Adriatic Coast: Dubrovnik, Kotor, Tirana and the Albanian Riviera

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Dubrovnik

   Dubrovnik Airport to your hotel near the Old Town

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Repas du soir
   • Nuit : Dubrovnik
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Dubrovnik Airport (DBV) at Cilipi, about 20 km south-east of the city, in time for the evening meeting: plan to land by about 4 pm (the exact latest arrival is confirmed with your final itinerary). A driver meets you in the arrivals hall for the drive of about 30 minutes along the coast, with the walled Old Town coming into view as the road drops towards it. We choose a hotel within walking distance of the Old Town and name it when we confirm your dates, so the evenings here are on foot. At about 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the days ahead: the two border crossings, the walking in the old towns and the ferry at the end. Then we walk in through the Pile Gate and down the Stradun, the Old Town's main street, as the day visitors leave and the stone turns gold, and sit down together to a welcome dinner of Dalmatian dishes.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Dubrovnik Airport (DBV)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Evening walk through the Pile Gate and along the Stradun
   • Welcome dinner

   Temps libre : Free until the evening briefing

2. Jour 2 : Dubrovnik: the walls at opening

   Dubrovnik city walls and Old Town

   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Dubrovnik
   Détail du jour 2

   We are at the wall gate when it opens, at 8 am in season, while the stone is cool and before the cruise passengers walk up from the port. The circuit is about 2 km with many steps, and takes about two hours at an easy pace: the sea side looks down on rocks and swimmers, the land side climbs to the round Minceta tower, the highest point, for the view over the roofs. Back on the ground, a licensed local guide walks you through the Old Town that the Republic of Ragusa built: the Rector's Palace, the Sponza Palace, the Franciscan monastery and its old pharmacy, and the Orthodox Church of the Holy Annunciation on Od Puca street. The Old Town has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1979. Lunch is your choice, and the afternoon is free: swim at Banje beach, take the boat to Lokrum island, or ride the cable car up Mount Srd for the view.

   Compris

   • Dubrovnik city walls at opening, with your guide
   • Old Town walk with a licensed local guide: the Rector's Palace, the Sponza Palace and the Franciscan monastery
   • The Church of the Holy Annunciation

   Activités en option

   • Boat to Lokrum island (price shown at booking)
   • Mount Srd cable car (price shown at booking)

   Option plus facile : Walk the sea-side half of the walls only and leave by the next exit, then meet the group for the Old Town walk.

   Option plus active : In the late afternoon, walk up Mount Srd by the zigzag path, about an hour and 400 m of climb, and ride the cable car down.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free

   Activité : About 3 hours on foot in the morning, with many steps on the walls and little shade.

   

3. Jour 3 : Into Montenegro: Perast and Kotor

   Dubrovnik to Perast, then Kotor

   • Environ 2.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Kotor
   Détail du jour 3

   We leave Dubrovnik at about 9 am and drive south past Cavtat to the Montenegrin border; summer queues here can add an hour, so the morning is kept light. Past Herceg Novi the road follows the shore of the Bay of Kotor, a deep, winding inlet between steep mountains, to Perast, a small town of stone palaces built by sea captains. From the waterfront a small boat takes us out to Our Lady of the Rocks, a man-made islet that Perast sailors raised from a reef, boatload of stone by boatload, with a church full of 17th-century paintings. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Perast. Then it is twenty minutes to Kotor, where we check in for two nights. In the late afternoon, when most cruise passengers are back on their ships, your guide and a local guide walk you through the old town's squares to the Cathedral of St Tryphon, consecrated in 1166. The evening is free.

   Compris

   • Drive from Dubrovnik to the Bay of Kotor with your guide
   • Boat from Perast to Our Lady of the Rocks
   • Sit-down lunch in Perast
   • Kotor old town walk with a local guide and the Cathedral of St Tryphon

   Temps libre : Evening free in Kotor

   Activité : About 1.5 hours on foot on flat stone streets; the boat to the islet takes about 10 minutes each way.

4. Jour 4 : Kotor: the fortress early, then a free afternoon

   Kotor fortress climb and old town

   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Kotor
   Détail du jour 4

   An early breakfast, then at about 7:30 am we start up the path to the Fortress of St John, while the cliff behind the town is still in shade. The walls zigzag up the mountain for about 1,350 steps and 260 m of climb, past the small Church of Our Lady of Remedy about a third of the way up, to the fortress at the top, where the whole inner bay opens out below. Allow about two and a half hours there and back at an easy pace. The Kotor walls and the bay are part of the Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of Kotor on the UNESCO list since 1979. Late in the morning your guide takes you into the Maritime Museum, in an old palace, for the story of the bay's sailors. The afternoon and evening are free: lunch in a square, a swim along the shore towards Dobrota, or a boat trip on the bay.

