Albania Things to Do

  Bulevard Zogu i Pare
by maykal
 
  • Bulevard Zogu i Pare
      Bulevard Zogu i Pare
    by maykal
  • Edi Rama houses.
      Edi Rama houses.
    by cachaseiro
  • Tirana.
      Tirana.
    by cachaseiro
  • Kavaja Street
      Kavaja Street
    by sulamiph
  • Camouflage Building
      Camouflage Building
    by sulamiph
 
Great Prices, Great Rooms
hotels.com We Know Hotels Inside And Out. Click or call now: 1-800-914-6835
Save up to 50% off Hotels Everyday
Expedia.com Photos, Reviews and the Guaranteed Lowest Prices

Sponsored Links

Reviews from VirtualTourist Members

Lezha

by JLBG

Lezha, Alessio in Italian, is now a small town of less than 20,000 inhabitants, 39 km south to Shkodër and 77 km north to Tirana.Lezha is overhanged by a fortress (first photo) which is a part of a chain of fortresses used by Skënderbeg to communicate fast at long distance. From the fortress of Lezha, a beacon lit on Rozafa castle in Shkodër,45 km as the crow flies, can easily be seen. Then a beacon lit on Lezha fortress can be seen from Kruja castle ((54 km). Further south, other citadels such as Petrela could receive the signal and transmit it.The fisherman shown on the second picture uses a kalimerre. This kind of fishing is used from Ulcinj, in the south of Montenegro to Saranda, in the south of Albania.For more, visit my Rrethi i Lezhes page based upon my 1988 visit and my Lezhe page, based on my 2007 visit.The third picture shows a highly polluting and dangerous plant that was...

Tip Photo
Kruja

by JLBG

Kruja is an old Illyrian settlement. It was later the seat of the first Albanian feudal state. It was later again the stronghold of Skënderbeg, Albania’s national hero.The first photo shows the medieval bazaar and Skënderbeg’s castle.The second photo shows a beautiful large house. It is too large to be a private house and I wonder if that could not be a monastery with tombstones at the foot of the front.The third photo was taken from the summit of the tower and shows a bird's eye view on what remains of the inner part of the citadel and of various houses with their inner yards.For more, visit my Rrethi i Krujes page based upon my 1988 visit and my Kruja page, based on my 2007 visit. My Fushe-Krujës page gives a glimpse on a neighboring small town with special features.

Tip Photo
Korça

by JLBG

Korça is a city and prefecture in southeastern Albania, 109 km southeast of Tirana, 19 km from the border with Greece. It is also named Korçë, Korce, Korcha, Korytsa (Greek) and Corizza (Italian). It is a most modern city of 65,000 inhabitants, the fifth in Albania.It stands in a wide agricultural and mining basin at a mean elevation of 860m, dominated by the Morava mountains to the east.The first school teaching in Albanian was opened in 1887 in this house (first photo) whilst the city was part of the Ottoman Empire. Before that, all the teaching was given in Turk.The inhabitants of Korça are proud that their city is the "mother" of Albanian education.. Today, this building lodges the city museum.Our second Albanian guide, an engineer in forestry lead us to a place where we should see deers. We stayed quiet for less than ten minutes and we saw a first one, walking across the path. Then...

Tip Photo
Berati

by JLBG

Berat, a city of 47,000 inhabitants, stands in east central Albania, 160 km from Tirana.After Butrint in 1999, the museum city of Gjirokastra in 2005, Berat, another museum city, should be inscribed in 2006 on the World Heritage list by the Unesco.The front of the houses that face the valley are dotted by so many windows that it is easy to understand why Berat was nicknamed the thousand windows city! This gives it a look of its own, with roofs covered with Roman tiles (second photo).Near the river Osum, at the bottom of Mangalem, the Moslem district, s Xhami e Beqareve (Bachelor's Mosque), built in 1827, now a folk-art museum. It has a handsome portico and an interesting external decoration (enlarge the second photo) of flowers, plants, houses, etc (third photo).For more, visit my Berat page, built from both my visits in 1988 and 2007.

