Balkan Experience - Greece & Albania - Day Trip To Berat, Albania - 4 Sep 2026

I opted for a tour outside of Tirana this day. I weighed the various options available through the GetYourGuide site. Finally, I pitched on a tour of Berak and its neighbourhoods with a short stopover at the scenic Belshi Lake. The tour operator, Smart Tour Albania, sent me precise instructions for the pickup. Fortunately, it was less than 200 meters from my apartment.

The pickup was scheduled for 9.15 am and the bus arrived on time. However, I was slightly confused if this was the bus I was meant to board, because the name of the tour operator was nowhere on the bus. Noel, the guide, explained that they rent buses on a daily basis and hence, the name of the tour operator was not on it. When I queried why he could not place a placard on the windshield of the bus he said that he would have to carry it around with him for every trip! Lackadaisical, surely.

There were multiple pickup points within Tirana city. The last pickup was at 10 am. In about three quarters of an hour thereafter we reached the karst lake located in the heart of Belshi town. The lake covers an area of roughly 27 Ha with a maximum depth of 18 meters.

The lake is ringed by local cafés, restaurants, a lakeside boardwalk, and rolling hills. Pedal boats are available for rental too. The town is popular for a short stopover on day trips to Berat from Tirana or Durres. The group was given 40 minutes to grab some coffee and snacks and use the toilet in one of the cafes.

The region where Belshi is situated is famous for the Dumre karst plateau, which features more than 80 small, mirror-like natural lakes surrounded by gentle hills. Historically, it is believed that human habitation in the area date back to the Illyrian and Byzantine periods. Belshi was even thought of as an alternative location for the future capital of Albania.

When the group was back in the bus after the break in Belshi, Noel began his commentary with a fairly detailed account of Albania. He set the historical background with the Illyrian settlements dating as far back as 10 century BC. Then followed the contributions of Skanderbeg, Byzantines, Ottomans, the only King Albania ever had and the communist regime. Of the 3.1 million population, over 1 million live in Tirana, leading to massive traffic logjams.

The situation in Durres, the second largest city in Albania, is similar too. Therefore, he said, that a subway rail network is being put in place between Tirana, Durres and Tirana International Airport, which is likely to be commissioned in the next 6 months. There was a time when Albania had the best railway network in the Balkans. However, the chaos that followed the downfall of communism saw the decay and complete dismantlement of the railway network.

The months of August and September are vacations months with schools and colleges closed. In the next fortnight they will return putting additional pressure on the roads and public transport. Albanians are a non-Slavic people and they speak Albanian. Nearly 10 million Albanians live outside the country, over three times the number within.

In all of its history, Albania had had only one king, between 1912 and 1919. He was so unpopular that it is said that he survived more than 500 assassination attempts - second only to Fidel Castro. However, he survived them all, left the country and died of lung cancer in France at the age of 65. His remains were brought back to Albania after the communist regime had run its full course.

Albania had oil resources and their exploitation began with Chinese assistance in 1971. However, with the collapse of Communism, the refining capacity also folded up. Now crude is exported and costly oil products are imported. The cost of fuel in the pumps is over 2€ per litre.

During the repressive regime of Enver Hoxha, all religions were banned, religious institutions destroyed and the religious were persecuted. Professing any religion had become sin! While it was a Christian country during the Byzantine period, Islam became the major religion during Ottoman rule. As of now 51 percent are Sunni Muslims.

The Berat Castle is a massive hilltop fortress, built on a rocky hill 700 feet above the Osum River. The original of the Castle dates back to the 4th century BC with major expansions during the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman eras. For a fortress so old, it is indeed surprising that hundreds of residents still live inside the walls in historic stone houses. The Castle is reachable via a steep 15-minute walk; an alternative is a short taxi ride.

Noel gathered the group near the massive sculpture of Emperor Constantine's head. He explained the emperor's connection to Albania, besides being the first to declare Christianity as a state religion. Emperor Constantine is connected to Albania through his family's Illyrian roots and the broader historical ties between the Roman Empire's Illyrian provinces and the Western Balkans. Because modern Albanians are widely considered descendants of the ancient Illyrians, some cultural and historical narratives claim Constantine as part of an ancestral Albanian legacy.

Next, we walked up to the awesome church of St. Mary of Blachernae, a Byzantine-era Albanian Orthodox church in Berat. It is believed that the church was built on the foundations of a ruined 5th century church that existed at the same place. What we see if the church has its foundations in the 13th century.

It contains impressive frescoes and icons on its interior walls and ground from the 16th century. The paintings that date from the 16th century were mostly produced by Nicholas Onufri, the son of Onufri. A room beside the main chapel used to have a water source, which has now dried up.

What took my breath away within the castle complex is the Onufri Iconographic Museum located in the former Byzantine Church of the Assumption.

The last restoration of the church had been in 1797 and everything one sees inside today hasn’t changed much since the 19th century. The Museum holds over 200 objects of art, icons and liturgical items that date between the 14th century to the 20th. The collection has been brought together from several churches and monasteries of the region.

Above the entrance to the church is an icon and Greek inscriptions. There are icons painted by renowned Albanian iconists as well as anonymous painters. Liturgical items bearing the signature of Albanian silversmiths of various times, and Cathedral woodcarvings crafted by masters of the early 19th century are all on display.

Worthy of extra special mention is the iconostasis of the cathedral of the Dormition of St Mary, created in 1807. It is indeed a supreme piece of the Albanian woodcarving. The iconostasis decorations feature some Baroque-style features and principles; a dominant and distinctive trend of churches built in the Balkans during the 18th and 19th centuries.

There are quite a few viewpoints from perches in the Berat Castle. The one from the bastion is awesome. Berat is famous for its two historic neighbourhoods - Mangalem and Gorica - which face each other across the Osum River like separated twins. Berat Castle is on the Mangalem side, located as it is on the northern side of the river.

This is the iconic Ottoman quarter featuring stacked white houses with cascading, symmetrical windows that earned Berat the title "City of a Thousand Windows". Located on the southern bank is Gorica, the traditional Christian quarter featuring distinct hillside architecture and connects to Mangalem via the famous arched Gorica Bridge.

Near the viewpoint there were small stalls set up by locals selling things like honey, olive oil, fruits like plums, grapes, peach, drinks like raki and ouzo and local handicrafts. After the Castle visit the group was dropped off for lunch and to lounge for about two and half hours.

Noel recommended a restaurant for traditional Albanian food. When I reached there, I found almost the entire group and some more at the restaurant. I ordered a meat moussaka with Fanta. The order took some time materialising on the table. However, it was well worth the wait. The moussaka tasted out of the world.

After the feast I roamed around, mostly in the Mangalem neighbourhood, making sense of historic relics. The drive back to Tirana lasted a bit over two hours. Even though the commentary wasn't great, Noel was good company.

He kept yearning for Albania's admittance into the EU. He thinks that is going to be deliverance for the Albanian people. I told him to look back on the experience of Romania and Hungary, where the entry into the EU fold turned out to be a harsh reality of rising costs and stagnant wages, pushing more people over into an economic abyss.