Albania 2025

On Day 1, I had booked a taxi from the Podgarica airport (Montenegro) across the border to Shkoder, Albania with Whatsapp. We had two drivers because we swapped cars at a prearranged place about 5km from the airport. Border formalities into Albania were simple and we didn't have to get out of the taxi.  Shkoder seemed like a busy city, and we  hopped out of the taxi at the main mosque and walked over to the Shkodran Boutique Hotel to drop our bags off. It was only 10:30am, but our room was ready. I changed some USD to Albanian Lek. I had read that Albania was largely cash-only, including at gas stations. I later found, that credit cards were widely accepted. We wandered around a little bit and  had an early lunch before renting bicycles.

We first stopped by the rental car company (GoRentAlbania) to make sure that all was well for the following day and then scooted out to Razafa Castle. The road got steep and we pushed the bikes up and then wandered the castle grounds with views in all directions. We opted to return the same way back into town. We walked around the delightful old city in the evening and ate a Turkish style dinner at Arti Zanave.

Day 2: The Shkodran Boutique Hotel included a very nice breakfast in the room rate. We walked over to the GoRentAlbania office to collect our rental car. We had a few hiccups as the main rear brake lights weren't working, so we joined the staff member for an unsuccessful tour of the central garages in search of a repair. A small brake light was functioning and we opted to carry on with assurances that it didn't matter ("It's Albania"). We drove 3 hours on main highways directly to Berat. The roads were good throughout our tour around the country. After a short walk along the river in lower Berat, we had a delicious lunch at Eni Traditional Food. 

Our accommodation at Bed & Breakfast Josiph was within the Berat castle grounds. We seemed to have timed our drive through the steep, narrow streets with peak tourist time. It was an exciting approach to reach the B&B,  and our hosts seemed overjoyed to greet us. It was a simple place, with the bathroom down the hall, but we had wonderful views across the valley. We spent a couple of hours wandering around the castle grounds and visiting the Onufri Iconography Museum. There were quite a few tourists milling about. Our first choice dinner restaurant was expecting a large tour group,and our second choice restaurant turned out to be a dud.

On Day 3 we woke up to light rain so the simple breakfast was served in the parlour rather than on the patio.  It was a little over an hour drive to the Apollonia Archaeological Park, but the rain was over by then. The archeological site was once a major Roman regional centre, built on Greek ruins. Later the St Mary church was built using many of the materials from the Roman ruins.  We arrived before 10:00am and few visitors dribbled in, but it wasn't particularly busy. Then it was onto another St Mary church/monastery, near Vlore. There were more visitors at the church than expected. Lunch was at Bar Restorant Arta-Mario, then we took the Vlore bypass and did grocery shopping at a supermarket in Orikum. We drove over the somewhat over-hyped Llogara Pass that offered views of the coast. We  arrived at our apartment rental in lower Dhermi after 3:00pm. The manager's mother showed us around and then we settled in for the evening.

On Day 4, our first order of business was to drive a short distance to upper Dhermi. It's a pretty town with an interesting church/monastery built some 500 years ago.  The church door was unlocked and we had a good look at the interior paintings. We drove south on the SH8, past an old submarine base onto Porto Palermo for a walk around the old castle. Upper Qeparo was reached by a one lane road and we wandered further up the valley to some ruins. We had planned on lunch in Qeparo but the restaurant was closed for the season, so we stopped at a  bakery for a takeaway lunch. It was onto Dhermi beach, however the trail from the south end of the beach was closed and blocked off, so we consoled ourselves with a wander around the sleepy beach area before returning to the apartment.

Day 5 was back onto the SH8 and along the coast. We opted to bypass Saranda and turned inland to find our way to the "Ancient Phoenician Archeological Park". It seems that the Phoenician ruins were beneath Roman ruins but the views of the interior hill country was memorable. There seem to be endless Albanian bunkers built during the Cold War, and the park had a number of them to see. Moving right along, we drove over a pass into the wide Gjirokastër valley. Yes, another field of bunkers was the first stop and then we drove a short way along a bumpy dirt road to the Hadrianopolis (Roman) city.  There were a couple of Albanian visitors out in the Roman ruins, but it was otherwise quiet. It was 12:30pm and we made a stop at the Piceri Ndrico Restaurant. It wasn't too busy when we arrived, but locals poured in while we had a lunch of delicious  spanakopita and pizza.

We reached Gjirokastra and met our apartment host shortly before 2:00pm. Our place was in the new section of the city and we walked up the hill for a rewarding visit of the grand tower Zekate House that is now a museum. It wasn't busy, but afterwards, we descended to the old market area that was teaming with visitors. Old Gjirokastra had a nice vibe. We self-catered in the comfortable apartment.

Day 6 brought us  further into the interior of Albania. We were on the road before 8:00am and stopped at a small supermarket in Gjirokastra for a few items and picked up some elusive paper coffee filters (imported from Greece). I wasn't a competent user of Turkish coffee pots and was filtering the finished product. We made a detour to visit the Ottoman style Aqueduct of Ali Pasha built in the early 1800's. We followed the Vjosa River on SH75 to Përmet  where we had a walk around the old town before another detour to the thermal baths of  Llixhat e Bënjës. We were surprised on a number of counts, including the large number of visitors and that the thermal waters weren't particularly warm. We walked a ways up from the Ottoman bridge to have a look at the Langarica Canyon. We didn't have any information on the canyon, but continued further up the river and it narrowed up nicely.  The canyon made for an unexpected but excellent excursion. There were a few other people around, but we mostly walked back and across the river without others. 

We progressed further up the  Vjosa River, then the SH75 turned north. We walked around a section of  Leskovik, drove through forests for some time before reaching open grasslands and to our lodge for the night,  Sofra Kolonjare. It was one of our favourite lodgings of the trip. The owner had built an original lodge and had expanded his business with a new second building. We were upgraded to a larger suite as we were the only guests that night. We had the atmospheric dining room all to our selves. We had a chat with the owner, though he was quite busy with making raki at another location. It was fun.

Day 7: After a filling breakfast, we carried on the SH75 towards Korçe, first with a stop at the Kamenica Tumulus. There was plenty of history at the site but it was light on atmosphere. We carried onto Voskopoja via Polen. Voskopoja was once an important religious centre and it is littered with ancient churches so walked around to visit a few of them. Most are locked up, but we entered two of them. We initially drove around  Korçe and up a hill to the east (Kryqi Moravë) for a walk to a giant cross and views of the surrounding area. We returned to Korçe and parked to visit the quiet National museum of medieval art in Korçë, that offers a staggering number of paintings that were once on church walls. 

We found a parking spot on the edge of the old town of Korçë to check in at Villa Domenico. We spent the balance of the afternoon looking around central Korçë. We ate in the hotel restaurant that evening. The cobbled streets and squares of the old town were very quiet that night.

We opted to skip breakfast at the Villa Domenico in favour of an early start on our final full day in Albania. We managed to find a cafe open at 7:00am, before heading for Northern Macedonia. We drove to the border along Lake Ohrid and parked the car. We walked through the routine border area and onto St Naum Monastery. The lakeside church was quiet but we could see a couple of tour buses had arrived by 10:00am. The walk in and out totalled 4.5km.

We had 2 1/2 hours of driving ahead of us to Tirana airport. It was quite a scenic drive, cutting through mountains, but it was mostly on a busy two lane highway with some light rain. We stopped at the Ottoman style Kamara’s bridge along the way and a tasty lunch at a large highway restaurant.  Finally, we reached airport business park and contacted the car hire company to complete the drop-off and we were let off at the Best Western airport hotel. We had huge room and delicious dinner on our last night in Albania.