8-Day Albania Heritage Tour from Tirana with UNESCO Cities

• Arrive at Tirana International Airport and transfer to your hotel in the city center.
• Relax at the hotel and enjoy free time at your disposal.

Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

• After breakfast, depart for Shkoder, the most important city in northern Albania and the ancient capital of the Illyrians in the 3rd century BC.
• Visit Rozafa Castle and admire a spectacular 360-degree panorama.
• Continue to the Marubi Photographic Museum, which preserves a selection of photographs taken from the second half of the nineteenth century until 1900.
• Take a walk through the recently renovated pedestrian area, where Italian and Austrian architecture intertwine as testimony to the city's historical links with these two countries.
• Leave for Durres.
• On the way, stop in Lezha to visit the Memorial Tomb of Skanderbeg, located inside the remains of the Church of San Nicola.

Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

• In the morning, visit Durres, one of the oldest cities in Albania, founded in 627 BC.
• Head to the amphitheater located in the center of the modern city.
• On the way to Vlora, stop at the Monastery of Ardenica, whose construction dates back to the Middle Ages, as evidenced by the stone placed at the entrance dating to 1417. Skanderbeg is said to have married in the small chapel of Ardenica.
• Continue to the ancient city of Apollonia, located on the famous Via Egnatia, one of the most important cities of Ancient Rome. It was here that Julius Caesar sent his nephew Augusto Ottaviano to study oratory, testimony to the importance of this city.
• In the afternoon, leave for Vlora and stop to visit the Monastery of Zvernec. Located in the center of Zvernec Island and totally surrounded by evergreens, this is certainly one of the best-preserved Byzantine monasteries in all of Albania and beyond. Built in the 13th/14th century and dedicated to Santa Maria, it still represents an important religious center for the inhabitants of the Valon district.
• Arrive in Vlora and check in to the hotel.

• In the morning, visit Vlora. The Museum of Independence is located in the original house where the first independent Albanian government had its offices and where independence was proclaimed.
• Leave for Saranda and travel along the spectacular Albanian Riviera, admiring the Ionian Sea below.
• Continue toward Saranda, making a short stop at Ali Pasha Castle in Porto Palermo, a fortress used to control the sea's commercial routes.

Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

• After breakfast, depart to visit the ancient city of Butrint, a UNESCO heritage site and the most important archaeological discovery in Albania. In addition to its splendid ancient ruins, it has the added advantage of being located on a beautiful peninsula rich in flora and fauna.
• In the afternoon, transfer to Gjirokaster.
• On the way, stop for a visit to the Blue Eye.

Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

• After breakfast, visit Gjirokaster, declared a UNESCO heritage site in 2005. It is a museum city with a very particular historical architecture.
• Head to the medieval castle. Here, the National Museum of Weapons displays weapons used in Albania since ancient times, as well as war equipment from the First and Second World Wars. The castle was also used as a political prison during the communist dictatorship.
• See the Ethnographic Museum, set up in the house where the Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha was born.
• Drive to Berat, another UNESCO heritage site, also known as the "city of a thousand windows." It is classified as a museum city. In the past, there were forty churches inside the castle; today, only seven remain, one of which has been transformed into the Onufri Museum. Onufri was a 16th-century Albanian painter and master of sacred icons who painted many Orthodox churches in Albania and Greece.

Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

• After breakfast, depart for Kruja.
• Visit the fortress and the museum housed inside, dedicated to the founding father of Albanian national sentiment, Skanderbeg. Get in touch with still-living and active testimonies of the Albanian community in the world.
• Depart for Tirana.
• Visit the National Historical Museum and the Haxhi Et'hem Bey Mosque.
• Stop at the Palace of Culture, the statue dedicated to Skanderbeg, and the Clock Tower.

Dinner and overnight.

• After breakfast, transfer to the airport.