Where to stay in Albania: the best beach towns, cities and old towns

Saranda sits on a curved bay in the far south, so close to Corfu that you can count the houses on the Greek shore. It is the country's busiest seaside town, with a palm-lined promenade, a harbour full of excursion boats and hotels stacked up the hillside, nearly all with a balcony facing the sunset. Most are within a short walk of the town beach.

A few miles south, Ksamil is the reason many people come: a village scattered around small coves of pale sand, with tiny islands you can swim or paddle out to. It gets extremely busy in August. Right next door are the ancient ruins of Butrint, a UNESCO site in a forest by a lagoon. Stay in Saranda for restaurants and evening life, in Ksamil to be on the beach at dawn.

Vlore is a big, breezy port city on a wide bay, with a long seafront boulevard of palms, cafés and new hotels. It is also where the coast changes gear. South of town the road climbs over the Llogara Pass, a thousand metres up among pine forest, then drops in hairpins to the Riviera proper: a run of white-pebble bays under the Ceraunian Mountains.

Stay in Vlore itself for a city-and-beach break with plenty of restaurants. For the scenery that fills the travel pages, go over the pass to Dhërmi and the neighbouring bays, where a new generation of five-star hotels has opened right on the beach. The water is astonishingly clear, the beaches are pebbles and the evenings are quiet outside high summer.

Durres is the country's main port and one of its oldest cities, with a Roman amphitheatre half-buried among the apartment blocks. But most visitors are here for the beach, a long sweep of fine sand and shallow water that runs south from the city through the resort strip of Golem. It is the closest stretch of coast to Tirana and its airport.

This is where Albania does the classic package holiday. Large four- and five-star hotels line the sand, with pools, spas and private beach areas, and several offer all-inclusive rates. The Adriatic here is warm and gentle, ideal for small children, though it lacks the crystal clarity of the south. Come for an easy week by the pool, not for wild scenery.

Tirana is unlike any other European capital. Its communist-era blocks were painted in wild stripes and colours by an artist turned mayor, its vast central square is named after the national hero Skanderbeg, and the bunkers built by a paranoid dictator now house museums. The Blloku district, once reserved for the party elite, is wall-to-wall bars, cafés and restaurants.

The city is compact and cheap, and two days is about right. Stay near Skanderbeg Square or Blloku and you can walk everywhere; the main five-star hotels are all in this central area, some with garden pools that are a blessing in summer. A cable car climbs Mount Dajti for views over the whole city. The airport is about 20 minutes from downtown.

Berat is the prettiest town in Albania. Rows of white Ottoman houses rise up a steep hillside, each with a bank of dark windows staring out over the river, which is how the place got its nickname. Above them, a huge hilltop castle is still lived in, its lanes sheltering Byzantine churches and a museum of dazzling icons.

It is an easy day trip from Tirana or Durres, but stay the night if you can: at dusk the whole town comes out to stroll the riverside boulevard. Hotels are small and personal, some in the centre near the old quarters with rooftop terraces facing the houses, others a short drive out with spas. The surrounding hills produce some of the country's best wine.

Gjirokaster is built of stone from the cobbles to the rooftops. Tall, fortified Ottoman mansions cling to a steep hillside beneath one of the largest castles in the Balkans, and the old bazaar at their feet is a handful of lanes selling rugs, carved wood and mountain tea. It is sterner than Berat, and many people find it more memorable.

The town lies inland from Saranda, close enough for a day trip but far better with a night, when the tour groups have gone. Stay in the historic centre, where traditional hotels look out over the bazaar and the valley beyond, or in newer places a little below the old town with mountain views and easier parking.

Shkoder is one of the oldest towns in Albania and the cultural capital of the north, a flat, bicycle-loving city beside the largest lake in the Balkans. The ruined Rozafa Castle stands on a rock at the edge of town, with huge views over the water and the rivers that meet below it. The pedestrianised centre is full of cafés and old Italianate façades.

Most travellers pass through on the way to the Albanian Alps, the wild mountain country to the north-east that has become famous for its hiking. Spend a night in the centre before you set off, or stay up in the mountains themselves, where a forest resort with an indoor pool sits among the trails.

Korce sits on a high plateau in the south-east, near the Greek and North Macedonian borders, and has an air quite different from the coast. It is a town of cobbled streets, villas and a restored Ottoman bazaar now filled with café tables, known for its beer, its food and its music. Summers are fresher up here, which Albanians appreciate.

It pairs naturally with Pogradec, about 40 km away on the shore of Lake Ohrid, a deep, ancient lake shared with North Macedonia, where a few hotels stand a few steps from the water. In Korce, stay in the historic centre: there are stylish small hotels in and around the old bazaar, within walking distance of the cathedral and the museums.