Berat
Berat is a UNESCO World Heritage town in Albania known as the "City of a Thousand Windows," offering Ottoman architecture and hilltop castles with free entry.
Country
Albania
9 cities and towns
Albania is one of Europe’s best-kept budget secrets, with meal and accommodation costs a fraction of what you would pay in neighboring Greece or Italy. The Albanian Riviera offers Mediterranean beaches without the Mediterranean price tag, and the country’s mix of Ottoman history, mountain scenery, and genuine hospitality makes it a standout for travelers watching their wallet. The capital Tirana is the usual entry point, with the UNESCO old towns of Berat and Gjirokaster and the coastal base of Saranda easy to fold into a low-cost route. Late spring and early autumn bring warm weather and lower prices than the July and August peak.
Where to go
Cities and towns in Albania
Each one with what it costs to spend a day there.
Durres
Durres is Albania's main port and second-largest city, founded by Greek colonists in 627 BC as Epidamnos. It combines a long beach strip south of town with a city center built on top of the largest Roman amphitheater in the Balkans.
Gjirokaster
Gjirokaster is a UNESCO-listed Ottoman town built in stone, climbing the slopes of Mount Mali i Gjere above the Drino valley in southern Albania. Its grey slate roofs, fortress-like merchant houses, and the massive citadel above town make it the best-preserved Ottoman urban landscape in the country, and earn it the nickname the City of Stone.
Korce
Known as Albania's cultural capital, Korce is home to the country's first Albanian-language school, a striking Orthodox cathedral, and a growing beer festival scene.
Pogradec
Pogradec is a lake town on the Albanian shore of Lake Ohrid with Illyrian tombs, Byzantine mosaics, and a quieter, cheaper alternative to Ohrid across the border.
Sarande
Sarande is the main coastal hub of the Albanian Riviera, facing Corfu across a narrow strait roughly 2 kilometers wide. It has grown fast and built faster, but it remains the practical base for visiting Butrint, Ksamil, and the Riviera beaches south of the Llogara Pass.
Shkoder
Shkoder is the cultural capital of northern Albania and the gateway between the Adriatic, the Albanian Alps, and Lake Skadar, the largest lake in the Balkans. The pedestrianized Kole Idromeno street and surviving Ottoman-era bazaar give the center a slower, more lived-in feel than coastal Albania, and the whole old town is free to wander on foot.
Tirana
Tirana is Albania's colorful, chaotic capital where hearty meals cost a couple of euros and the walkable center is packed with free street art and communist-era landmarks.
Vlore
Vlore is where Albania declared independence from the Ottoman Empire on 28 November 1912 and where the Adriatic ends and the Ionian begins. It serves as the northern threshold of the Albanian Riviera, with the Llogara Pass climbing to roughly 1,000 meters just south of town on the coastal road toward Sarande.
Coverage of Albania is still thin. The full list is here.
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