8

Days

14

Max Travellers

€980

From / Person

Easy–Moderate

Difficulty

1

Arrive Tirana

📍 Tirana

Welcome to Albania’s colourful capital. Tirana has transformed dramatically in the past two decades from a grey post-communist city into one of the Balkans’ most dynamic and visually striking capitals. Your Inside Balkan guide meets you at the hotel for an introductory walking tour: Skanderbeg Square (dominated by the equestrian statue of Albania’s national hero), the Et’hem Bey Mosque, the National History Museum with its famous socialist-realist mosaic facade, and the Blloku neighbourhood — once the exclusive compound of communist leader Enver Hoxha, now the city’s trendiest district of cafés, restaurants and boutiques.

The evening ends with dinner at one of Tirana’s excellent traditional restaurants, where the menu features the full range of Albanian cuisine: fergëse (peppers, tomatoes and cheese), tave kosi (lamb baked in yogurt), byrek (flaky pastry with meat or cheese), and the extraordinary Albanian raki.

Overnight: Boutique hotel in Tirana

2

Tirana → Berat

📍 Tirana → Berat

After breakfast, the group transfers south to Berat — a two-hour drive through the Albanian lowlands. Berat earned its UNESCO World Heritage status in 2008 and it takes approximately five minutes of walking through the lower city to understand why. The town’s signature image — hundreds of Ottoman houses stacked up the hillside, each with a distinctive large window, hence ‘City of a Thousand Windows’ — is one of the most architecturally distinctive sights in the Balkans.

The afternoon is devoted to the Berat Castle Citadel, which contains a remarkable collection of Byzantine churches, including the Church of the Holy Trinity with its 13th-century frescoes, and the Onufri Museum — housing the finest collection of Albanian medieval religious art in the world. Below the castle, the Gorica neighbourhood across the Osum River bridge offers quieter, less-visited streets of equal beauty. The day ends with a wine tasting at a local family winery producing Berat’s famous Shesh i Zi red variety.

Overnight: Boutique hotel in Berat

3

Berat → Gjirokastër

📍 Berat → Gjirokastër

The drive south from Berat to Gjirokastër passes through the Permet wine region — stop at a roadside distillery for a taste of the local raki molle (apple raki) — before climbing into the mountain landscape of southern Albania. Gjirokastër, which received UNESCO status alongside Berat in 2005, is an Ottoman stone city of extraordinary atmosphere: cobbled streets, grey-slate roofs, multi-storey stone towers, and a huge fortress dominating the skyline.

Arriving in the late afternoon allows time for an unguided evening wander through the old bazaar (pazari i vjetër) before a dinner of the city’s famous tave kosi — slow-roasted lamb with a thick yogurt and egg sauce that has been the signature dish of Gjirokastër for centuries.

Overnight: Stone hotel in Gjirokastër

4

Gjirokastër Full Day & Blue Eye

📍 Gjirokastër

A full day to explore Gjirokastër properly. The morning begins at the castle fortress, which houses a remarkably well-preserved American spy plane shot down over Albanian airspace in 1957 — a bizarre and fascinating artefact of the Cold War. The castle also offers the finest panoramic views over the city’s extraordinary roofscape.

Below the castle, the Zekate House is the best-preserved Ottoman mansion in Albania: two soaring tower floors with elaborately painted wooden ceilings, a guest reception room with a fireplace the size of a small room, and views over the valley from its latticed wooden balconies. The afternoon is spent at the Blue Eye (Syri i Kaltër) — a natural spring 30 kilometres from Gjirokastër where a river erupts from underground with extraordinary force into a pool of startling blue-green clarity. Swimming is possible in the calmer sections near the bank.

Overnight: Stone hotel in Gjirokastër

5

Gjirokastër → Butrint → Sarandë

📍 Gjirokastër → Sarandë

The final Albanian highland morning before descending to the coast. After breakfast, the group drives to Butrint National Park — forty minutes south of Gjirokastër on the Greek border. Butrint is one of the most complete and atmospheric ancient sites in the Mediterranean: a fortified city continuously occupied from the 7th century BC through the Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Venetian periods. The site sits on a small peninsula in a lagoon, surrounded by forest, and the combination of ancient stonework and natural setting is genuinely magical.

From Butrint, it is a short drive to Sarandë — the main Riviera town, with a sweeping seafront promenade and the Greek island of Corfu visible across the strait. The afternoon is spent at Ksamil, four kilometres south of Sarandë, where four small islands sit in water so clear that the sand beneath is visible from the shore.

Overnight: Seafront hotel in Sarandë

6

Albanian Riviera Drive

📍 Sarandë → Himara

The Riviera drive from Sarandë north to Himara is one of the great coastal roads in Europe — a corniche that clings to cliffs above the Ionian Sea, dropping into coves and olive groves, rising to panoramic headlands, and passing through a succession of villages that feel entirely removed from modern tourism.

