Itinerary

Day One
Arrive in Tirana and drive our modern hotel right in the centre of the city.

Day Two
Full day investigating the sites of the capital Tirana. This is a bustling city reinventing itself, with unpaved roads and once austere, but now brightly painted, tenement blocks next to modern glass and steel skyscrapers. We visit the Archaeological Museum, National Historical Museum, Etham Bey Mosque and National Gallery.


Day Three
Drive to Apollonia, founded by the Corinthians in 588 BC, the largest classical city in Albania and a great Adriatic port.  Famed for its slave markets and schools of rhetoric.  The ruins cover an enormous area. A major Roman base for the conquest of the Balkans, this was one of Julius Caesar’s bases against Pompey. Augustus, who was studying here at the time of Caesar’s assassination, rewarded it by granting it autonomy. Later abandoned, it became the site of a medieval monastery. Today the city lies romantically covered by waving corn with grassy banks hinting at what is still to be uncovered.  Continue over the Mountains of Thunder and along the spectacular Albanian Riviera to our stylish hotel at Saranda.

Day Four
Explore the attractive medieval town of Berat, situated on a hill dominating the River Osum and its gorge. The lower city along the riversides was the preserve of the Muslim inhabitants, while by agreement the Christians held the citadel, so there are both Byzantine Churches and Mosques to visit, as well as the Onufri Museum. Whilst the citadel of Berat is a most beautiful medieval centre with wide views over the surrounding countryside, the city below provides an interesting and accessible way of discovering modern Albania. Our hotel here is right in the centre and provides a taste of the remains of the communist era - an interesting insight.

Day Five
A trip over the mountains from Saranda to the Gjirokastra valley and the town of Gjirokastra. This is a unique place recognised in 2004 by the granting of UNESCO World Heritage status. Principal among its monuments are the great fortress that dominates the city and the late Ottoman houses that festoon the steep slopes of the mountainside.

Day Six
An exciting day - first to Mesopotam to see the Medieval monastery, with its elaborate Byzantine church. Continue north, changing into minivans en route, to visit the remote site of Byllis, sited on a mountaintop overlooking the Vjose River valley with possibilities for landscape archaeology en route.

Day Seven
Explore the attractive Medieval town of Berat, situated on a hill dominating the River Osum and its gorge. The lower city along the riversides was the preserve of the Muslim inhabitants, while by agreement the Christians held the citadel, so there are both Byzantine Churches and Mosques to visit, as well as the Onufri Museum.

Day Eight
Drive to Tirana via Durres, Albania’s chief port. The main surviving structure is the 2nd century amphitheatre, the largest in the Balkans.

Day Nine
Kruja, the last bastion of Christianity against the Ottoman Turks and now a rather charming town set in beautiful countryside. The citadel walls, 800 m long, surround a sheer-sided rocky plateau, with views westwards over the plain. The Skanderbeg Museum here is a triumph of political museology, showing in concrete form the accepted story of Albania’s medieval genesis.·

Time for some last-minute present-buying in the colourful Bazaar and little shops. Continue to airport for evening flight to London.

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