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Korça & Pogradec: “Little Paris” and UNESCO Lake Ohrid A Day Trip from Tirana
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1 Day
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Max People : 15
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Pickup: 07:30 AM
Description
Korça, Pogradec & Drilon 1 Day Tour
This full-day guided tour from Tirana combines a cultural walking tour of Korça, often known as Albania’s “Little Paris”, with an afternoon in Pogradec on the shores of UNESCO-listed Lake Ohrid and a visit to the peaceful Drilon National Park. Prices start from €55 per adult. The tour operates daily, children travel free, and a minimum of 3 passengers is required for each departure.
Who This Tour Is For
Korça holds a distinctive place in Albania’s cultural history. Located in a broad mountain valley in the southeast, close to the borders with North Macedonia and Greece, the city played an important role in the development of modern Albanian identity. It was home to Albania’s first secular school, the country’s first modern newspaper was printed here, and the city became a centre for many of the intellectual and artistic movements that shaped Albanian culture during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Korça’s architecture reflects this diverse heritage, with wide tree-lined boulevards, elegant Ottoman and European influences, Aromanian traditions, and a historic centre unlike anywhere else in Albania. Its long-standing nickname, “Little Paris”, reflects the city’s distinctive atmosphere and cultural character.
A short drive west along the lake brings you to Pogradec, where the pace becomes noticeably quieter. Set on the Albanian shore of Lake Ohrid, the town offers open views across one of Europe’s oldest lakes, while nearby Drilon National Park provides a peaceful natural setting of clear spring-fed pools, waterways, and mature plane trees.
Together, Korça, Pogradec, and Drilon create a relaxed day through one of Albania’s less-visited regions. The tour is particularly suited to culture and history enthusiasts, travelers interested in architecture and local traditions, and anyone looking to explore a quieter side of southeastern Albania beyond the country’s better-known destinations.
Tour Highlights
• Korça’s tree-lined boulevards and distinctive blend of Ottoman and European architecture
• The National Museum of Medieval Art, home to one of the Balkans’ finest collections of Byzantine icons
• The Mirahori Mosque, the oldest surviving mosque in Albania, built in 1484
• A guided walk through Korça’s Old Bazaar, with free time for coffee or a snack
• Panoramic views over UNESCO-listed Lake Ohrid from Pogradec
• A guided walk through Drilon National Park and its clear spring-fed pools
Good to Know Before You Book
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Duration |
Full day |
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Starting price |
From €55 per adult |
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Children |
Free of charge |
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Minimum passengers |
3 per departure |
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Departure point |
Tirana (hotel pickup included) |
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Tour type |
Private |
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Best for |
Culture lovers, history enthusiasts, travelers seeking quieter Albania |
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Group Size |
Price |
Per |
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1 Person |
€225 |
Per person |
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2 Persons |
€120 |
Per person |
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3 Persons |
€85 |
Per person |
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4-5 Persons |
€70 |
Per person |
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6+ Persons |
€55 |
Per person |
Group Rates
Prices may vary depending on the final group size, date, availability, and booking conditions. The current published website price should therefore be used as the reference starting rate.
Children Policy
Children aged 0–2 years travel free of charge.
Children aged 6–12 years pay 50% of the applicable tour price.
Children aged 12 and above are charged the full adult price.
Payment and Booking
Full payment is required when confirming the booking. Payment can be made by credit or debit card through a secure payment link provided during the booking process.
Once the booking is confirmed, travelers receive a tour voucher containing the final confirmation, tour manager and customer care contact details, as well as other useful information for the trip.
Cancellation Policy
Liberty Travel does not charge a cancellation fee for tours and excursions cancelled due to force majeure or circumstances beyond the traveler’s control. For standard cancellations, the tour can generally be cancelled up to 24 hours before departure for a full refund, minus any applicable administrative fees.
Price Includes
Return transport from Tirana in a comfortable air-conditioned vehicle
Hotel pickup and drop-off
Guide and driver throughout
City tour of Korça
Walk through Drilon National Park, Pogradec
Price Excludes
Museum and site entrance fees (paid on site)
Meals and drinks
Personal expenses
Gratuities
Optional activity costs
Travel Styles
Cultural
Nature & Adventure
Itinerary
The tour departs Tirana and heads southeast through the Albanian highlands, climbing through mountain passes before descending into the wide Korça plateau. The landscape on the approach to Korça is distinctly different from the coastal plain around Tirana open, elevated, and ringed by distant peaks and sets the tone for a city that has always felt slightly apart from the rest of Albania.