   Compris

   • Kotor fortress climb with your guide, entry included
   • The Maritime Museum of Montenegro

   Activités en option

   • Boat trip on the Bay of Kotor (price shown at booking)

   Option plus facile : Climb only as far as the Church of Our Lady of Remedy, about 20 minutes up, for a view over the roofs, and meet the group in town.

   Option plus active : From the fortress, carry on through the back window in the wall to the old Ladder of Kotor mule path for a longer walk with your guide, about an hour more.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free

   Activité : About 2.5 hours on uneven stone steps with little shade after mid-morning; bring water.

   

5. Jour 5 : Budva, then the coast road into Albania

   Kotor to Budva, then Bar and the border to Shkoder

   • Environ 3.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Shkoder
   Détail du jour 5

   We leave Kotor at about 8:30 am and drive half an hour over the hill to Budva, whose walled old town sits on a small headland. At 9 am, before the beach crowd, a local guide walks you through its lanes to the citadel and the churches of St John and the Holy Trinity. A little further south we stop at a viewpoint over Sveti Stefan, the walled islet village that is now a private hotel, and sit down to lunch by the sea. In the afternoon the road runs past Bar and inland to the Sukobin and Murriqan border, where we cross into Albania, and on to Shkoder by about 4 pm: about 3.25 hours of driving in all, broken by the guided walk and lunch. In the early evening your guide walks you along Kole Idromeno, Shkoder's pedestrian street of painted houses and cafés, and we sit down together to our first Albanian dinner.

   Compris

   • Budva old town walk with a local guide
   • Sveti Stefan viewpoint
   • Sit-down lunch on the Montenegrin coast
   • Evening walk on Kole Idromeno street in Shkoder
   • Dinner in Shkoder

   Activité : About 1.5 hours on foot on flat streets; the border crossing is usually 30 to 60 minutes.

   

6. Jour 6 : Rozafa castle and on to Tirana

   Shkoder to Rozafa castle, then Tirana

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Tirana
   Détail du jour 6

   After breakfast we drive a few minutes to Rozafa castle, arriving at opening, on a rocky hill where the Buna river leaves Lake Shkoder and the Drin joins it. Your guide tells the legend of Rozafa, the young wife walled into the foundations, as you walk the ruins of walls, a church turned mosque and the Venetian keep, with the lake and the mountains of Montenegro behind. Back in town, the Marubi National Museum of Photography shows pictures taken by the Marubi family studio from the 1850s on, a rare record of Albanian life before the communist years. Then we drive about 100 km, 1.75 hours, south to Tirana. Lunch is your choice on arrival. In the afternoon your guide walks you across Skanderbeg Square, into the painted Et'hem Bey Mosque, and down into Bunk'Art 2, a Cold War bunker built for the Interior Ministry, now a museum of the police and secret police. The evening is free in Blloku.

   Compris

   • Rozafa castle with your guide
   • The Marubi National Museum of Photography
   • Tirana walk: Skanderbeg Square and the Et'hem Bey Mosque
   • Bunk'Art 2

   Option plus facile : Ride to the upper car park at Rozafa and stay on the flatter paths inside the walls.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Tirana

   Activité : About 3 hours on foot, with a steep, rough path at Rozafa and flat streets in Tirana. The Marubi Museum and Bunk'Art 2 close on Mondays; if your departure puts this day on a Monday, we swap the order of days 6 and 7 or the museum visits within them, and tell you before you travel.

7. Jour 7 : Tirana to Berat's castle quarter

   Tirana to Berat

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Berat
   Détail du jour 7

   A slower morning in Tirana. After breakfast your guide takes you into the House of Leaves, the building where the communist secret police ran its surveillance, now a museum of how it listened to its own people, then up the steps of the Pyramid, built as a museum to Enver Hoxha and reopened in 2023, for the view across the city. We leave at about 11:30 am and drive about two hours south to Berat, where we sit down to a late lunch in the old town. At about 4:30 pm, once the day-trip coaches have gone back to the coast, we climb to the Kala, the castle quarter where families still live among Byzantine churches. Your guide takes you into the Onufri Museum to see icons by the 16th-century painter known for his deep red, and to the walls as the light turns warm over the Osum river. The evening is free.

   Compris

   • The House of Leaves museum
   • The Pyramid of Tirana
   • Sit-down lunch in Berat
   • Berat castle quarter with your guide
   • The Onufri Museum

   Option plus facile : Ride up to the castle gate by van instead of walking the steep cobbled lane.

   Option plus active : Walk up from Mangalem to the castle on the old cobbled path, about 25 minutes uphill, and walk the full circuit of the walls.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Berat

   Activité : About 2.5 hours on foot, with steep, uneven cobbles in Berat. The House of Leaves and the Onufri Museum close on Mondays; on a Monday departure pattern we swap the day order so every museum in the plan is open.

