If the Riviera is Albania’s “wow” factor, Berat and Gjirokastër are its slow burn. This is the romantic part of the road trip: stone houses, cobbled streets, castles you can actually wander around, and long lunches that somehow end with another bottle of local wine on the table. Both towns are UNESCO‑listed for their Ottoman‑era architecture, and both feel like they’ve survived more or less intact while the outside world sped up.
With a car, they’re not isolated dots on a map; they’re two anchors in a loop of valleys, villages and vineyards. You can sleep in a guesthouse inside a fortress one night, taste wine in the countryside the next, and be halfway to the coast or back to Tirana the day after.
Why This Route Belongs in Your Trip
A lot of people fly into Tirana and beeline straight for the coast. That’s fine, but it misses the bit of Albania that actually explains the rest of it. Berat and Gjirokastër show you how people have been living here for centuries: tiered houses, courtyards, little mosques and churches, narrow alleys where neighbours can talk from opposite windows.
Driving between them fills in the gaps. It’s not just “city to city” – it’s low valleys, small towns, one or two “should we stop here?” villages and the occasional roadside stall selling fruit, honey or raki. If you like your road trips with as much atmosphere as scenery, this is your stretch.
Berat: City of a Thousand Windows
Berat gets its nickname from the way the houses pile up the hill, all white walls and dark windows, like they’re tilting forward to see what’s happening. Two old quarters – Mangalem and Gorica – face each other across the river, linked by a stone bridge. Above them, the castle district wraps around a ridge, still lived‑in, with families hanging washing where soldiers once stood guard.
Stay inside or just below the old town if you can. Wake up to the bells or the call to prayer echoing across the valley, then wander down for coffee along the pedestrian boulevard where half the city seems to come out for an evening stroll. Berat feels lived‑in, not staged, and that’s half its charm.
Inside the Castle Walls
Wine and Countryside Around Berat
Berat isn’t just about stone and history; it’s also one of Albania’s key wine regions. Drive twenty or thirty minutes out of town and you’re suddenly in a patchwork of vineyards and farms. Wineries and agrotourism spotswelcome you like family: a quick tour of the cellar, a plate of olives, cheese and bread, then a line‑up of local reds and whites that somehow keep refilling themselves.
This is where having a car makes the day feel effortless. You choose which winery to visit, set your own pace between them and Berat, and build your day around lunch and tasting rather than bus schedules. Just agree on a designated driver or keep the pours light – these roads deserve your full attention on the way back.
The Drive to Gjirokastër
Leaving Berat, the road to Gjirokastër might not be the most dramatic in the country, but it’s the one where you really feel the distance between old towns and coast. Fields, low hills, small towns where people still sit outside cafés for hours – all the everyday stuff you’d never see if you hopped between cities by bus.
The drive takes a few hours with breaks. That’s good. Stop for coffee in a random roadside town, pick up fruit from a stall, or pull over when you see a view that catches your eye. This isn’t a sprint; it’s the connective tissue of your trip.
Gjirokastër: Stone City on the Hill
Gjirokastër climbs steeply up one side of the valley, all grey stone roofs and tall “tower houses” built in the Ottoman style. The old bazaar is a tangle of sloping streets lined with shops and cafés; above it all, the fortress sprawls across the ridge with huge views across the valley and out to the mountains.
Spend at least a full day here. Wander the bazaar, visit one of the traditional houses that’s open as a museum, and then climb to the castle for sunset. The way the light hits those stone roofs makes the whole town look like a film set.
Food, Evenings and That Slow Old‑Town Pace
How This Route Ties Into the Rest of Albania
The Berat–Gjirokastër loop sits perfectly in the middle of the country. From Tirana you can drive to Berat in a few hours, spend a night or two, move on to Gjirokastër, then either drop to the coast around Saranda and Ksamil or swing back north via the Blue Eye and Butrint. Likewise, coming from the Riviera, you can head inland to Gjirokastër and Berat before finishing back in Tirana.
With buses, this all gets fiddly. With your own car, it’s just one smooth circuit: city, castle town, wine, second castle town, coast. You decide how many nights each place deserves, and you can always change your mind on the fly.
Setting Up Your UNESCO & Wine Loop with AutoZone.al
To make this route work the way it should, you need a car you’re comfortable taking over hills, into old towns and down the occasional patchy road. That doesn’t mean you need the biggest SUV on the lot; it means you need clear terms and the right size for tight streets and guesthouse parking. Trying to piece that together from separate rental sites is exactly the kind of admin that kills the romance.
AutoZone.al lets you compare all your options for this loop – from Tirana, the coast or even crossing in from Greece – in one place. You choose where you’ll pick up and drop off, set filters for deposit, insurance and mileage, and see which cars make sense for castle hills and countryside drives instead of just looking cheapest on paper. Once that’s locked in, this stretch becomes what it should be: long views, old stones, good wine and zero stress about how you’re getting from one to the other.
