6 top interesting places in Albania worth visiting .
Albania is a fascinating country that is worth to explore. There are several reasons for that.
First, not so many tourists have visited this country yet because Albania was closed for several decades due to dictatorial regime.
Secondly, people are extremely nice here who will help you in any situation, even if they don’t understand your language.
Thirdly, transport connection is being developed extremely quickly in Albania. The roads to all attractions are qualitative and you will often come across highways.
Fourthly, Albania – is cheap country with quality food and a wide range since it’s a warm country.
Fifth, Albania is a sunny country where the sun is shining 300 days a year. If these reason didn’t persuade you to go to Albania for your next trip, we suggest seeing the most interesting places of this colorful country on the map and a brief story about them.
Albania is a country that is washed by the sea on its one side over the entire length. Even more – by two seas: Ionian and Adriatic. The Ionian Sea washes the whole Albanian Riviera, where there are unique beaches at every kilometer. There’s only one thing in common in all of them – the color and purity of water. Many other popular resorts may envy this blueness. Among all the beautiful beaches, Gjipe is worth mentioning as far as this beach is located in a place detached from civilization and infrastructure. You will need a 20 minute walk by the steep road from the parking place or drive on an off-roader (the road is very rocky, there are large rocks and deep cavities).
In summer, during the season entrepreneurs come or sail here and open small vans with some food and rent out loungers. However, on such a large area you equally feel face to face with majestic nature: purplish-green rocks stand on sides and big waves rise in front. It’s beautiful and inspiring on Gjipe beach. This place is located a few kilometers from the settlements where you can find accommodation and dine out. About other interesting beaches of Albania read in description here.
There’s a small village built during the Ottoman rule in this land in central Albania. The peculiarity of this town is that the houses are built close to each other and all have more than three or five windows, i.e. to the full width of the wall. In general a picture of picturesque houses and their numerous windows is formed. Everything against the background of mountains and the river. This is a town of Berat or city of thousand windows.
You can come to Berat for a few days, there are plenty of beauty and places worth visiting. For example, climb to the top of the mountain to the castle, where you can admire 360-degree views including the houses on the opposite side of the river. In general, Berat is divided into three parts: two of which are historic houses on both sides of the river, and the other one central, more modern with a new luxurious university. Read more about Berat here.
Albania is a mountainous country, and, for sure, there are roads through the mountains, numerous mountain groups. The most beautiful and most impressive road is Llogara Pass located in Llogara National Park. After crossing the highest point of the pass, which is 2,018 meters, you can contemplate the superb views of the Albanian Riviera and it’s the end of the pass when you can swim in the waters of the Ionian Sea (on the other side there’s the Adriatic Sea).
Llogara Pass is immensely beautiful. You can see the entire Albanian Riviera and even the beginning of Greece in the distance. The road with good surface, with sharp turns and stops for cars to admire landscapes. Read more information here.
The capital of Albania is Tirana – perhaps one of the least known names in Europe. This won’t last long, since Albania walks forward with long strides, actively getting rid of remnants of the past under dictatorship of communism. Tirana city will surprise you with bright colors and space, new and state-of-the-art buildings and still preserved dictator’s objects.
For example, the Pyramid of dictator Hoxha. This building is closed, nobody wants to rebuild it into museum – and that’s what it was intended for. On the contrary, Albanians want to turn this page of history and build something useful on this site. And now people have fun here climbing to the top at an angle of 45 degrees and then sliding back as snails, little by little, as it’s quite high. This is the unique feature of the capital of Albania. And it’s also interesting to walk and look at the country which differs from all others. Different cultures merged together and formed a new common one. So you can find similarities to Europe and Asia. More about the weekend in Tirana read here.
Gjirokastra – the town of thousand steps. Why such a name? – because the town was built at the foot of the mountain in Ottoman-style architecture. There are many narrow streets, which you should climb up or down. There’s ancient architecture preserved in Gjirokastra as well as in Berat, which is enlisted by UNESCO.
Here the roofs of the houses are made only of stones, without any gluing materials. It’s interesting to walk on the streets and see houses not typical for Europe. To walk down and up the stairs, visit the castle on the mountain top, walk in the underpass beneath the castle and taste the Albanian börek (pies with cheese and spinach). Read more here.
Finally the most interesting and the most amazing natural phenomenon located in Albania. This is the Blue Eye (Syri and Kalter) – a spring more than 50 meters in depth! It was named the Blue Eye through the water color and eye-like shape of the very spring. It’s so beautiful here that you don’t want to go away. You want to admire all this beauty and nature nearby: a large river that was formed from this spring, lots of greenery around. It’s always cool here, the water has 12 degree temperature, cools well in summer. This is a place for inspiration.
And near the Blue Eye good people did a swing. So you can swing for a while above the water, surrounded by heavenly beauty. Blue Eye – undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places in Europe and the Balkan countries. How to get there see here.
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