City
Berat
The 'city of a thousand windows': an Ottoman hill town under a still-inhabited castle, UNESCO-listed since 2008.
By county
County pages →Boundaries: geoBoundaries gbOpen ALB ADM1 (public domain)
The twelve counties
Berat
An inland county of vineyards, the Osum canyon and a…
Dibër
Albania's mountain interior on the North Macedonian border…
Durrës
The country's smallest county by area and its main gateway…
Elbasan
A central industrial and agricultural county on the…
Fier
The agricultural and oil-producing plain of the south-west…
Gjirokastër
The southern mountain county of the Drino and Vjosa…
Korçë
A high south-eastern plateau of lakes and orchards, with a…
Kukës
The north-eastern highlands on the Kosovo border, the…
Lezhë
A short northern coast of lagoons and pine, backed by the…
Shkodër
The north-west: the largest lake in southern Europe, the…
Tiranë
The capital county: roughly a third of the country's…
Vlorë
The long southern coast: the Albanian Riviera, the…
Cities
All 10 →
City
Durrës
Albania's principal port and its oldest continuously inhabited city, founded as Epidamnos in 627 BC.
City
Elbasan
A central industrial city inside an Ottoman fortress wall, on the old Via Egnatia.
City
Fier
The service town of the oil and farming plain, next to the ruins of Apollonia.
City
Gjirokastër
The 'stone city': slate-roofed tower houses on a steep slope beneath one of the Balkans' largest castles.
City
Korçë
The highland city of serenades, the first Albanian-language school, and the country's oldest brewery.
City
Sarandë
The Ionian resort town facing Corfu, and the arrival point for most visitors to southern Albania.
City
Shkodër
The cultural capital of the north: a lake, a fortress, a bicycle city and a Catholic heartland.
Towns
All 55 →
Town
Lezhë
Where the Albanian princes swore their 1444 league, and where Skanderbeg is buried.
Town
Krujë
Skanderbeg's mountain stronghold, an old bazaar street, and the national museum of the resistance.
Town
Ksamil
Four small islands and very clear shallow water; the most photographed and most crowded stretch of the Albanian coast.
Town
Pogradec
A lakeside town on Ohrid, a UNESCO natural and cultural site shared with North Macedonia.
Town
Përmet
A small Vjosa-side town known for its fruit preserves, thermal baths and polyphonic singing.
Town
Orikum
A marina town at the foot of Llogara, beside the ancient harbour of Oricum.
Town
Burrel
The seat of Mat municipality in the central highlands, near the Mat river dams.
Town
Peshkopi
The seat of Dibër County, known for thermal springs and the high pastures below Mount Korab.
Villages
All 10 →
Village
Dhërmi
An old white village on the slope above one of the Riviera's longest pebble beaches.
Village
Vuno
A steep stone village between Dhërmi and Himarë, above Jal and Gjipe.
Village
![Title: A chief of Thethi, Tribe of Shale [i.e. Shala], Albania Abstract/medium: 1 photographic print.](/static/img/thumbs/theth-4.jpg)
Theth
A glacial valley village in the Albanian Alps: a lock-in tower, a waterfall, and one end of the country's best-known…
Village
Velipojë
A wide, shallow sand beach at the Buna river mouth, with a protected lagoon reserve.
Village
Voskopojë
In the 18th century one of the largest towns in the Balkans; today a village of frescoed churches.
Village
Qeparo
A half-abandoned upper village of stone houses above a quiet shingle bay.
Village
Valbonë
A wide white riverbed under 2,500 m peaks; the eastern end of the Theth trek.
Village
Dardhë
A stone village at 1,340 m in the Morava mountains, one of Albania's small ski destinations.
Beaches
All 26 →
Beach
Durrës Beach
A continuous sand strip running south from the city — the busiest beach in Albania by visitor numbers.
Beach
Ksamil Beaches
Shallow, very clear water and four low islets a short swim offshore.
Beach
Borsh Beach
At roughly 7 km, the longest single beach on the Riviera, backed by one of Albania's largest olive groves.
Beach
Dhërmi Beach
A long white pebble shore under the Ceraunian ridge, and the Riviera's main nightlife strip.
Beach
Gjipe Beach
A pebble beach at the mouth of a limestone canyon, reachable only on foot or by boat.
Beach
Palasë Beach
The first Riviera beach south of the Llogara pass, below the road's most dramatic descent.
Beach
Velipojë Beach
A very shallow, wide sand beach at the Buna delta, beside a protected lagoon.
Beach
Drymades Beach
The pine-backed northern half of the Dhërmi bay, slightly quieter than the main strip.
Mountains
All 5 →
Mountain
Mount Tomorr
A 2,416 m massif above Berat, and the site of an annual Bektashi pilgrimage each August.
Mountain
Mount Korab
At 2,764 m the highest point in both Albania and North Macedonia, on the border ridge.
Mountain
Maja Jezercë
At 2,694 m the highest peak entirely inside the Dinaric Alps, deep in the Albanian Alps.
Mountain
Mount Dajti
Tirana's own mountain: 1,613 m, a national park, and a 4.2 km cable car from the city edge.
Mountain
Maja e Çikës
The 2,045 m high point of the Ceraunian ridge, directly above the Riviera coast.
Mountain ranges
All 2 →
Mountain range
Ceraunian Mountains
The coastal ridge that makes the Riviera: 2,000 m peaks rising directly out of the Ionian.
