Turquoise at noon, stone cities by dinner.
Which Blue Eye day leaves time at Butrint. Whether the Sazan speedboat beats the Ksamil ferry. What the Theth road costs in August. Every tour in Albania, priced and reviewed.
The days people come to Albania for.
A spring nobody has found the bottom of, islands you can wade to, a Roman city in the marsh, a bazaar under wooden eaves, sea caves the boat drives into and the road over the Alps. Six days most trips are built around.
One day on the Ionian, three ways to spend it.
All Saranda tours →
Butrint and the Blue Eye in one loop, five islands off Ksamil, or a speedboat under the Karaburun cliffs. These three carry the most travellers; the full list splits the rest by how much of the day you want in the water.
Blue Eye, Butrint and Lekursi in one sweep
Spring water cold enough to hurt, the Roman theatre under the oaks, then the castle terrace when the light goes gold over Corfu.
Five islands and the twins off Ksamil
Shallow turquoise you can stand up in, a run out to the twin islands, and enough anchor time to earn lunch on the sand.
Sazan, Haxhi Ali cave and the Karaburun cliffs
Out of Vlore at speed to a former military island, into a cave the boat drives inside, then Grama Bay for the long swim.
Tirana is a coffee city with a bunker underneath it.
The capital keeps its cold-war decades in two converted command bunkers and spends the rest of the day over macchiato on Rruga e Kavajës. Almost every day trip in the country leaves from here too: the lake hike at Bovilla, the bazaar at Kruja, the canyon at Osumi.
Bovilla, Kruja, Sazan: the ones everyone books.
Every Albanian review →More travellers take these than anything else in the country, and each earns its day for a different reason.
1
Bovilla Lake & Gamti Mountain Hiking Day Trip
Hike Bovilla Lake and Gamti Mountain from Tirana for panoramic views, guided culture stories, and easy transfers. $12 for a full day.
From · $12
Read our review →
2
Kruja Castle, Old Bazaar & Sari Salltik View
from $23
3
Sazan Island, Haxhi Ali Cave, and Karaburun Boat Tour
from $35
4
Saranda, Ksamil, Blue Eye Day Trip
from $57
5
From Tirana/Shkodra: Komani Lake and Shala River Day Trip
from $60
6
Kruja Castle & Old Bazaar Day Tour
from $27
7
2 Hour Guided Hidden Treasures Sightseeing Tour
from $15
8
Lekursi Castle, Blue Eye, Gjirokaster, & More Tour
from $47
North of Shkodra the road runs out and a ferry takes over.
One boat a day works up the Drin gorge to Fierza, cliffs closing to a few boat-widths, water the colour of jade. Behind it the Shala river runs cold and clear, and Theth and Valbona sit either side of a pass walkers cross in one long summer day.
Fifty dollars still buys a whole day in Albania.
Every tour on the site by what it actually costs, from a castle morning to a chartered boat down the Riviera.
Castle mornings, bazaar walks, city food routes and the short boat runs off Ksamil.
The full-day classics: Blue Eye and Butrint, Bovilla, the Komani ferry, the Sazan speedboat.
Private drivers, chartered boats and the multi-day crossings into the Alps.
Berat and Gjirokaster stack their windows up the hill.
Two Ottoman towns kept their slate roofs and their castles: Berat above the Osum, Gjirokaster above the Drino. Between them run the canyon rafts, the thermal pools on the Vjosa and the bazaar at Kruja — the inland half of a trip most people spend on the coast.
- 1Kruja Castle, Old Bazaar & Sari Salltik Viewfrom $23
- 2Kruja Castle & Old Bazaar Day Tourfrom $27
- 3Lekursi Castle, Blue Eye, Gjirokaster, & More Tourfrom $47
Albania keeps a bunker on every hill and a ferry where the road ends.
Castles and clear water run the length of this coast. The concrete domes, the Drin gorge boat and the cold blue of Syri i Kaltër are Albania’s alone.
