I lived 2 months in Vlore and visited other cities and places,  let me tell you what is worth visiting in my opinion and what is just IG tourist attraction. You will read about Vlore, Kruje, Gjirokaster, Berat, Ksamil, Saranda and the most beautiful hike of my life.

Gjirokaster, Albánie

Vlora, Albánie

Pogradec, Albánie

Krujë, Albánie

Ksamil, Albánie

Albania - what is worth visiting there?

Vlora is an amazing city with a great community. At first it might seem as a city full of retired people, but there is so many friendly and welcoming young people! And honestly, it is so peaceful to watch elderly people walking by the beach before sunset time 😍

Vlora has some nice spots to enjoy coffee and great desserts and I will share my fav with you! What I liked there the most is that you can sit there for hours with one coffee and nobody will look at you with the eyes saying "get the f**k out 🙃 My Albanian friends also told me it is okay to bring food from other place. That is something not respectful from my country haha.

Pastiçeri Arioli

Any place called "Arioli" or "Furre Buke Karabash" will have great desserts and cheap as well. In Krabash try also their "burek", I loved it! Cheese was my favourite one.

FURRE BUKE KARABASH

Corner café

My apartment was literally just above the biggest supermarket there. It has everything you need from food, veggies and fruits to kitchen supplies and everything.

Haso supermarket

I can totally recommend 2 places to search for doing stuff and making friends.

2) Vlora hiking is a group of mainly older people (40+), but sometimes younger join. I got to join them for a weekend at the Ohrid lake in Pogradec. We saw the city, had amazing dinner with singing and dancing local dances and the next day we did a hike. We had so much fun and the whole weekend was not expensive at all. Again someone always speak English well, the man organising (forgot his name, shame on me haha) is very sweet and speaks decent English. They do also one day hikes every weekend usually.

City Fitness Club 

Vlora Hiking

👉🏼 Walk by the beach is always a great idea especially during sunset time. My favorite thing was sitting at this little hill and just watching life happening 😊

Vlora pyramid

👉🏼 This area is beautiful for a walk or maybe better if you rent a bicycle! I was going there with my surfskate and it was fun and the the best thing is the fresh air there. Or are you a runner? Then the road is for you too 💪🏼

Mon Cheri

Forest area

👉🏼 Vlora old town is small,  but extremely cute and will make you feel like you are in a different city ✨Once you are there, stop in Komiteti bar. Amazing for both afternoon coffee or evening drink.

Komiteti Bar 

👉🏼 Vlore view point. On the way there visit also the cemetery, it is just by the city center. Both cemetery and viewpoint give you amazing view of the city 😊

View point

👉🏼 Kanine castle is my favourite place in Vlore. It is necessary to have a car to go there or well a bicycle, but good luck with going up by bike haha. Amazing views and for sunset might be the best place. I am not sure about the situation in summer, but I stayed in Vlore October and November and it was just empty! Usually just one small group of locals visiting. 

Kanine castle

here is where I left my car to visit Kanine castle

👉🏼 This was a place I found randomly driving around with my friend. It has nice area and view of mountains and this wiggling bridge is just fun to cross haha. Once there, have lunch or dinner at the Mondial restaurant where you can also park your car.

bridge location

👉🏼 Narta lagoon feels like being in a National Geography. I would recommend going there with a binoculars if you have. We took a drone and got amazing shots of hundreds of flamingos by the sunset. It was hard to see them with our eyes tho. You can still see some birds close by anyway. Beautiful place. Be respectful please 😊

Narta lagoon, bird watching area

You can get easily around walking, but for some nice places around you would definitely need a vehicle. I had my own car so unfortunately cannot help with buses. Those go to another bigger cities, but the places I will recommend to you will need a car.

👉🏼 Apollonia archeological park is also a nice place to visit if you like history or just want to see something different. I don't remember the entrance price but should be around 6 euro.

Apollonia Archaeological Park

☕️ Bonaparte is a good places to connect with a walk. They have very good coffee as well as it is a perfect place for evening glass of wine or whiskey.

