Gjirokaster

The biggest budget win in Gjirokaster is that the whole City of Stone is free to wander: the cobbled old town, the grey slate roofs, and the 17th-century Old Bazaar below the castle cost nothing, and the bazaar still keeps coppersmiths and woodcarvers alongside family-run kitchens serving cheap mountain cooking. Spend the few euros only where it counts, on the fortress with its weapons museum and the old American spy plane, or one of the kulle tower-house museums that show how an extended family stacked stables and cisterns under wooden living floors. Reading Ismail Kadare’s “Chronicle in Stone” turns the streets into a free walking map, since he names the real houses of his hometown. Come in late spring or autumn for the best mix of mild weather and low rooms, and pair the trip with budget-friendly Berat, the beaches of Sarande, or onward buses to Tirana.