5 Albanian cities you must visit if you love history and nature

The map of Albania has never been flat. It’s always been crumpled – caught between mountains and sea, East and West, faith and resistance, past and future. And maybe that’s why its cities aren’t sterile sightseeing stages, but entire books – chapters where things still breathe that have long been forgotten elsewhere.

This isn’t a list of “top destinations.” This is an invitation to discover five cities that still have character.

1. GJIROKASTËR – A CITY BUILT OF STONE AND SECRETS

Gjirokastër looks like it was assembled stone by stone, like a dry-stone wall – only with the intention that you don’t understand it immediately. Here, stone is everything: roof, street, wall, shadow. Narrow alleys wind between houses that resemble fortresses, and in every room there’s an old lamp, a canopy bed, or a vanity no one makes anymore. Beneath the fortress, hidden underground, lies a nearly one-kilometer-long anti-communist tunnel – still as cold as the era that built it.

Why visit? Because here, even history doesn’t act like it’s finished. Every cobblestone whispers – though not necessarily the truth.

Gjirokaster, Photo: ShkelzenRexha, CC BY-SA 4.0

2. SHKODËR – A CITY WHERE NO ONE JUDGES YOU FOR JUST SITTING AND WATCHING

If Albania has a heart that knows how to both think and feel, it’s Shkodër. A city of bicycles, artists, and a lake that behaves like the sea. Everything here feels spacious – the views and the spirit of the people. In the Rozafa Fortress, the story of a woman walled in to save the city sounds less like a legend and more like a bitter truth that’s easier to sing than explain. The city is also home to the oldest photo-documentary archive in the Balkans – the Marubi collection, a visual witness to an entire nation.

Why visit? Because even history here knows how to smile. And because, for the first time on the Balkans, you’ll see an old woman riding a bike with a basket full of flowers – and it won’t seem strange at all.

Marubi National Museum of Photography, Shkodra, Photo: Marina Binoshaj – Phone, CC BY-SA 4.0

3. KRUJË – A CITY OF PRIDE CARVED INTO STONE

Krujë doesn’t ask if you’re ready – it simply shows you who it is and why it matters. On the slope of Mount Sari Salltëk, above a dramatic Albanian valley, stands a fortress that never fell to the Ottomans. Below it winds the old bazaar: cobblestone alleys, handmade crafts, copper teapots, and carpets with Skanderbeg’s face – not as souvenirs, but as reminders that history here is still alive. The Skanderbeg Museum dominates the fortress, but the true power of the place is in the atmosphere – in the people, the scents, and the looks that say more than any guidebook ever could.

Why visit? Because this is a city where identity isn’t a topic – it’s the space you walk through, the air you breathe, and the view that stays with you. A place where Albania remembers most clearly who it is.

Kruje, Photo: Adria.fun

4. POGRADEC – GUARDIAN OF ALBANIA’S SIDE OF LAKE OHRID

Pogradec, located on the southeastern shore of Lake Ohrid, offers something today’s travelers often miss – a quiet that isn’t empty, but full of meaning. Days here begin slowly, with the rhythm of boats gliding across the lake and elderly men playing dominoes in the shade of plane trees. Once part of the Roman Via Egnatia, the landscape still carries that same sense of connection to nature, to people, and to time that doesn’t rush.

Just outside town, in Drilon, water springs from the earth so clear that even the stones on the bottom seem untouched. The local cuisine brings lake trout and cornbread to the table, while evenings along the promenade carry the scent of grilled fish, music, and a soft sense of nostalgia that needs no explanation.

Why visit? Because Pogradec doesn’t try to impress – it simply exists, in rhythm with nature and memory, quietly inviting you in. And that’s exactly when it gives you the most.

Pogradec, Drilon Park, Photo: Bunker92, CC BY-SA 4.0

5. KORÇË – THE CITY WHERE THE BALKANS WEAR A BOW TIE

Korçë is Albania in a suit – not because it’s pretending to be refined, but because it truly is. The first school in the Albanian language? Right here. A French lycée from 1917? Also here. A cathedral, a park, a café with thick stone walls, and an even thicker past. Autumn here smells like chestnut, wood, and something you can’t quite name – but you know it’s nostalgia. And as you sip a beer brewed since 1928, you might not even realize that just a few streets away stands the National Museum with over 700 medieval icons.

Why visit? Because there aren’t many places where flipping through a book and pouring a beer feel equally meaningful, and make perfect sense together.

Old Bazaar, Korce, Photo: Sali Jonuz

If you’re planning a trip through Albania, these five cities are a great place to start. Just stop, walk, taste – and carry with you whatever makes you stay a little longer.