Key stops include: the beach at Borsh beneath some of the oldest olive trees in the world (planted during the Roman period), the hilltop village of Qeparo with its abandoned old town, Livadhi beach — one of the Riviera’s finest — and Himara itself, a town with a Greek-Albanian mixed heritage and some of the best fish restaurants on the coast. Lunch is at a family-run taverna where the fish was in the sea that morning.

Overnight: Hotel in Himara

7

Dhërmi & Llogara Pass

📍 Himara → Vlorë

A morning swim at Dhërmi — widely considered the most beautiful beach on the Albanian Riviera, with water the colour of a swimming pool and a fine pebble shore. After the swim, the group begins the climb to the Llogara Pass (1,027 metres) — a dramatic mountain road that switchbacks up through pine forest before breaking out onto an open ridge with panoramic views over the entire Riviera below and the Bay of Vlorë ahead.

The descent brings the group to Vlorë — Albania’s second port city and the place where the country’s independence was declared in 1912. The Independence Monument and the Ethnographic Museum provide context for an early-evening city walk. Dinner on the Vlorë waterfront.

Overnight: Hotel in Vlorë

8

Vlorë → Tirana — Farewell Day

📍 Vlorë → Tirana

A final morning in Vlorë: the Independence Museum covers Albania’s fascinating and tumultuous 20th-century history from Ottoman province to communist isolation to modern republic. The drive back to Tirana follows the Adriatic highway north with views of the coast. A farewell lunch is served at a traditional restaurant en route before arrival in Tirana for evening flights.

Tour ends in Tirana

Yes, the Albanian Riviera & Ruins tour is one of Inside Balkan’s most family-friendly itineraries. The beaches at Ksamil and Dhërmi are calm and safe for swimming. The UNESCO sites at Berat, Gjirokastër and Butrint are fascinating for children with some historical context provided by the guide. Inside Balkan recommends this tour for families with children aged 8 and above. Younger children are welcome but parents should be aware of some steep cobbled streets in the old towns.

Excellent. The Albanian Riviera has some of the clearest and cleanest water in the Mediterranean. Ksamil offers shallow, protected coves ideal for snorkelling. Dhërmi has a beautiful open bay. Himara and Livadhi offer good swimming with a livelier beach atmosphere. Inside Balkan builds dedicated swimming time into Days 5, 6, and 7. The Ionian Sea is typically swimmable from May through October.

Absolutely. Inside Balkan can arrange extended accommodation in Sarandë or Ksamil after the tour ends. Many travellers choose to spend 3–5 additional days on the Riviera independently after the structured tour finishes. We can also arrange a connecting ferry to Corfu, Greece, from Sarandë port — a 45-minute crossing that runs daily in season.

The Blue Eye (Syri i Kaltër) is one of Albania’s most extraordinary natural phenomena: a natural spring where an underground river erupts from a 50-metre deep pool with such force that the water boils and swirls in mesmerising patterns. The colour — a deep, electric blue-green — is unlike anything most travellers have seen. It is genuinely one of the most remarkable natural sites in the Balkans and Inside Balkan considers it unmissable on any southern Albania itinerary.

Butrint is not a detour — it is a highlight. Inside Balkan considers it one of the top five archaeological sites in the entire Balkans. The combination of Greek theatre, Roman baths, early Christian baptistery with mosaic floors, Byzantine basilica, and Venetian towers — all set in a lagoon surrounded by protected forest — is remarkable. UNESCO listed it in 1992 and it deserves the designation. Allow at least two hours to walk the site properly with your guide.

Albanian cuisine is one of the great undiscovered culinary traditions of Europe. Inside Balkan deliberately builds food into the heart of this tour: fresh fish on the Riviera, slow-cooked lamb in Gjirokastër, Byzantine-influenced cheese and honey in Berat, and excellent local wine throughout. Albania produces its own grape varieties — Shesh i Zi, Kallmet, and Muskat i Shkodrës — and the quality has risen sharply in the past decade. Your guide will always recommend the right dish and the right wine at every stop.

Albania is a safe destination for tourists and has been for many years. Inside Balkan has been operating since 2015 and has taken thousands of international visitors through the country without a single serious safety incident. The main things to be aware of are: road quality on mountain routes (managed by Inside Balkan’s experienced drivers), petty theft in Tirana’s busy areas (use common sense with valuables), and sun and heat on the Riviera in July–August (drink water and use sunscreen). Albania is genuinely one of the friendliest and most welcoming countries in Europe.

The Inside Balkan tour price covers all accommodation (7 nights), daily breakfast, expert guide services, all transport between destinations, the Ksamil boat excursion, and all listed entry fees. Not included are international flights, travel insurance, most lunches and dinners, personal purchases, and tips. Inside Balkan recommends budgeting approximately €30–50 per day for meals and personal expenses, as Albania remains very affordable by Western European standards.