From Tirana, Durrës & Golem: Berat & Banja Lake Private Tour Private Day Tour with Holta Canyon, May to October

Discover Berat, Albania's UNESCO town of a thousand windows, with your own English-speaking driver-guide, stopping at Banja and Belshi lakes. From May to October, add Holta Canyon.
Most Berat day trips from Tirana and Durrës use the same coastal highway there and back. This private tour takes the inland road instead: out through the Devoll valley to Banja Lake, on to Berat for a guided walk, and home past Belshi Lake, so you see a side of Albania that most visitors miss.

Your English-speaking driver-guide picks you up at your accommodation in Tirana, Durrës or Golem. From Tirana the road passes Elbasan; from Durrës and Golem it runs inland via Rrogozhinë and Peqin. Both routes pass Cërrik and then turn towards Gramsh. After about 1.5 hours you reach Banja Lake, a turquoise reservoir that formed behind the Banja dam on the Devoll River, completed in 2016. Spend about 45 minutes at the viewpoint above the water, with the long ridge of Mount Tomorr, the mountain Albanians call sacred, behind it, and walk out onto the bridge that crosses the lake.

About an hour later you arrive in Berat, the UNESCO-listed town of a thousand windows. Your guide walks with you for about 2 hours: up into the castle quarter, where people still live inside the walls, past its old churches and viewpoints, then down to the white Ottoman houses of Mangalem and across the Gorica Bridge over the Osum River. You then have about an hour of free time for lunch. On the way back you stop for about 20 minutes at Belshi Lake, on the edge of the small town of Belsh among the karst lakes of Dumrea.

From May to October you can choose the Holta Canyon option. From Banja Lake the road continues up the valley to Holta Canyon, a narrow limestone gorge cut by a mountain river. Spend about an hour at the canyon entrance and its first warm springs, where you can dip your feet or bathe. This part is on your own: your guide shows you the way and waits for you, but does not walk into the water. The day then continues to Berat as above and takes about 10.5 hours.

Choose a start time between 8 and 11 AM, or between 7 and 9 AM with Holta Canyon. In winter, the 11 AM start brings you to Berat in the afternoon, so you can watch the windows of Mangalem light up at dusk before heading home.

The price is per car for up to 4 people, with fuel, tolls and parking included. Groups of 5 to 8 travel in two cars.

Para garantizar la disponibilidad de la reserva lo antes posible. Vale la pena reservar con antelación, especialmente si planeas el viaje durante la temporada alta, como los días festivos o los fines de semana.

Esta excursión se puede cancelar sin costo alguno hasta :tiempo de cancelación horas antes del inicio del viaje. Si lo cancela después de 24 horas o no se presenta en la excursión, se le cobrará el precio total de la actividad. El retraso en la recogida o en la salida se considerará como no presentarse.