Last updated: May 2026
Albania completely surprised us. We expected beautiful mountains and good food, but what we didn’t expect were the atmospheric old towns and cities that quickly became some of our favourite places in the Balkans. We were blown away time after time visiting some of these places. It still feels far more underrated than it deserves, even if more travellers have started discovering it in recent years. We didn’t visit all of Albania during our trip there, and since we went in winter, we didn’t visit the coast. But these are our favorite places to visit in Albania:
Gjirokastër
Gjirokastër was our favourite town in Albania. The old town looked like it was taken straight out of a fairytale, with beautiful architecture, a big castle on the top of the hill, and incredible views over mountains. We were speechless every morning waking up to the amazing views from the AirBnb we rented, and just stood for 5 minutes in awe before we could go about our day. Gjirokastër is a great stop for any traveler in Albania.
Read our full Gjirokastër guide here.
Berat
Berat is blessed with a super pretty little old town and a living castle with amazing views over the mountains. This is one of the main places to visit when in Albania, but one can definitely see why with the small cobbled alleys and unique architecture. We loved wandering the cobbled streets, which completely changed atmosphere depending on the time of day. There’s also a lot of visit in the area, including vineyards.
Read more about Berat here.
Korçë
Korçë is a cute small city with an old bazaar area and some beautiful architecture. There’s also a lot of places to visit in the surrounding area – like small mountain villages and hiking etc. Our favorite part of this city was the food – it is famous for it, and there’s no shortage of restaurants serving yummy Albanian cuisine.
Read our full Korçë guide here.
Shkodër
Shkodër is in the northern part of Albania, close to the border to Montenegro. It’s a beautiful small city with loads of history and architecture to see. A small city centre with loads of places to sit for a cup of coffee and a lively market on weekends. We loved the atmosphere here.
Read all about our Shkodër experience here.
