Is Durrës Worth Visiting? My Honest Take After 8+ Years in Albania

For years my answer was no.

Not a diplomatic “hmm, it depends”. A flat no, said out loud, to anyone who asked me.

I’ve lived in Saranda since 2017, right in the middle of the Albanian Riviera, and I’d written this city off after one rushed stop back in 2019.

I stayed near Durresa Beach for a night or two, wasn’t excited by a single thing I saw, and carried straight on to Cape Rodoni without looking back.

It was genuinely my most hated city in Albania.

Then I went back and gave it five proper days.

This is my honest answer on whether Durrës is worth visiting, including the parts I still don’t rate.

So, is Durrës worth visiting?

Yes, with one big caveat.

If you want Roman history, a city break by the sea close to Tirana without actually being in Tirana, or you’re catching the ferry across to Italy, then Durrës earns 1-3 days.

But if you’re coming to Albania for the beaches?

WRONG city.

Here’s the honest positioning, because I’d rather give it to you straight than oversell.

Durrës is still near the bottom of my personal list of Albanian cities.

There are plenty of places I’d send you first.

What changed is that it went from “don’t bother” to “if this fits your trip, go, and here’s how to do it properly”.

That’s a real shift, and it took five days to earn it.

What Durrës is actually like

Durrës is the biggest city on the Albanian coast and it doesn’t feel like a resort town at all.

There’s a huge working port here with a direct ferry over to Bari in Italy, so it’s a proper functioning city with ships and traffic and people going to work.

For scale, Vlora is the next city down the coast and it’s much smaller.

Saranda, where I live, is smaller again.

It’s also incredibly close to the capital, which is the single thing that defines it.

Half of Tirana comes here on a hot weekend, and getting between the two is easy, which I’ve covered in tirana to durres.

But here’s the thing I came to really appreciate, and I say this as someone who lives in a town that shuts down.

Saranda and Himara go dead quiet in winter.

Restaurants close, the promenade empties, nothing happens for months.

Durrës doesn’t do that. There are people in the cafés in January and things are actually open.

It’s a real city with a real year-round life, and if you’re travelling off season that counts for an enormous amount.

The history is the strongest argument

If you like Roman ruins, this is why you come.

But let me be honest about the headline attraction first, because I don’t think anyone else will be.

The amphitheatre is the largest Roman one in the Balkans, built in the early 2nd century AD under Emperor Trajan.

It seated around 20,000 people and lay buried until 1966.

I paid 300 lek to go in and was done in twenty minutes.

It was cool, but a little underwhelming, and I’d rather save you the disappointment of expecting more.

My actual tip? You can probably skip the ticket and see it from above.

It sits surrounded by apartment blocks so you get a decent look without going in.

There’s plenty more though.

The Venetian Tower is 15th century, built on an earlier Byzantine tower to guard the port, and it’s been restored into Albania’s first Heritage Interpretation Centre so there’s a real interior now.

The Angevin Watchtower next to it is the one I climbed, and you get views over the harbour and out to the Adriatic.

That took about two minutes and cost nothing.

The Byzantine Forum is a scatter of Corinthian columns from the late 6th century wedged between apartment blocks, and it’s free.

I’ve ranked the lot in my guide to things to do in durres.

King Zog’s Villa was my favourite thing

Hands down, no competition.

The Royal Villa sits on Kodër Vilë hill above the bay.

King Zog I finished it as a summer palace around 1937, then fled two years later when Italy invaded.

After that it was an Italian occupation residence, then a communist state guesthouse that hosted Khrushchev, then it was looted in the 1997 unrest and has sat mostly abandoned since.

It’s technically closed. It’s also completely visitable.

I paid the guard 300 lek and walked straight in.

Not a bribe, they’ve started opening it up and he gives you a ticket.

Very Albanian, and I love it for that!

I spent two hours in there just photographing it.

One warning before you trek up that hill. It closes at random, with no notice and no explanation.

Go early and don’t build your whole day around it.

Let’s talk about the beaches, honestly

Here’s the thing that will ruin your trip if nobody warns you.

The central beach in Durrës is one of the worst beaches in Albania.

It’s quite polluted and it’s not somewhere I’d choose to swim.

If your mental image involves stepping out of your hotel onto golden sand, adjust it now.

Go to Currila Beach instead, over by the old port.

Sunbeds run around 1,000 lek for two with an umbrella.

Walk past the main stretch and you’ll find small coves with nothing on them at all.

Golem is the other option a bit further out, where a lot of Albanian holidaymakers head.

Popular for good reason, though I found Currila prettier.

I’ve compared them properly in beaches in durres.

Now the bigger point, and I’m not going to dress it up.

Neither compares to what’s further south.

I’ve seen nearly every beach in this country and the rest just doesn’t compete.

If beaches are the entire reason you’re coming to Albania, don’t spend those days here.

Save them for the Riviera and head from durres to saranda instead.

The food genuinely surprised me

This ended up being one of the strongest reasons to give the city a chance.

The cooking class I did here was the best food experience I’ve had in Albania, and I’ve written it up as a full albania cooking class review.

Beyond that there’s a proper restaurant scene once you know where to look.

My favourite is Liriada, where a full traditional spread with drinks came to around 20 euro for two, and the truffle pizza at Terra Cotta Napoli was one of the best I’ve eaten anywhere.

The rest are in my guide to durres restaurants.

I’ll be honest that the bar scene is thinner. There aren’t many great bars here but maybe I didn’t look hard enough.

What about cost?

Durrës felt noticeably cheaper than Saranda and the rest of the Riviera, which makes sense given it isn’t a premium beach destination.

💡 Top tip: a full traditional meal for two came in around 20 euro and a night in a good apartment around 50, so it stretches further here than almost anywhere else on this coast.

Who I’d send to Durrës, and who I wouldn’t

Go if you’re short on time and want to be near Tirana without staying in Tirana. This is honestly the strongest case for the city.

Go if you love Roman ruins and layered history.

Go if you’re catching the ferry to Italy. Build in a day either side rather than treating it as a transit stop.

Go if you want to eat well.

Go if you want a base for day trips. Cape Rodoni is one of my favourite places in the entire country and a great daytrips from durres, and there’s a second cape nearby at Kepi i Palit that a local recommended and I still haven’t reached.

Skip it if beaches are the whole reason you’re coming. I can’t say this enough times.

Skip it if you’ve only got a week and Saranda or Gjirokastër are already on your list. Those come first, no question.

Before you book

The shoulder months are far kinder than August.

I went in 35°C heat and I wouldn’t do it again, which I’ve explained in best time to visit durres.

Sort where to stay in durres before you arrive, because the good areas genuinely aren’t the ones you’d guess from a map.

And if you’d rather have the days mapped out for you, my 3 days in durres itinerary does exactly that.

So there you have it.

My honest answer on whether Durrës is worth visiting, from someone who spent years telling people it absolutely wasn’t.

It’s still not my favourite city in Albania and I’m not going to pretend it is.

But it deserved better than I’d been giving it.

Have you been? Did you love it or hate it?

Tell me in the comments!