Shkodër: attractions, tours and tickets

After centuries of Roman, Venetian and Ottoman rule, the city of Shkodër more than deserves the mantle as the cultural heart of northern Albania. You’ll find mosques and cathedrals rubbing shoulders in the city centre and a thriving café culture with friendly locals sipping Turkish-style coffee as they spill the beans to visitors about the city’s legends and folktales. Leaving the cafes and cobblestones behind, you can be in the fresh mountain air of the Albanian Alps within a couple of hours’ drive from Shkodër. Theth National Park and Valbone Valley have alpine villages, hiking trails and waterfalls aplenty to explore. And, if you want to check out the nature a little closer to the city, head to Lake Shkodër. Albania shares the lake with its neighbour, Montenegro, so if you head out on a boating or kayaking trip you could tick off two countries in one visit.

Top three things to do in Shkodër

1. Take a trip to Rozafa Castle

Three rivers meet under the ancient eye of Rozafa Castle, making it a great spot to climb the turrets and take in the views. Legend has it the wife of one of the original builders of this Illyrian fortress was sacrificed and entombed within the walls to ensure the building stood strong against invasion. Her name was Rozafa and it didn’t take Albanian folklore long to name the castle after her. Take a look in the castle’s museum for the full tragic love story, as well as artworks and artefacts.

2. Throw on your walking boots for an alpine hike

Shkodër is the gateway to Albania’s northern Alps, so grab your walking boots and head into the mountains and meadows. There are timeless alpine villages to visit, like Theth, which sits in a remote valley where you’ll still find snow on the peaks well into spring. Hike for an hour out of Theth and you’ll start to hear the crash of water as you draw closer to the 30-metre-high Grunas Waterfall. For a slightly rockier walk, you can hike the seven-kilometre Blue Eye trail to a bubbling natural spring set in a forest that feels straight out of a fairytale.

3. Get out on the water at Lake Shkodër and the Buna River Delta

Just outside the city centre lies the southern shore of Lake Shkodër, and at around half the size of London, it’s the largest lake in the Balkans. In the summer months the water’s warm enough to swim in, but if you’d rather keep your feet dry you can rent kayaks or test out your balance on a stand-up paddleboard. For the best bird-watching in the area, head south on the River Buna. As it meets the Adriatic Sea, the delta’s lagoons and marshes make it a popular spot for herons, pelicans and cormorants, so have your camera at the ready.