Things to do in Gjirokastër

Gjirokastër earns its “stone city” name honestly: Grey slate roofs, stone walls, and steep cobbled lanes stack up a mountainside in southern Albania, watched over by one of the largest castles in the Balkans. Together with Berat it forms Albania’s UNESCO World Heritage pair of Ottoman towns — but Gjirokastër’s atmosphere is darker, quieter, and arguably more dramatic.

Its most surprising sight is underground. Beneath the castle hill runs a Cold War tunnel complex built in secret during the 1970s to shelter the communist-era local leadership from nuclear attack — dozens of rooms, blast doors and all, left almost exactly as they were abandoned. Tours pair the tunnel with the castle above, whose ramparts hold an arms museum, a captured American jet, and the best view in town. Around the Neck of the Bazaar, restored Ottoman tower houses like Skënduli House show how the city’s merchant families actually lived.

Gjirokastër works well as a day trip from Saranda — about an hour inland — or as an overnight stop between the coast and central Albania. Browse tours of the stone city and book your spot in the Wayward app.