In this post, we will tell you about the most popular trip for Albanians during winter, especially Christmas: Korçë, a city with a bustling cultural scene, urban traditional live music and great food.
We also propose you a short trip in the surrounding area on lonely roads and a rich religious architecture heritage. You can even go skiing in nearby Dardhë.
Before starting with Tirana…if you are planning a trip in Albania, check out our other posts about Albania:
- 7 Days in Albania, our guide to an essential trip in Albania.
- Insider guide to Tirana, with walking tours & the best local recommendations by Anida.
- 10 Albanian dishes you really have to taste
- Albanian riviera – best beaches & what else to do.
Korçë
Considered by many as the cultural capital of Albania, it is certainly neater than many other cities in the country and has a bohemian flair, vaguely reminiscent of France.
Korçë is a city to enjoy as a whole, just wander through its streets and squares, go where it takes you. But we propose you a short walking route so you don’t miss any of its highlights!
The city centre revolves around the Old Bazaar square, which is more Western and less Turkish than the Old Bazaar in Krujë. It is a great place to have a coffee, salep with local herbs or some Birra Korça (our favourite Albanian beer).
The Market square and adjacent streets are always bustling, even more during Christmas time.
Salep is a Turkish hot drink made of flour of orchid tubers infused in hot water, very common in winter.
In the mountains around Korça, there is a lot of salep, so it is natural and fresh here. Give it a try!
Wander around its cobbled streets and arrive at the square where the clock tower and Iliaz Bej Mirahori Mosque stand.
The mosque is a small but elegant construction built at the end of the 15th century, which is the main centre for the Muslim community in Orthodox Korça – although we like stressing that Albanians are very liberal and sincretic with regards to religion and proud of their diversity.
Orthodox Cathedral and boulevard
Cross Bulevardi Fan Noli and walk to the Orthodox Cathedral. The current temple was built in the 1990s where the previous cathedral stood, which was destroyed by the communist regime.
As is quite common in modern religious temples in the Balkans, it follows a historicist design, both in the façade and towers and in the frescoes inside, so a layman could be mistake it for an old building.
The Cathedral is at the end of Bulevardi Shën Gjergji, a bustling pedestrian boulevard, with elegant cafés and shops.
Very close to the Cathedral, you will find the building that hosted the first secular school in Albanian language (Mësonjëtorja), opened in 1887, now the Museum of Education. The other end of the boulevard opens at Theatre Square, where you can climb up a panoramic tower.
Great food and a bustling cultural scene
Korça’s cuisine is very famous in Albania, especially for its grilled meat (zgara).
You can enjoy great food with local ingredients in many restaurants and taverns. Our favourite in the city is Taverna Vasili, with a wide variety of homemade regional dishes, like petulla të fshira (crêpes with cheese), kërnacka (Korça-style meatballs), stuffed vegetables…
Last time we wanted to try so many things we ended up ordering too much!
But one the most interesting parts of a visit to Korçë comes at night. Korçë has a well-known musical tradition – serenata korçare. This musical genre reminds to other Balkan urban songs – not the stereotypical trumpets, drums and upbeat rhythms, but guitars and mandolins. Usual themes are love and urban life in Korçë.
Serenatas are performed live in many of Korça’s taverns. We recommend you to make a reservation in advance in one of them, as they are usually fully booked, and enjoy a great Albanian evening with live music, food, wine and raki.
Vila Cofiel is the most famous serenata tavern in Korçë and there are also many great places in the Old Market square and around. Wherever you go, it is a great local experience!
Time for a road trip...
After enjoying Korça day and night, there is nothing better than exploring its surrounding nature dotted with historical monasteries. We propose you this route around Korçë.
As the road between Voskopojë and Vithkuq is unpaved, you can make it rectangular only with a 4×4 or quad (that you can rent in Voskopojë). Otherwise, go to Voskopojë and then return to Korçë to take SH75 towards Kamenicë. After this village you will find a smaller road (but paved and in good conditions) on the right to arrive in Vithkuq.
Voskopojë
Voskopoja is 20 km West of Korça and it is our first stop. A village of around 1000 population, it hosts some fine Orthodox churches, built between the end of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century, when Voskopoja was a town of 40.000 population, something difficult to imagine when you visit nowadays.
The most interesting are the Church of the Dormition and, especially, that dedicated to St. Michael (Shen Mehilli). The latter preserves around one thousand frescoes from ca. 1720 in the style of the Byzantine Palaiologos dynasty.
If you want to visit St. Michael’s, you should call the phone number you will find in a sign by the door because they keep it closed. If they don’t answer you, we have found out that the priest and his wife have the keys, and they live across the street opposite to the main entrance to the church.
Probably there is no looting nowadays as in the past, but graffiti seems notoriously popular, as it can be witnessed in the entrance porch, which was being restored as of end 2022.
In the village main square, where the municipality council is located, there is a communist-era monument to the fallen during World War II and a “modern gate”.
The tourist information office is in this square, but you may find it closed. Now you can also rent a quad in this square to enjoy better the surrounding landscape.
Before taking the road, we recommend you to taste delicious lakror, a traditional pie from the Korça region (and not so often found in other areas of Albania), lighter than byrek.
It is usually filled with leek and gjiz (cottage cheese), or tomato and onion or maybe meat, and cooked on wood embers and covered with a stone lid.
Voskopoja has also a couple of places where you can stay overnight if you are more into its bucolic scene than into urban Korça. You can also enjoy live serenatas there.
Vithkuq
One of the things we love about travelling by car is driving through narrow winding roads with a beautiful landscape. Albania has plenty of those, and the Voskopoja – Vithkuq road is high on our list (although not as breathtaking as the Llogara pass).
This 20 km road is in good conditions and on an open landscape but it is so narrow that it does not have a line separating the lanes, so it will take you around 40 minutes to reach Vithkuq.
Vithkuq is a hamlet with a few streets so it is difficult to leave it accidentally. There are quite some churches and monasteries you can visit here, although they are generally closed. They are small constructions but combine beautifully with the surrounding nature. St. Michael’s church (below) is easily accessible, just at the side of the road.
Kamenicë
Now we are heading East, where we will finally meet the national road SH75 that will take us back to Korça. The road is like the one before but shorter, so don’t drive fast and continue enjoying the view.
A few kilometres after you join the main road, you can stop at the Kamenica tumulus. It is one the largest and most representative prehistorical sites in Albania, whose history extends between the 13th and the 6th century BC. There is still a lot to excavate and not so much to see but they do have a museum, and it’s on the way.
Boboshticë
You can take the next exit after Kamenica to get to Boboshtica, a traditional village which is also very popular for locals. This road actually takes you Dardhë, where there is a ski resort.
There are some more churches and monasteries here, but Boboshticë is well known for its fine resturants serving traditional dishes and delicious grilled meat, all with local produce. We recommend Taverna Thomas or Antoneta.
And thus ends our weekend trip in Korça. From here, you can go to explore the Ohrid Lake, Prespa Lake or go back to Tirana and continue touring Albania!
If you are planning a trip to Albania, check out our essential 7-day road trip and also 10 Albanian dishes you have to taste when you travel in Albania, so you don’t miss anything of its rich cuisine!
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