Mountains guide · two hours from Tirana to Shkodër
Rozafa Castle and the Marubi museum in Shkodër, then into the Alps: Theth, the Blue Eye, Valbona, the pass and the Lake Koman ferry.
Albania feature
Limestone peaks, stone towers and the finest hike in the Balkans.
Spend a day in Shkodër, then two or three nights in Theth and Valbona, hike the pass and take the ferry across Lake Koman.
Read the full back story below, then plan your trip.
The back story
A lakeside city of bicycles and photographers, a castle with a legend, and beyond it the Accursed Mountains: Theth and Valbona, the wildest, most beautiful corner of Albania.
Castle of the legend
The castle above Shkodër, with views over the lake and rivers.
Kalaja e RozafësExplore View on map
A photographic dynasty
The archive of the Marubi family of photographers, telling Albanian life from the 19th century.
Rruga Kolë Idromeno 32Explore View on map
A place of memory
A museum in a former prison and interrogation building, recording the victims of persecution.
Bicycles and the lake
The restored pedestrian street of Kolë Idromeno and the lakeshore.
Rruga Kolë IdromenoExplore View on map
A valley in the Alps
A mountain village in a valley of the Albanian Alps, with a church, a lock-in tower and waterfalls.
The other side of the pass
A broad valley of guesthouses below high peaks, linked to Theth by the Valbona Pass trail.
A fjord in the mountains
The summer ferry through the gorges of Lake Koman, towards Fierza and Valbona.
KomanExplore View on map
Below Rozafa
An 18th-century Ottoman mosque below Rozafa Castle, named after its lead-covered domes.
A short walk from Theth
A waterfall in a rocky amphitheatre a short walk from the centre of Theth.
A tower of refuge
A stone tower house where men under threat of a blood feud once took refuge.
Built around 1770
An 18th-century Ottoman stone bridge over the Kir river, about 5 km north-east of Shkodër.
Closed in 1967, reopened in 1990
Shkodër’s Catholic cathedral, closed under communism in 1967 and reopened in 1990.
Slow food on the way north
A celebrated agritourism restaurant in the village of Fishtë, cooking with its own produce.
FishtëExplore View on map
Northern cooking
A traditional restaurant and guesthouse in Shkodër, with northern Albanian dishes.
Two hours to Shkodër
Buses run from Tirana to Shkodër in about two hours; minibuses continue to Theth in summer.
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