Pros Good location within easy reach of the bars and restaurants. Room was a reasonable size with a side sea albeit a bit tired and in need of an update. The air conditioning was very good and quiet. Very nice terraced bar area serving coffee, tea alcohol and excellent cakes and deserts. Quiet at night but the corridors echoed a bit when other people were going and froing Cons Reception staff unfriendly and asked how we were going to pay when we had pre-paid. They didn’t challenge us though when we said it was paid. We were made to feel uncomfortable as we are two men travelling together and a double room had been booked. They asked if we wanted a twin room and made us more uncomfortable when we declined. Breakfast was very limited and tasteless with unfriendly staff who didn’t greet us when we said good morning. We had a change of towels in the room but the bed wasn’t made up by the room staff. Shower, although powerful, soaked the whole of the bathroom as the drain wasn’t sufficient. I wouldn’t recommend this hotel but sadly it seems to be one of the best there is in Podradec.

We stayed 2 nights and I read the reviews of the hotel before booking, so I knew it was a 3 star hotel which would be basic in some respects. I booked this hotel because it is right on the lakeside and I could book rooms with views over the lake. Also, the hotel is at one end of the promenade in Pogradec; you can walk out of the hotel and find restaurants, cafes and shops. Also the hotel is very near the main lakeside beach but also has its own beach area with sunbeds and parasols (free to use). I feel I got what i wanted: we had two suite rooms with lake views. The rooms had a double bed, a sofa seating area and also a balcony. This was perfect for enjoying the view of the lake and mountains. The bathroom in our room was basic: the shower made the floor wet. The breakfast in the hotel restaurant was quite basic: there was usually a line of people waiting to get food from the buffet table; the tables were not always completely clean. The buffet itself was adequate: bread, cake and the Albanian fried savoury doughnut things, with eggs, sausage, tomato, cucumber, feta- type cheese, olives, some jam and cereals The coffee was poor. The hotel has a good cafe/ bar/ seating area on the ground floor. The beach area is partly sandy, partly pebbly. Outside the hotel, the ground is a little higher above the lake than the main beach, so you step down to get in the water and there are little jetties you can use. The lake water is clear and pleasant to swim in. (We visited in August when the temperature was high 20s). After Tirana, we noticed that people did not speak as much English here.

This hotel has a good position, with main street on one side and the lake on the other. Close to the shore so lovely walks to be had in the evening while the town folk are taking their promenades! It has a large comfortable lobby, and a good ground floor coffee bar. My room was large with a small balcony overlooking the lake from the side of the hotel. My bed was large and comfortable with good linen. Plenty of space in the room to put things down, and hooks to hang things. Good lighting. Negatives: there was no shower door so the water goes everywhere in the bathroom - paddling pool! Breakfast was very disappointing: only fluffy, tasteless white bread, no fresh fruit, the coffee was undrinkably strong instant coffee and luke warm. Tea no better. Poor selection overall. This really lets the hotel down!

Right on the lakeside, the location is great. The outdoor mezzanine level seating was pretty good too. On the flip side, not a big fan of showers without doors where water goes everywhere. Don’t like the put the access card in a slot re electricity as you can’t charge things when out. The breakfast was on the limited side and the place needs a different coffee from the bland stuff on offer. It might be a seven on a ten scale.