Best places to visit in Albania

Tirana is the capital and the easiest place to start. Skanderbeg Square is the centre. Bulevardi Zogu I runs north from the square. Blloku, the café quarter, is a short walk south of it.

The Grand Park and the artificial lake are further south. The New Bazaar (Pazari i Ri) is east of the square. Distances on our Tirana house page are measured from the square, not from a front door.

Shkodër is the main city of the north. It sits by Lake Shkodër, which Albania shares with Montenegro, and Rozafa Castle stands above the town. The Albanian Alps are the mountain country beyond it.

Theth and Valbona are villages in those mountains. A marked trail links them. It is a full day for most walkers, and snow can close it outside the warm months. This page does not give a kilometre count.

The historic centres of Berat and Gjirokastër are a UNESCO World Heritage site, listed for their Ottoman-period architecture.

Berat is in central Albania. Its castle, the Kala, looks over a town long shared by churches and mosques. Gjirokastër is in the Drinos valley in the south, known for its stone houses and hilltop castle.

When people say the Albanian Riviera they mean the southern coast: Vlorë, then the villages toward Sarandë, including Himarë, Dhërmi and Ksamil. Butrint, near Sarandë, is a separate UNESCO archaeological site.

Lake Ohrid is shared with North Macedonia. On the Albanian shore the town is Pogradec. The lake region is also on the UNESCO list. We do not have a house on the Riviera or at the lake.

Tale is on the Adriatic in Lezhë County, north of Durrës and well short of the southern Riviera. Tale Apartment is a short walk from that beach. Lezhë and Shëngjin are a short drive if you want a longer promenade.

It is a simpler beach base than the south: one apartment, a shared pool, and the sea close by. Read the Tale house page for the beds, the rules and the map pin.