Tip Photo
Gjirokastra

by JLBG

Gjirokastra/Gjirokaster, Argyrokastron for the Greeks is the birthplace of both former leader Enver Hoxha and writer Ismail Kadare, In 1988, we visited the so called birth house of Enver Hoxha with souvenirs of his entire life. Our Albanian guide warned us that it was not really his birth house but that this one fitted better with easy visits.A World Heritage site, Gjirokastra also has a charming bazaar area with small shops facing cobbled streets. The castle, entered from either the valley or the town side, now houses the National Arms museum, though the best things about it are the fantastic views across the valley,In Gjirokastra the houses are covered with "pllakë" (first photo), thick and irregular slates which give to the city its grayish color and explain its Greek name of Argyropolis (silver city) or more often Argyrokastron (silver castle).The Market's Mosque (second photo) was...

Tip Photo
Durrësi

by JLBG

Durrësi is the main harbor for Albania, only 39 km from the capital Tirana. It has close to 100,000 inhabitants and is the second largest city in Albania, after Tirana.The amphitheater left by the Roman is only partly unearthed but is worth the visit (first photo)A small paleochristian church with an early Christian Crypt with a rare wall mosaic, shown here (photo) is situated in the Western part of the amphitheater.For more, visit my Rrheti i Durrësi page for my 1988 visit and myDurrësi page for my 2007 visit.

Tip Photo
Tirana

by JLBG

With an estimated 700,000 inhabitants in 2000, Tirana is by far the largest city of Albania. It is the administrative, cultural, economic, and industrial center of the Republic of Albania. It stands mid distance between the areas where the Gueg is spoken, in the North and where the Tosk dialect is spoken in the south and does not belong to any of these areas. It is an intermediate between the Adriatic shore and the mountainous inland through the Qafa e K‘rab‘s valley and the Shkumbin river it is easily connected with the inner parts of the Balkan peninsula.Tiranë was founded in 1614 by Sulejman Pasha Bargjini of Muleti who built a mosque, a hammam, a bakery, and several shops. Until it became the capital of the country in 1920, it remained a small town like any other ones. However, as it stands in a vast plain, that allows easy building.The center of Tirana is the huge Skänderbeg square...

Tip Photo
Berat

by SallyM

Berat is an attractive town in an Italian style, with a river gorge running through it, and a pleasant park. We visited the citadel (carefully, as there were steep drops with no railings). We saw two churches with frescoes, a prison, several ducks, and the icon museum of Onufri, a famous 16th-century icon painter, famous for developing a red pigment. We also learned that St Theodore is sometimes represented slaying a dragon. Confusion with St George is avoided by the fact that St George only kills brown dragons with red wings, while St Theodore kills red ones. The museum is located in a large church. Censers hang from the beaks of pigeons at the top of the carved wooden iconostasis. Several of the censers had ostrich eggs above them – to keep the spiders away, according to the guide.

Tip Photo
Apollonia

by SallyM

We almost didn't make it to Apollonia, as the road was closed and we had to find another route, slaloming between rocks on a partially surfaced road. When we finally got there, we had the site to ourselves, apart from a couple of cyclists we saw in the distance, and it was well worth the effort.We saw the bouleuterion, the council meeting place, dating from the Hellenistic period. We were told that an inscription states that it was erected by Quintus Villius Crispinus Furius Proculus in memory of his brother. Opposite the bouleuterion was the theatre or odeon, a 2nd century AD Roman building. We then walked along the remains of a street, with views of the acropolis. The area by the water cistern, looking towards the acropolis, was marred by litter, apparently a result of school trips. There were no litter bins. We stopped for much-needed refreshment in the house of the French...