Mountain range
The Albanian Alps
The limestone wall of the far north — locally the Accursed Mountains — shared with Montenegro and Kosovo.
Rivers
All 6 →
River
The Vjosa
One of the last large free-flowing rivers in Europe, declared a Wild River National Park in March 2023.
River
The Shala River
A tributary of the Drin above Koman, reached by boat and often called Albania's Thailand.
River
The Shkumbin
The river that splits Albania in two — the historic dividing line between Gheg and Tosk.
River
The Drin
Albania's longest river and the backbone of its electricity system, dammed three times in the north.
River
The Osum
The river that carved the Osum canyon and runs through the middle of Berat.
River
The Buna
The short outflow of Lake Shkodër, and Albania's only navigable river.
Lakes and lagoons
All 7 →
Lake
Lake Ohrid
One of Europe's oldest and deepest lakes, UNESCO-listed and home to species found nowhere else.
Lake
Lake Prespa
A high tectonic lake where Albania, Greece and North Macedonia meet, draining underground into Ohrid.
Lake
Lake Shkodër
The largest lake in southern Europe, shared with Montenegro and a major bird wintering ground.
Lake
Karavasta Lagoon
The largest lagoon in Albania and the western Balkans' main breeding site for the Dalmatian pelican.
Lake
Narta Lagoon
Albania's second-largest lagoon, with working saltpans and the island monastery of Zvërnec.
Lake
Bovilla Reservoir
Tirana's drinking-water reservoir, ringed by limestone cliffs half an hour from the capital.
Lake
Lake Koman
A 34 km reservoir in a gorge so narrow the ferry crossing is treated as a scenic journey in its own right.
National parks
All 11 →
Protected area
Karaburun-Sazan Marine Park
Albania's only marine national park: sea caves, wrecks and the country's clearest water.
Protected area
Llogara National Park
A pine-forested pass at 1,027 m where the road drops from mountain forest to the Ionian in a few kilometres.
Protected area
Butrint National Park
A wetland and forest park wrapped around the archaeological city, on the Vivari channel.
Protected area
Valbona Valley National Park
A broad U-shaped glacial valley of white gravel and beech forest under the Alps' highest peaks.
Protected area
Divjakë-Karavasta National Park
Coastal pine forest, dunes and lagoon protecting the region's Dalmatian pelican colony.
Protected area
Kune-Vain Nature Reserve
Lagoons, pine and one of Albania's few surviving coastal alluvial forests, beside Shëngjin.
Protected area
Theth National Park
The glacial valley park at the heart of the Albanian Alps, merged into a wider protected complex in 2022.
Protected area
Vjosa Wild River National Park
Declared in March 2023, Europe's first national park built around a whole free-flowing river system.
Springs
All 2 →
Spring
The Blue Eye
A karst spring of extraordinary clarity whose bottom has never been definitively reached.
Spring
Bënjë Thermal Springs
Sulphur pools beside the Ottoman Katiu bridge, at the mouth of the Lengarica canyon.
Canyons
All 2 →
Canyon
Osum Canyon
A 26 km limestone gorge up to 80 m deep, run by raft in spring and walked in late summer.
Canyon
Gjipe Canyon
A narrow limestone slot that meets the sea at Gjipe beach — the Riviera's one true canyon.
Waterfalls
All 2 →
Waterfall
Bogovë Waterfall
A cold spring-fed fall and pool in the Tomorr foothills near Berat.
Waterfall
Grunas Waterfall
A 25–30 m fall in the Theth valley, and a declared natural monument.
Historic and archaeological sites
All 28 →
Historic site
Albania's Bunkers
Roughly 170,000 concrete pillboxes built under Enver Hoxha — the most visible physical legacy of the communist state.
Historic site
Antigonea
A short-lived Epirote city founded by King Pyrrhus and burned by Rome in 167 BC.
Historic site
Apollonia
A Corinthian colony that became a Roman university town — Octavian was studying here when Caesar was killed.
Historic site
Ardenica Monastery
A hilltop monastery on the Myzeqe plain where, by tradition, Skanderbeg was married in 1451.
Historic site
Berat Castle
A fortress people still live inside, holding some twenty churches and the Onufri icon museum.
Historic site
Butrint
A Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Venetian and Ottoman city layered on one wooded peninsula — Albania's first UNESCO site.
Historic site
Byllis
The largest Illyrian city yet excavated, on a plateau above the Vjosa with five early Christian basilicas.
Historic site
Durrës Amphitheatre
The largest Roman amphitheatre in the Balkans, found by accident in 1966 under the modern city.
Airports
All 3 →
Airport
Tirana International Airport
Albania's principal airport, 17 km north-west of Tirana — for years the country's only functioning civil airport.
Airport
Kukës International Airport
A small northern airport that opened to commercial flights in 2021, mainly serving the diaspora.
Airport
Vlora International Airport
A new airport under construction on the Narta lagoon edge, intended to serve the southern coast.
Ports
All 4 →
Port
Port of Durrës
The country's main commercial and passenger port, handling the large majority of Albanian seaborne trade.
Port
Port of Vlorë
Albania's second passenger port, with a seasonal fast link to Brindisi.
Port
Port of Shëngjin
A small northern cargo port beside the resort beach.
Port
Port of Sarandë
A small passenger port whose Corfu crossings are the busiest sea route into southern Albania.