Hotel in the stone heart of UNESCO-listed Gjirokastër, a short walk from the castle and Old Bazaar, with garden, terrace, shared kitchen and mountain views.
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Old Town Hotel stands on Rruga Shezai Como, in the Partizani quarter of Gjirokastër — the UNESCO-listed “city of stone” that climbs the slopes above the Drino valley. It is a small, quietly run place rather than a grand one, and guests rate it an exceptional 9.5 across 517 reviews, with staff at 9.8 and cleanliness at 9.7. Location scores 9.8, and couples in particular give it 9.8.
Rooms are air-conditioned and carpeted, with private bathrooms, flat-screen TVs with cable channels, dining tables, wardrobes and free WiFi that guests score a perfect 10. Several look onto the garden or the surrounding mountains, and the family room adds a bath, a washing machine and a seating area for four.
Beyond the rooms there is a garden, a terrace, a patio and an outdoor dining area, plus a bar, a snack bar, a shared kitchen and a shared lounge with a TV. Breakfast can be brought to your room, room service is available and the front desk is staffed around the clock. Payment at the property is cash only.
Old Town Hotel has three room types, all air-conditioned, carpeted and fitted with a private bathroom, a flat-screen TV with cable channels, a dining table, a wardrobe and free WiFi. Sizes run from 18 m² to 28 m², and the whole range faces either the garden, the terrace or the mountains rather than a busy road. The two double rooms are the compact choice for couples: one opens onto a terrace with garden views, the other onto a patio. The 28 m² family room is the outlier, adding a bath, a washing machine, a seating area and beds for four. Cots and extra beds are not available, so choose capacity carefully.
For a small hotel, Old Town Hotel is unusually well equipped, and guests score the facilities 9.4. Free WiFi covers the property and earns a perfect 10. There is a garden, a terrace, a patio and an outdoor dining area for long summer evenings, a bar and a snack bar, a shared kitchen with a fridge and dining table, and a shared lounge with a TV. Breakfast can be served in your room, and there is room service, packed lunches, grocery deliveries, laundry and ironing, luggage storage, babysitting and a 24-hour front desk. A shuttle service is available for an extra charge. Two things to plan for: there is no parking at the property, and payment on site is cash only.
Old Town Hotel stands on Rruga Shezai Como, in the Partizani quarter inside the historic centre, not in the newer town below. Long-distance buses and furgons stop at the terminal at the bottom of the hill, where the main boulevard meets the national road; from there it is a steep thirty-minute climb on foot, so most people take a taxi for roughly 300–400 lek or a local bus along Bulevardi 18 Shtator for about 30 lek. Buses run all day from Tirana, around four hours for 13–15 euros, and there are shorter, cheaper connections from Saranda and Berat. The nearest airport is Ioannina in Greece, some 70 km away and about an hour and a half by road, though most visitors fly into Tirana or Corfu and continue by bus. If you drive, note that the hotel has no parking of its own and the old-town lanes are cobbled, steep and narrow.
Almost everything worth seeing is within a few hundred metres. Gjirokastër Castle, one of the largest in the Balkans, is a short climb away; its ramparts hold cannons, a cold-war aircraft and long views over the Drino valley, and entry costs around 200 lek. Below it the Old Bazaar, built more than five centuries ago, is the place for slow coffee, silver filigree and qifqi rice balls. Two of the great Ottoman tower houses are open to visitors: Skenduli House, over three hundred years old and often shown by the owner himself, and Zekate House, built in 1811 with twin towers and a spectacular upper reception room. The Ethnographic Museum stands on the site where Enver Hoxha was born and recreates a wealthy nineteenth-century interior rather than telling his story. Further out, the Blue Eye spring is about 36 km and under an hour by car. Come in May, June, September or early October: summer is hot and busy, and the cobbles demand proper shoes.
