During our backpacking trip through Eastern Europe, we had the delight of staying in Gjirokaster, Albania for 5 days. Gjirokaster with kids is so much fun to explore! We took a bus from northern Greece and arrived in Gjirokaster just a few hours later. Read about how to cross the border from Greece and get to Gjirokaster in our article Crossing the Greece-Albanian Border by Land.
The town of Gjirokaster became a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its historical building structures made of stone. It is set against a mountainside in southern Albania looking out over a river valley below.
First I will share the layout of the town and then give you 5 places to visit around Gjirokaster with kids and lastly, our impressions of the town itself. We did all our exploring on foot despite the fact that Gjirokaster is on a mountainside.
Layout of Gjirokaster Town
The main town center was at the bottom of the mountain where much of the local population spent their time, with grocery stores, markets, schools, restaurants, public transport options, etc. The bus we took entering Gjirokaster took us up the main road, dropped us off before the road became cobblestone, and then drove back down to the bottom of the hill. Our bus to leave Gjirokaster to Tirana was at the bottom of the hill along the road in the valley. Once you leave the main road and climb up the cobblestone road, you will enter the old historic part of town.
5 Places to Visit in Gjirokaster with Kids
1. The Market Bazaar
At the top of the hill, when only the castle stands above you, are the roads that house the market bazaar. These cobblestone streets are steep, but little shophouses line the streets selling local products from around the southern Albanian countryside. These include carpets, instruments, toys, furs, bags, and jewelry. Many shops even sell products they have made themselves.
There are also dining options in the bazaar, as well as the Bazaar Mosque, Xhamia e Pazarit, that you can visit. Our favorite place to sit and people watch in the bazaar was at Kodra sweet hill ice cream shop, where they made fresh artisanal ice cream flavors every day.
2. The Castle and Museum
The castle that sits atop the town has a lot of history attached to it. When you go inside it, you will find that there is a part of the castle designated as a museum. The museum is incredibly informational – you walk through and there are designated rooms explaining the history of the region, the history of the castle, and historical culture. You can spend a lot of time in there because of the many signs. However, our little ones did go through it very quickly and were struggling to stand around while we read the information.
Outside of the museum, there are more rooms in the castle to explore. Our children loved this part! Their favorite two places were the prison cell, which was so dark we needed a light to look inside, and the kitchen with an oven where they baked bread. The rooms with few signs were of most interest to us. We talked about subjects like lack of electricity, use of the castle, hierarchy of jobs in a castle, etc. This made the kids imagine more about what life would have been like in the past.
The castle has an open area at the top with beautiful views of the surrounding area. There are also cannons to look at and a large area to explore that is a bit more overgrown.
3. Cold War Tunnel
Visiting the Cold War Tunnel that was drilled into the mountainside below the castle grounds was a very eye opening experience for our children who did not have a lot of understanding of the Cold War era. We took a tour which went every half hour and our tour guide explained a lot of the intricacies of the Cold War era and of communism and how that played out in Albania during that time period.
Understanding the fear and very real threat of nuclear attack was something new that our children had not seen in our travels thus far. I highly recommend taking the tour with your children and having lengthy conversation afterwards to aid their understanding.
4. Ethnographic Museum
Up in the old town area, there is a house which used to belong to Enver Hoxha’s family that has become an ethnographic museum. Enver Hoxha was the communist dictator that ruled Albania for 40 years. He was originally from Gjirokaster and the property that used to belong to his family became a museum where people can learn about the cultural and historical items of Albania and specifically the Gjirokaster area.
5. Walking Through Gjirokaster with the Kids
Taking in the town in its entirety is an important part of our traveling philosophy and seeing first hand the day to day life of Albanians living in Gjirokaster was important to us. We walked down the hill to the local area of town multiple times to check out the supermarket, the market place, and the local restaurants.
Not only did we learn about the lives of the residents, but we also viewed the build of the city as we went, looking at the stone houses and how they are sitting one on top of the other and how they work their way up the mountainside. From the top of the town, we could also look out at the beautiful surrounding mountains and valleys.
Our Impressions of Gjirokaster with Kids During Our Visit
As we drove over the border from northern Greece into Albania, I was blown away by the rugged beauty of the valley beneath us. There were mountains on either side of the road and we drove down into the riverbed with sparkling, clear water flowing beside us.
The mountains were filled with sheep, and villages were dotted along the sides of the mountains. Gjirokaster was no different, a town perched on the side of a mountain, made of stone.
Our first impressions of Gjirokaster: This town is like no other we had ever been to. The main road at the bottom of the mountain is paved, but the top half of the town is completely cobblestones. The houses were made of stone and sat one behind another, stacked along the steep mountainside. The views looking out from the cobblestone streets were serene and the higher up you got, the more distant you could see.
Sitting atop the town, was the castle, aptly named Gjirokaster Castle. From the castle, you could look out over the entire valley and see the other mountains around Gjirokaster. You could also look down over the cobblestoned streets and see the houses as they perched against the mountainside, sitting almost one on top of the next.
Throughout our visit, we were able to get to the know the town quite well as we talked with our guesthouse hosts, local craftsmen, guides, and people around town. Gjirokaster is not only a beautifully unique place but its history and the resilience of its people speak loudly in their conversations and their way of life.
We left Gjirokaster for the capital city of Albania, Tirana, by minibus. Read here for step-by-step directions on how to go from Gjirokaster to Tirana. Even though we enjoyed our time exploring Tirana, Gjirokaster remains a favorite spot for everyone in the family.