From Durres Berat UNESCO City and Belshi Lake Day Tour

Belshi Lake and the Dumre lakes

The first stop, about an hour and a half from Durres, is Belsh, a small town built around one of the karst lakes of the Dumre region, a rolling plateau south of the Shkumbin river dotted with small natural lakes formed where the ground has collapsed into underground cavities. Belshi Lake sits right in the centre of the town, ringed by a modern promenade with cafés, fountains and viewpoints, and its still green water reflects the hills and the minaret on the far side.

The stop is relaxed: around 30 to 40 minutes to walk part of the promenade, have a coffee and take photos before continuing to Berat. Belshi Lake is rarely visited by foreign travellers, so it offers a quiet glimpse of everyday Albanian life, and it breaks the drive at exactly the right point.

Berat Castle (Kalaja)

Berat Castle crowns the hill above the Osum River and is unusual among European fortresses in that people still live inside its walls. The ramparts you see today were largely rebuilt in the thirteenth century on Illyrian and Byzantine foundations, and inside the gate a maze of cobbled lanes winds between stone houses, gardens, cisterns and the remains of mosques and churches. Several Byzantine churches survive, including the Church of the Holy Trinity on the slope with a view over the valley, and the ruined Red Mosque from the early Ottoman period.

Your Berat Castle ticket is included, and the tour leader guides you through the lanes and along the walls to the viewpoints over Mangalem, Gorica and the Tomorr mountain. Allow about two hours up here. The castle is open daily; the Onufri Museum inside the Church of the Dormition of St Mary, with its sixteenth-century icons, has a separate ticket paid on site if you wish to enter.

The Mangalem quarter: the city of a thousand windows

Below the castle, the Mangalem quarter climbs the hillside in tiers of white Ottoman houses, each with rows of large wooden-framed windows facing the river, which is the view that gave Berat its nickname of the city of a thousand windows. The houses date mostly from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and together with the castle and Gorica they earned Berat its UNESCO World Heritage listing in 2008. Steep stepped lanes lead between the houses, past the King Mosque, the Lead Mosque and the Halveti Tekke with its painted ceiling.

The walk through Mangalem is included in the tour and takes about 45 minutes on foot. Wear good shoes, as the lanes are cobbled and steep. Afterwards you have free time for lunch at your own expense in a traditional restaurant in the old town; the best time to visit Berat is spring or autumn, when the light on the white facades is soft and the temperatures are mild.

The Gorica Bridge and the Osum River

The Osum River divides Berat in two, with Mangalem on the castle side and the Gorica quarter facing it across the water. The two are linked by the Gorica Bridge, a stone bridge built in 1780 whose arches have become the classic foreground in photographs of the city. From the bridge or the riverside path you see the whole stacked facade of Mangalem rising to the castle walls, the most famous view in Berat, and the quieter houses of Gorica behind you.

The tour leader stops here for photos and a short walk along the river, usually around 20 to 30 minutes. In the late afternoon the sun lights the Mangalem windows from the west, which is the best moment for this view before the drive back to the coast.

Berat's old town and the road back to Durres

Between the castle and the bridge, Berat's lower town has a pedestrian boulevard, small museums and workshops, and restaurants serving the dishes the city is known for, such as slow-cooked lamb with yoghurt and stuffed peppers. The tour leader suggests places for lunch during your free time and tells you where to meet the vehicle afterwards. Is Berat worth visiting on a day trip? Yes: the castle, Mangalem and the bridge are all within a short walk of each other, so a single day covers the essentials well.

The return to Durres or Golem takes about two hours along the same route, arriving in the early evening. Travellers staying in Tirana can book the same tour with pickup in the capital.