8. Jour 8 : Over the Llogara Pass to Himare

   Berat via Vlore and the Llogara Pass to Himare

   • Environ 4 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Himare
   Détail du jour 8

   Before we leave, cross the Gorica bridge after breakfast for the classic view of Mangalem's rows of windows climbing the hill; Berat's old town has been on the UNESCO list since 2008. At about 9:30 am we drive west through Fier and south to Vlore, the port where Albania declared independence in 1912, and along the Bay of Vlore to a sit-down lunch by the water. In the afternoon the road climbs through pine forest to the Llogara Pass, a little over 1,000 m up, where we stop for coffee and the view down the whole Riviera coast. Then it drops in tight bends to Dhermi and runs on to Himare, arriving at about 4 pm: about 175 km and 3.75 hours of driving in three parts. We stay two nights in Himare, close to the sea, with time for a swim before a free evening on the waterfront.

   Compris

   • Morning walk to the Gorica bridge in Berat
   • Sit-down lunch on the Bay of Vlore
   • Coffee stop on the Llogara Pass

   Temps libre : Evening free in Himare

9. Jour 9 : Himare: the old town, Porto Palermo and the beach

   Himare old town and castle, Porto Palermo, then the beach

   • Environ 45 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Himare
   Détail du jour 9

   A day to slow down. After breakfast the van takes the group a few minutes up the hill to old Himare, a village of stone houses and Orthodox churches inside the walls of its castle, on a ridge with long views along the coast. Your guide explains how this Greek-speaking corner of Albania kept its own ways through Ottoman and communist rule. Then we drive about 15 minutes south to Porto Palermo, where a small fortress linked to Ali Pasha of Tepelena stands on a headland in a sheltered bay, and walk through its dark rooms and up to the roof. We are back in Himare by about 1 pm, and you have the afternoon to yourself: swim at Spile beach in town or at Livadhi a short walk north, sit over a long seafood lunch, or join the walk to Gjipe. In the evening we meet for a farewell dinner by the sea.

   Compris

   • Himare old town and castle with your guide
   • Porto Palermo castle
   • Farewell dinner in Himare

   Activités en option

   • Seasonal boat trip along the coast to beaches and sea caves (price shown at booking)

   Option plus facile : Stay at the beach or the hotel all day and skip the old town and Porto Palermo.

   Option plus active : Afternoon van ride to the trailhead near Dhermi and a walk of about 30 minutes each way down a stony track to Gjipe beach, at the mouth of a canyon, with your guide.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free

   Activité : About 1.5 hours on foot in the morning on stony paths and steps.

10. Jour 10 : Butrint, then the ferry to Corfu

    Himare to Butrint, then Saranda and the ferry to Corfu

    • Environ 2.5 h de route
    • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
    Détail du jour 10

    We leave Himare at about 7:30 am, earlier than any other day because the ferry sets the timing, and follow the coast road south past Borsh and Lukove, then through Saranda to Butrint, about 85 km and two hours. We arrive at about 9:30, before the heat. Butrint, on the UNESCO list since 1992, was lived in for more than two thousand years, and a local guide shows you its layers in woodland by the Vivari channel: a Greek theatre, Roman baths, a 6th-century baptistery, a great basilica, Venetian walls and the hilltop castle with its small museum. Then we drive to Saranda port for the scheduled ferry to Corfu, a crossing of about 30 to 40 minutes; sailings run mostly from the morning to the early afternoon and change by season, so the exact time is confirmed with your final itinerary. Lunch is a sit-down meal timed around the sailing, by the sea at Ksamil or Saranda before it, or in Corfu Town after it. On Corfu a transfer takes you to Corfu Airport (CFU), about 3 km from the port, or to a hotel in Corfu Town. Greece is one hour ahead of Albania.

    Compris

    • Butrint National Park with a local guide
    • Sit-down lunch at Ksamil, Saranda or Corfu Town, timed around the ferry
    • Ferry from Saranda to Corfu
    • Transfer from Corfu port to Corfu Airport (CFU) or a hotel in Corfu Town

    Activités en option

    • Extra nights on Corfu (price shown at booking)

    Option plus facile : At Butrint, stay on the lower paths by the theatre and the baptistery and skip the climb to the castle museum.

    Activité : About 2 hours on foot at Butrint on paths and uneven ground, much of it in shade. The ferry time is confirmed with your final itinerary; do not book a flight out of Corfu until then, and allow at least three hours between the ferry landing and your flight, or add a night on Corfu.

Faune et météo : May, June, September and October bring warm days and fewer people; the sea is warm enough to swim from about late May. July and August are hot, often over 35°C inland, and Dubrovnik, Kotor and the Riviera are at their busiest, so on those departures the walking starts earlier and the afternoons are free.

• Dubrovnik2 nuits
• Kotor2 nuits
• Shkoder1 nuit
• Tirana1 nuit
• Berat1 nuit
• Himare2 nuits