Gjirokastër

Gjirokastër gets billed as 'Albania's other UNESCO old town,' which undersells it — where Berat is soft and whitewashed, Gjirokastër is dark, fortified, and a little severe, built almost entirely from the local grey slate that gives the town its nickname, Qyteti i Gurit, the 'City of Stone.' It's also the birthplace of two men who shaped 20th-century Albania in opposite directions: dictator Enver Hoxha and writer Ismail Kadare.

How many days do you need in Gjirokastër?

One full day covers the castle and a walk through the old town's cobbled lanes; a second day lets you add both historic Ottoman houses (Zekatë and Skënduli), a slower coffee-and-people-watching pace in the bazaar, and possibly a short countryside drive. Most itineraries treat it as a one-night stop between Sarandë/Ksamil and Berat rather than a standalone destination.

The castle and its Cold War spy plane

One of the largest castles in the Balkans, Gjirokastër's fortress has been added to and repurposed for centuries — Ottoman garrison, royal prison under King Zog, and finally a museum. The most unexpected exhibit: a genuine downed US reconnaissance aircraft, put on display by Hoxha's regime as Cold War propaganda after Albania's paranoid communist government shot it down. The castle also hosts the National Folklore Festival every five years (next in 2028), a genuinely major cultural event if the dates line up with your trip.

The Ottoman merchant houses

Gjirokastër's old town is dotted with kullë — fortified Ottoman-era tower houses built by wealthy 19th-century merchant families, most still recognizable by their double-arched stone facades and small defensive windows. The two open to visitors, Zekatë House (built 1811-12, with twin towers) and Skënduli House (built 1823, with a rare internal-and-external staircase), give a genuinely vivid sense of how the town's elite actually lived — well worth the small ticket price each.

Walking the old town

1. The Old Bazaar (Pazari i Vjetër) — Gjirokastër's restored Ottoman-era market street, now lined with small shops selling local textiles, copperware, and the region's own qelqi (a strong local raki).
2. Ismail Kadare's house-museum — the childhood home of Albania's most internationally celebrated novelist, converted into a small museum on his life and work.
3. The cobbled lanes below the castle — genuinely the best free activity here; the whole old town is a UNESCO site, and getting lost in it for an hour costs nothing.

Getting to and from Gjirokastër

What it costs

Mistakes worth avoiding

• Trying to do Gjirokastër as a rushed midday stop on the drive from Sarandë to Berat — the old town rewards slow walking, and both are already 2.5+ hour drives on their own.
• Wearing anything but proper walking shoes — the entire old town is cobbled stone, sloped, and genuinely tough on ankles in flip-flops.
• Skipping both historic houses because 'one is probably enough' — Zekatë and Skënduli are different enough (different eras, different layouts) that seeing both is worth the extra 30 minutes and few dollars.