I’m really excited to interview Luciana Fani of Travel Massive Albania and co-owner of Timo’s Guest House about Berat, Albania. Luciana’s tips for the best things to do in Berat are awesome because she was born and raised in the city. She loves the beautiful houses, picturesque scenery, and cobblestone streets.
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Shpiragu Mountain
Berat, Albania
Berat is located on the Osum River in central Albania. You’ll find it in Osum Canyon between the Tomorri Mountain National Park and Mount Shpirag. It is the 9th-largest city in Albania and is known for its white Ottoman-style houses.
On the hilltop, is the Berat Castle, a huge compound that is now inhabited by the locals. Within the walls of the castle, there are Byzantine churches, the Red Mosque, and the Onufri National Museum. The Ethnographic Museum is an 18th-century home that displays traditional crafts and highlighting the local heritage. Rafting in Osum river and hiking in the Tomorri and Shpiragu mountains are popular outdoor activities. For a unique experience, visit the last stone master of the city Xhoxh Fani to learn the local history while enjoying a tasty raki (alcohol) and Liko (traditional homemade jam).
Berat has a typical Mediterranean climate with all four seasons. Summertime is more crowded and full of a cheerful spirit. Spring is full of flowers and autumn is rainy and colorful with the changing leaves. Christmas can be cold, but you can feast on seasonal turkey and mulled wine. The Festival of Olives and Festival of Wines are popular events in Berat.
We share a lot of resources and local suggestions in today’s podcast, but you should also check out Visit Albania Tour Operator, the local visitor’s bureau. They are a wealth of information and can help you plan an itinerary based on your time, budget, and interests.
If you’d like to learn how to travel for free using airline miles and hotel points, check out my free 7-day email course.
Gorica’s Old Bridge
Getting around Berat
The local airport is Tirana National Airport (TIA), which is an hour and forty-minute drive to Berat. Use our Expedia tool below to find flight, hotel, and rental car options.
Luciana says that you should rent a car when visiting Berat. Renting a car is fast, easy, and cheap in Albania. Plus, the city has plenty of free parking. For the best offers, visit Avis, Budget, or Hertz.
Public transportation is available in Berat, but it is not that comfortable or fast.
View from Timo’s Guest House
Places we talked about on the podcast
Here is a map of all of the places we talked about in the podcast episode with Luciana Fani about Berat, Albania. You can zoom into the map and click on each dot to explore the city.
- Red dots = best places to eat in Berat, Albania
- Green dots = best things to do in Berat, Albania
- Yellow dots = best places to stay in Berat, Albania
Who is Luciana Fani?
Luciana is a travel enthusiast, passionate about history, culture, languages, and people. She calls herself a re-creative traveler, she changes and improves her mindset every time she meets a new journey. There is nothing more fascinating to her than opening new horizons only because of allowing herself to be touched by other people and cultures, far from yours. She thinks only by meeting each other we are more capable of understanding each other and making an impact in creating a better world.
Her philosophy is that travel is about giving and receiving, caring, and impacting. Luciana likes to learn deeper from the local cultures and achieves this by speaking various languages. So far, Luciana has visited 40 countries and 4 continents and has plans for many more.
Here are a few articles about her and her family:
You can connect with Luciana on her Travel Massive profile.
Click here to download our one-page guide of Luciana’s tips for Berat.
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Biftek Vienez
Stay tuned for our next episode
Listen to the next episode when author Cameron Huddleston shares the best things to do in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Cameron and I talk about hiking at Mammoth Cave National Park and Lost River Cave, historic cars at the Corvette Museum, and eating ice cream at Chaney’s Dairy Barn. We hope you’ll join us when We Travel There.
What’s your favorite part of Berat? Send us a Tweet, let us know in the comment section below, or continue the discussion in our Facebook group!
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