The Bunkers
Enver Hoxha spent four decades of cement on pillbox domes: in gardens, on beaches, along every ridge line, by most counts more than a hundred thousand of them. Two of the big command bunkers in Tirana are museums now, cold and low-ceilinged, and both reward an unhurried two hours rather than the twenty minutes a city tour allows.
- 1ATV Guided Tour in Kallm with Secret Bunker Visit★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 164 reviews
- 2Tirana’s Communist Past; Small Group Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 59 reviews
- 3A Communist Manifesto: Tirana before and after★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 50 reviews
The Komani Ferry
There is no road up the Drin gorge, so the ferry is the road. It loads cars, crates and hikers at the dam wall and pushes three hours upstream to Fierza between cliffs that close to a few boat-widths. Most day trips break off into the Shala river, where the water runs shallow and cold enough to swim in July.
- 1From Tirana/Shkodra: Komani Lake and Shala River Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,520 reviews
- 2Tirana/Durres/Shkodra: Shala River and Koman Lake Boat Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 409 reviews
- 3Koman: Shala River Boat Tour & Komani Lake★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 309 reviews
Syri i Kaltër
The Blue Eye is a karst spring nobody has reached the bottom of; divers have gone past fifty metres and the water still comes up from below. It holds around ten degrees all year, which is why the swim lasts about four seconds and the photograph lasts the rest of the trip.
- 1Saranda, Ksamil, Blue Eye Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,584 reviews
- 2Lekursi Castle, Blue Eye, Gjirokaster, & More Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 884 reviews
- 3Blue Eye Spring and Lekursi Castle Sunset Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 798 reviews
Four Albanian days that will not wait for your flight to land.
Most of this country can be booked the night before from your guesthouse. These four cannot: one daily boat, one short snowmelt season, a landing the navy still controls and a mountain road that only opens in summer.
- 01From Tirana/Shkodra: Komani Lake and Shala River Day TripOne passenger boat a day runs the gorge, and the seat comes bundled with a minibus from Shkodra. Summer sailings go days ahead.
- 02Sazan Island, Haxhi Ali Cave, and Karaburun Boat TourSazan is still a military island. You land only with an approved boat, and the licensed summer runs fill first.
- 03Hiking Tour of Valbona, Theth & Blue Eye in 3 Days from TiranaThe pass is a summer road. The crossing runs while it is clear of snow, and the valley has only a handful of beds.
- 04Osumi Canyon Rafting/River Tubing TourThe canyon runs on snowmelt. Rafting is a spring-to-early-summer window, and the trips stop when the river drops.
Every Albanian town walks its xhiro before dinner.
Evening tours in Albania →
Albanian Night Show: Traditional Music, Dance & Dinner in Tirana
Read our review →
When the rain comes off the Adriatic, cook and drink instead.
Albania takes more rain than almost anywhere in Europe and most of it lands between November and March. The answers are all indoors: a cooking class over byrek and tavë kosi, raki poured in somebody’s cellar, the bunker museums under Tirana, the Kruja bazaar under its wooden roof.
Tirana down to Ksamil, the way most first trips run.
Tirana
Kruja
Berat
Gjirokaster
KsamilBy base — where you sleep decides your days
By kind of day — what suits the afternoon?
Just reviewed, from Shkodra to Ksamil.
The rest of the new ones →
Bike Tour Tirana with Local Guide in English or Czech
Read our review →
N. Macedonia, Kosovo & Albania; Semi – Private Tour
Read our review →
Pellumbas Cave Tour and Petrela Castle from Tirana
Read our review →
From Dubrovnik: Private 2-Day Albania and Montenegro Tour
Read our review →
Durrës Vespa Tour: King Zog’s Villa, Amphitheater & Swim
Read our review →
Bunk’Art 1 & Dajti Cable Car: History, Heights, and a Scenic Ride
Read our review →
Ancient City of Durres with Sun and Sea Views Tour
Read our review →
