Berat & Gjirokastra: Visiting Albania's UNESCO Towns (2026)

Albania’s two UNESCO-listed towns tell the same story in different stone. Berat and Gjirokastra are both remarkably intact Ottoman towns — the kind of places where the architecture is the sight — and together they make the case for heading inland from Albania’s beaches. Here’s what each is like, and how to fit them into a trip.

Berat — the “city of a thousand windows”

Berat earns its nickname from the tiers of white Ottoman houses stacked up two facing hillsides, their rows of windows catching the light above the Osum river. The old quarters — Mangalem on one bank, Gorica across a stone bridge — are lived-in, not museum-piece. Above them sits Berat Castle, unusual in that people still live inside its walls, among Byzantine churches and Ottoman remains. It’s compact, walkable, and the standout half-day in central Albania.

Getting there: Berat is about 2 hours south of Tirana (~120 km) on good road — the most doable of the UNESCO towns as a day trip from the capital.

Gjirokastra — the “city of stone”

Gjirokastra is grayer, steeper and more dramatic: a hillside of grey-stone houses under heavy slate roofs, climbing toward one of the largest fortresses in the Balkans. The castle holds a weapons museum and sweeping views down the Drino valley; the old bazaar below is all cobbles and stone. It’s the birthplace of the writer Ismail Kadare, and the town’s fortified “tower houses” are unlike anything else in the region.

Getting there: Gjirokastra is about 3.5 hours south of Tirana (~230 km). Because it’s so far south, it makes most sense combined with Sarandë, the Riviera or the Blue Eye — all within an hour or so — rather than as a long there-and-back from the capital.

Day trip or overnight?

• Berat works well as a day trip from Tirana — 2 hours down, a half-day exploring, 2 hours back.
• Gjirokastra is better as part of a southern loop: en route to or from Sarandë, paired with the Blue Eye (about 40 minutes away) and Butrint near the coast.
• Both in one day is possible but rushed — they’re roughly 2.5 hours apart. Two days, with a night in one of the towns, does them justice.

A common route is Tirana → Berat → overnight → Gjirokastra → Blue Eye → Sarandë, turning two UNESCO towns and the Riviera into one unhurried trip.

Getting around

Neither town has an airport or train, and intercity buses — while they exist — run to fixed schedules that make combining stops awkward. Most visitors either rent a car or use a private driver, which is what makes the “Berat one day, Gjirokastra and the coast the next” kind of loop practical: you stop at the Blue Eye when it suits you, not when the bus leaves.

When to go

Spring and autumn (April–June, September–October) are ideal — the towns are warm but not baking, and the stone streets are far more pleasant to climb than in the July–August heat. Summer is busy and hot but fully open; winter is quiet and atmospheric, especially Gjirokastra under low cloud, though some guesthouses and restaurants scale back.

Bottom line

Do Berat as a day trip from Tirana, and save Gjirokastra for a southern loop toward the Riviera — pairing it with the Blue Eye and Butrint. Both are UNESCO-listed for good reason, and both reward slowing down; the only thing to plan carefully is how you’ll get between them, because the towns are close in spirit but a couple of hours apart on the ground.