Best Places to Visit in Albania

Albania rewards travellers who go beyond the capital. Within a few hours' drive you can move from alpine valleys to UNESCO-listed stone towns to beaches that rival Greece — so the real question is not whether to visit, but what to fit in. These are the places we always build an itinerary around.

Tirana is the natural starting point: a colourful, energetic capital where Ottoman, Italian and communist-era architecture sit side by side. Climb Mount Dajti for the view, wander the New Bazaar, and finish the evening in Blloku, the neighbourhood that was once off-limits to ordinary Albanians.

“Albania is small enough to road-trip and rich enough to fill three trips.”

Northwards, the Albanian Alps deliver the country's most dramatic scenery. Theth and Valbona are stone villages tucked under 2,500-metre peaks, connected by one of Europe's great day hikes, while the Koman Lake ferry glides through fjord-like scenery on the way in.

In the south, Berat and Gjirokastër — both UNESCO World Heritage sites — preserve entire Ottoman-era old towns, and the Albanian Riviera strings together Ksamil, Dhërmi, Himarë and Saranda along impossibly blue water. Add the ancient lakeside ruins of Butrint and you have a country that punches far above its size.

Our advice: give each stop at least two nights. Albania's distances are short, but its places deserve more than a photo stop — and the slow evenings, with long dinners and longer conversations, are half the reason people come back.