The guided visit to Korça begins with a walk along Gjuhadol and the city’s wide central boulevards, whose mixture of Ottoman and early 20th-century European architecture gives an immediate sense of the city’s layered history and its historic ties to both East and West. The first major stop is the National Museum of Medieval Art, which holds one of the finest collections of Byzantine icons in the Balkans. The museum’s holdings include icons, iconostases, silver ecclesiastic objects, and liturgical textiles spanning several centuries of Orthodox Christian artistic tradition an extraordinary concentration of religious art that reflects Korça’s long role as a centre of the Orthodox faith in Albania and the wider region. From the museum, the tour continues to the Mirahori Mosque, the oldest surviving mosque in Albania. Built in 1484 just a decade after the Ottoman conquest of the region by Iljas Bey Mirahori, an Albanian-born commander in the Ottoman army, it is a modest but historically significant structure whose age makes it a rare survivor in a country where most Ottoman-era religious buildings were destroyed during the communist period. The visit closes with a walk through Korça’s Old Bazaar a well-preserved Ottoman commercial district of arched stone shopfronts, cafés, and craft workshops where there is time to stop for a coffee or a snack and take in the particular atmosphere of a city that has been trading on these streets for centuries.
After the visit to Korça, the tour drives west to Pogradec, the main Albanian town on the shore of Lake Ohrid. Lake Ohrid is one of the oldest and deepest lakes in Europe estimated to be between 2 and 3 million years old and holds a dual UNESCO designation for both its cultural heritage and its extraordinary biodiversity, including dozens of endemic species found nowhere else on Earth. From the Pogradec waterfront, the views across the lake toward the North Macedonian shore are wide and calm, with the mountains of Galičica rising beyond. The afternoon’s main stop is Drilon National Park, a small protected area a short distance from Pogradec town, set around a series of crystal-clear spring-fed pools and channels that flow beneath old plane trees and into the lake. The walk through the park follows the river banks at a gentle pace a quiet, green, and unhurried end to a day that has covered a great deal of ground with time to stop, take photographs, and enjoy the lake setting before the drive back to Tirana.
FAQs
The day covers a guided cultural walking tour of Korça including the National Museum of Medieval Art, the Mirahori Mosque, and the Old Bazaar followed by an afternoon in Pogradec with a walk through Drilon National Park on the shores of UNESCO-listed Lake Ohrid, before returning to Tirana.
The nickname reflects Korça’s unusually cosmopolitan character by Albanian standards. The city was a centre of Albanian literary and artistic life in the 19th and early 20th centuries the first secular school in Albania was founded here in 1887 and its architecture, with wide tree-lined boulevards and a mixture of Ottoman, French, and Aromanian building styles, gives it an elegance and European feel that set it apart from other Albanian cities. The city’s strong café culture and tradition of art and music have kept the nickname alive.
The National Museum of Medieval Art holds one of the most important collections of Byzantine art in the Balkans, with icons, iconostases, silver ecclesiastic objects, and liturgical textiles spanning several centuries of Orthodox Christian artistic tradition. It is the principal museum of its kind in Albania and a highlight of the Korça visit for travelers with an interest in religious art and Balkan history. Entrance fees are paid on site.
The Mirahori Mosque, built in 1484 by Iljas Bey Mirahori, is the oldest surviving mosque in Albania. Most Ottoman-era religious buildings in the country were demolished or repurposed during the communist period, when Albania declared itself the world’s first atheist state in 1967. The Mirahori Mosque is one of the rare survivors from that era, and its age and history make it a significant stop on the Korça visit.
Drilon National Park is a small protected natural area on the Albanian shore of Lake Ohrid, near Pogradec, fed by underground springs that emerge as a series of crystal-clear pools and channels beneath old plane trees. It is a calm and beautiful setting for an afternoon walk, with the lake visible through the trees and the mountains of Galičica rising beyond the North Macedonian shore.
No. Meals and drinks are not included. There are cafés and restaurants in Korça’s Old Bazaar and along the Pogradec waterfront where most travelers choose to eat during the day.
Yes. Hotel pickup and drop-off in Tirana are included in the tour price.
From
55€
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