Our Story:
A House Full of Stories
What started as an old family house in Prizren became a home for travelers from around the world. This is the story of how it happened, the people we met along the way, and how it eventually led to Enjoy Kosovo.
Before it all began
Sometimes, the biggest changes start with a simple question: What if?
Before Driza's House, before the tours, and long before I imagined working in tourism, there was a different life.
I had spent six or seven years living in Kosovo's capital, Prishtina, studying and working in the tech and creative industries. I was designing websites and graphics for tech companies and creative agencies, following a career that seemed to be taking a fairly predictable direction.
Meanwhile, I had proposed to my girlfriend, and we were making plans to get married and start a new chapter together.
Like many young couples at the time, we found ourselves facing a big question: Should we leave Kosovo in search of better opportunities, or try to build something of our own here?
Leaving wasn't particularly straightforward back then. Kosovo still had strict visa restrictions, making the idea of moving abroad quite complicated. So, after many conversations, we started looking at other possibilities and thinking about what we could do with the savings we had managed to put aside.
Little did we know that an unexpected opportunity was waiting for us in my hometown.
look abroad, or build
something of our own.
An old house, a new dream
Sometimes, you don't need to look far to find your next adventure.
Around that time, my parents had moved from our old family house in Prizren into a new home my father had built in the countryside. The old house was left empty, with no particular plans for its future.
That's when an idea started taking shape.
What if we turned it into a hostel for backpackers and travelers?
Neither of us had any experience in hospitality or tourism. Our English wasn't exactly something to brag about either. Most of what we knew came from music, movies, and video games we'd grown up with.
And then there was the house itself. It was in pretty rough shape and needed serious renovation before it could safely welcome guests.
Looking back, there were plenty of reasons to doubt the idea. But we had something that mattered more than experience: the support of our family and friends, a willingness to learn, and the courage to give it a try.
After months of hard work, we finally opened the doors of Driza's House in August 2015.
We had no idea what was waiting for us on the other side of those doors.
A house full of stories
We thought we were opening a hostel. We didn't know we were opening a door to the world.
What started as a simple idea soon became something much bigger than we had imagined.
Over the years, hundreds of travelers from all corners of the world walked through our doors. They came with different cultures, backgrounds, perspectives, and stories. Some stayed for a night, others for much longer. Many became friends.
We shared conversations, travel tips, meals, laughter, and recommendations. We helped people discover Kosovo, answered their questions, and tried to make their journeys a little easier and more memorable.
Welcoming people from around the world and getting to know them became one of the greatest pleasures of our lives.
My wife and I still find it difficult to hold back our emotions whenever we revisit the original guestbook or read the reviews people left behind. Those messages remind us that Driza's House was never just about providing a bed for the night. Somehow, we had created a place where people felt welcome, connected with one another, and took home memories that lasted long after their travels.
The guestbook alone holds 142 pages of handwritten messages, recommendations, drawings, and little pieces of people's journeys.
For us, those pages are worth more than any business achievement. They are a reminder of all the people who became part of our story along the way.
And that was always the best part.
From hosting to guiding
The more I showed people around Kosovo, the more I wanted to discover myself.
Prizren is the city where I grew up. I knew its streets, neighborhoods, stories, and many of the little details that visitors might easily miss when exploring on their own.
Whenever I had some free time, I enjoyed taking our guests around the city, showing them the places I grew up visiting and sharing the stories behind them.
Eventually, those walks turned into something more. I started organizing day trips for small groups and private tours around Kosovo.
The more I did it, the more I realized how much I enjoyed sharing my country with others. It also made me curious about how I could improve my knowledge and offer travelers something more meaningful.
One day, I came across a Facebook post by PPSE announcing a training and certification program for the first generation of professional tour guides in Kosovo. I immediately applied.
After several months of intensive training, I became a certified tour guide.
Alongside seven fellow graduates, we went on to establish Kosovo's first national association of tourist guides.
What had started with simply showing hostel guests around my hometown was gradually turning into a profession and a passion I hadn't even known I had.
When everything changed.
Sometimes, the journey takes a turn you never planned for.
I was spending more and more time guiding travelers around Kosovo, while my wife and brother were managing Driza's House and five additional Airbnb apartments around Prizren.
Then came COVID.
No more travelers. No more tours. No more guests checking in. Just closed doors, uncertainty, and occasionally one or two travelers who had become stranded because of travel restrictions and quarantine rules.
At first, we thought it would all pass in a few weeks. But those weeks turned into months.
Like many small businesses in the tourism industry, we had to face a reality we had never imagined. Bills still needed to be paid, life had to move forward, and we needed to make some difficult decisions.
Eventually, we found ourselves returning to an idea we had considered years earlier: leaving Kosovo to explore new opportunities and build a different future for our family.
It wasn't an easy decision. Our hearts were, and still are, deeply connected to Kosovo. But sometimes life takes you in directions you didn't originally plan.
And so, after years of welcoming travelers into our home, we found ourselves preparing to start a new chapter somewhere else.
New roots, the same home
Some things change. The things that matter stay with you.
Today, we live away from Kosovo, but we return to visit our families and our home country whenever we can.
Our family has also grown by one little member. Our son, Nart Neo Driza, is now part of the story.
I hope that one day he will understand what Driza's House meant to so many people. More than a family business, it was an experience built around kindness, curiosity, generosity, and the simple belief that bringing people together can create something special.
Perhaps he'll carry some of those values with him as he grows up. I hope he knows that a simple family house in Prizren once brought together people from all over the world, many of whom arrived as strangers and left feeling like part of something bigger.
And perhaps that's the greatest legacy we could ever leave behind.
- 01 Kindness
- 02 Curiosity
- 03 Generosity
- 04 Bringing people together
A house in Prizren that brought the world together.
The story continues: Enjoy Kosovo
We may have left the house, but we never stopped welcoming people.
Over the years, our guests taught us just as much as we taught them.
They introduced us to places we might never have discovered ourselves, shared recommendations from their travels, told us about their experiences in other countries, and helped us see Kosovo through the eyes of people visiting it for the first time.
Our years in hospitality and guiding gave us a pretty good understanding of what travelers need when exploring this part of the world: honest advice, local perspectives, practical information, and someone who can help them look beyond the usual tourist spots.
Even though I'm no longer living in Kosovo, my desire to share what I know about my country hasn't gone anywhere.
In fact, being away has made me appreciate it even more.
I've often found myself thinking about all the questions travelers used to ask at the hostel, the places they wanted to visit, the things they were curious about, and the little details that could make their journeys easier and more enjoyable.
That's how Enjoy Kosovo came about.
I wanted to find a way to keep doing what I loved: helping people discover Kosovo, sharing the knowledge I've gathered over the years, and contributing in my own small way to the country I still call home.
Driza's House may have been the beginning, but the story doesn't have to end there.
So, whether you're planning your first trip to Kosovo or simply curious about this little corner of the Balkans, I hope you'll find something here that inspires you to come and experience it for yourself.
And who knows? Maybe one day, somewhere in Prizren, we'll cross paths.