Tip Photo
Butrint

by SallyM

Butrint is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and some funding has clearly gone into it. There are signs at the entrance saying ‘no litter’ and ‘no smoking’ - instrutions that were missing from other sites we visited in Albania. It was also more crowded than the other places we have visited, though almost deserted by western standards. We saw the theatre (with interesting lions’ feet at the bottom of each flight of steps) the Roman baths, the Byzantine baptistry and basilica, the lion gate, depicting a lion killing a bull. The tour ended at the Turkish fortress (reconstructed by the Italians), with excellent views over the site, which is beautiful.

Tip Photo
Fun things to do in Albania

Top 3 Hotels in Albania

Sheraton Tirana Hotel and Towers  Tirana

 4 Reviews and 70 Opinions  Having spent approximately 5 months in the Sheraton-Tirana, I know the "ins" and the "outs" of the... 

 Hotels in Tirana

Hotel Berati  Berat

 3 Opinions

 Hotels in Berat

Grand Hotel Europa  Shkoder

 11 Opinions

 Hotels in Shkoder

86 Hotels in Albania
 
Explore the World
Travel Destinations
Travel Highlights

The Place

Reviews and photos of Albania attractions posted by real travelers and locals. The best tips for Albania sightseeing.

Experience Albania
Things to Do: Cities in Albania
  1. Tirana Things to Do
  2. Shkoder Things to Do
  3. Durres Things to Do
  4. Sarande Things to Do
  5. Berat Things to Do
  6. Vlore Things to Do
  7. Korce Things to Do
  8. Gjirokaster Things to Do
  9. Kruje Things to Do
  10. Dhermi Things to Do
  11. Permet Things to Do
  12. Lezhe Things to Do
  13. Divjake Things to Do
  14. Elbasan Things to Do
  15. Butrint Things to Do
  16. Voskopoje Things to Do
  17. Dardhe Things to Do
  18. Vuno Things to Do
  19. Bajram Curri Things to Do
  20. Llogora Things to Do
  21. Pogradec Things to Do
  22. Qeparo Things to Do
  23. Fushe-Kruje Things to Do
  24. Burrel Things to Do
  25. Konispol Things to Do
  26. Ishull-Lezhe Things to Do
  27. Delvine Things to Do
  28. Fier Things to Do
  29. Lukove Things to Do
  30. Shengjin Things to Do
  31. Peshkopi Things to Do
  32. Pojan Things to Do
  33. Rubik Things to Do
  34. Gojan i Eperm Things to Do

More Cities in Albania

 

Popular Regions in Albania

Bashkia e Tiranës Things to Do  Rrethi i Vlores Things to Do  Rrethi i Sarandes Things to Do  Rrethi i Shkodres Things to Do  Rrethi i Korces Things to Do  Rrethi i Durresit Things to Do  Rrethi i Beratit Things to Do  Rrethi i Krujes Things to Do  Rrethi i Gjirokastres Things to Do  Rrethi i Lezhes Things to Do  Rrethi i Elbasanit Things to Do  Rrethi i Permetit Things to Do  Rrethi i Lushnjes Things to Do  Rrethi i Tropojes Things to Do  Rrethi i Dibres Things to Do 

More Regions in Albania

Questions and Answers

Drugness profile photo

Q:  Hello all I'm planning to visit Albania in 2012 and i need every bit of advice going. There doesn't seem to be a huge amount of... 

cachaseiro profile photo

A: I have been to Albania several times over the years and i would say you should try and make a visit to Berat aswell as Girokaster. These places are very scenic places... 

Read 13 Replies

postQuestion_button

Click here for best deals for Albania

Save money, Book now !
Booking.com Excellent choice, Low rates
Great Prices, Great Rooms
hotels.com We Know Hotels Inside And Out. Click or call now: 1-800-914-6835
Vacation Package Specialists
Expedia Vacations Save on flight + hotel packages. Click or call now: 1 - 800-713-8214
Save on Air + Hotel ? Book a Getaway Today!
hotels.com Vacations The One Stop Shop for Your Next Trip. Click or call now: 1-800-764-6835

Sponsored Links