Tirana
This dramatically set 15th-century hilltop castle, just a short distance outside Tirana, is worth a trip if you're not visiting one of the other better-known castles in Albania, such as those in Berat, Shkodra or Gjirokastra. A short hike up an easy pathway looping around the hillside gets you into the castle, which nowadays houses a fairly run-of-the-mill restaurant.
Any bus between Tirana (departing from the Southeast Bus Station) and Elbasan can drop you off in Petrela as they pass the town.
6.6 MILES
This fantastic conversion – from a massive Cold War bunker on the outskirts of Tirana into a history and contemporary art museum – is Albania's most…
21.9 MILES
This ultra-modern, well lit and labelled museum just back from the seafront has a breathtaking collection of historical artefacts. Highlights include the…
5.49 MILES
The largest museum in Albania holds many of the country's archaeological treasures and a replica of Skanderbeg's massive sword (how he held it, rode his…
5.19 MILES
Tracing the relatively brief history of Albanian painting from the early 19th century to the present day, this beautiful space also holds temporary…
5.3 MILES
The little cousin to the main Bunk'Art, this museum, which is within a communist-era bunker and underground tunnel system below the Ministry of Internal…
5.32 MILES
This grand old 1930s building started life as Albania's first maternity hospital, but within a few years the focus turned from creating new life to ending…
21.65 MILES
The weathered Roman-era Amphitheatre of Durrës was built on the hillside inside the city walls in the early 2nd century AD. In its prime it had the…
17.66 MILES
This traditional home in the castle complex below the Skanderbeg Museum houses one of the best ethnographic museums in the country. Set in an original…
3.73 MILES
At the top of Rr Elbasanit is the Martyrs' Cemetery, where some 900 partisans who died in WWII are buried. The views over the city and surrounding…
2. National Archaeological Museum
4.69 MILES
The collection here is comprehensive and impressive in parts, but there's only minimal labelling in Albanian and none at all in English (nor are tours in…
4.76 MILES
An architectural creation by Enver Hoxha's daughter and son-in-law, the square Palace of Congress is on Tirana's main ceremonial avenue. It no longer…
4. Former Residence of Enver Hoxha
4.98 MILES
This simple three-storey villa was the home of Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha for decades, and his wife continued to live here for years after his death in…
5.03 MILES
Designed by Enver Hoxha's daughter and son-in-law and completed in 1988, this monstrously unattractive building was formerly the Enver Hoxha Museum and…
5.13 MILES
A rather incongruous 19th-century stone bridge remains remarkably well preserved in Tirana's modern centre and is one of just a few remnants of Ottoman…
5.19 MILES
If you turn up Rr Murat Toptani, behind the National Gallery of Arts, you'll pass the 6m-high walls of the Fortress of Justinian, the last remnants of a…
5.19 MILES
Tracing the relatively brief history of Albanian painting from the early 19th century to the present day, this beautiful space also holds temporary…