Bonaparte 

Another places to do groceries are Conad, Big Market and they also have Spar in Vlore.

👉🏼 Karaburun peninsula hike - Karaburun peninsula was recently opened for hikers again, so we went to enjoy a nice hike over the peninsula to a beautiful beach and back. On the way you will see some old bunkers and over all it is not a difficult hike. Don't forget sun protection and enough water 😊 For any hike anywhere in the world I recommend Mapy.cz app. It has also offline maps, so download them before starting any hike. This app saved my life many times 😁

starting point

the beach

We spent one weekend at Ksamil. Beginning of October was still beautiful hot weather, BUT - almost no people :) Can't imagine the summer there. We stayed at this beach 👇🏼

You can fight with them a bit about the price and you won't pay much, don't give up 😄. We headed then to spend night Saranda and honestly I did not like the city much. We just walked a bit in the evening to get dinner and in the morning, but that is it. As a city it did not impress me.

Ksamil beach

Anyway not far is a great and interesting place to visit - Butrint National Archeological Park - BE CAREFUL - turn off automatic switch for roaming. You might get connected to Greece 😄

Butrint National Archaeological Park

The most beautiful on this trip tho was the way from Vlora to Sarande and back. We went by the road between mountains and it was nice road most of the way with stunning views. 😍

Berat is definitely a nice city to visit, it is famous for it's buildings. We made it as a one day trip as from Vlora it is only 1,5h by car. We visited obviously the castle from where is a beautiful view of the whole city and just walked around.

I am sure you heard about this place. We went there and my honest opinion is - nothing special. It it a beautiful place, yes, but only to take picture and go back. You just walk around and watch turquoise water.There are many signs not to swim and enter the water yet many stupid people with 0 respect do swim there. It is the place that is overrated. But up to you to visit. Just please, follow the rules 😊

For lunch or dinner I recommend the restaurant we visited. It was good, cheap and owners were really nice 😊

Temi Albanian Food 

Gjirokastër was my solo trip. I took a car and drove there on a weekend to spend one night. It was raining half of the ttirp, but rainproof jacket and good energy made me enjoy it anyway 😊 Have in mind that the city is on a hill and pretty steep, so be ready for a bit f aa workout walking around 😂 On Saturday when I arrived I went on a hike from Asim Zeneli. My goal was to reach the "Parku Arkeologjik Antigone", but it started to rain a bit and was getting closer to sunset so I turned back. It was still beautiful time in the nature and on the way back I got stuck in 3 min traffic due to sheeps going back home 😁❤️

I spend a night in this accommodation, location was good, owner nice but it was a bit humid tho. Luckily the AC was working fine on a heating mode.

Room Click inn

For cheap food I recommend this place, I had last few lek in cash and managed to eat well 😁 My pita was around 4 euros.

The next day I had breakfast here and mamma mia, all the desserts 👀

Souvlaki Alfa

Antigonea 2000 

Finished my trip visiting the castle and then headed to an amazing place I randomly found on google maps. Let me just tell you that the road leading there was the nicest road I ever drove by and made me stop at least 4 times. With tears in my eyes 🥲

And then walked down to see an amazing waterfall. To reach it, use mapy.cz app and not google maps. You have to jump over the barrier and go down. Take good shoes and be careful. It is worth it!

🚗

Kruje is honestly a place I could have skipped. It is a nice town, yes, but very small. You can connect it with Tirana as they are 1h far away by car and from what I know, also connected by bus. We stayed a night as driving from Vlore was a bit far and we connected it with a special place. 👀 Our accommodation was very nice, cheap and with great breakfast. The owner was super sweet and caring. 

Not far from there is an amazing viewpoint on Bovilla lake. To be honest, I was praying for my car to survive as the road there is not the best, but maybe by this time it is better 😂. This is where we parked:

It can be a bit challenging if you are scared of heights, but it was really beautiful place.

Villa HK

And on the way back to your car you have to stop to eat at this restaurant. We ordered chicken with noodles for 4 people and not only that we were not able to finish how big the portion was, but it was really delicious.

Albania - what is worth visiting there?

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