Camping in Albania: A Full Day in Durrës at Wonderful Camping
A full day of camping in Durrës tends to go something like this, and it starts right at sunrise.
GUIDE TO DURRES
Wonderful Camping
7/7/20264 min read
The day starts slowly at Wonderful Camping. Most mornings the lake is calm enough to look like glass, with a thin mist sitting over the water until the sun burns it off. Guests who like to move head out for a few laps around the lake path, a short jog or a light training session with nothing but birdsong and the smell of the orchards for company. Anyone chasing something calmer takes a sunbed by the water instead, or paddles one of our small boats out across the lake for twenty unhurried minutes before the day really gets going.
Waking Up by the Lake
Coffee with a View like Tuscany
Once everyone is back on dry land, breakfast means one thing here, coffee at our own coffee shop, looking out over a view that feels more like the Tuscan countryside than a typical stretch of Albanian coast. Olive trees, a small vineyard and rows of pomegranate trees roll gently down toward the lake, and in the early light it is easy to forget the sea is only minutes away. It is, quite simply, the best view in Durrës, and you get to take it in from a chair with a warm cup in hand before the day's plans even start.
Into the City: The Durrës Amphitheater
From the camp it takes about fifteen minutes to reach central Durrës, and the Amphitheater is usually the first stop. Built by the Romans in the early second century under Emperor Trajan, it is the largest amphitheater ever built in the Balkans, and it once held up to twenty thousand people watching from stone tiers you can walk on today. Nobody even knew it was there until 1966, when construction work uncovered it by chance, which is why houses and shops in the old town end up sitting right on top of parts of it. Walking down into the stone corridors and the small chapel with its faded mosaics, it is hard not to think about everyone who filled these seats almost two thousand years ago.
The Old Town and the Venetian Tower
From the camp it takes about fifteen minutes to reach central Durrës, and the Amphitheater is usually the first stop. Built by the Romans in the early second century under Emperor Trajan, it is the largest amphitheater ever built in the Balkans, and it once held up to twenty thousand people watching from stone tiers you can walk on today. Nobody even knew it was there until 1966, when construction work uncovered it by chance, which is why houses and shops in the old town end up sitting right on top of parts of it. Walking down into the stone corridors and the small chapel with its faded mosaics, it is hard not to think about everyone who filled these seats almost two thousand years ago.
The Archaeological Museum and the Seafront
From there it is only a few minutes to the Archaeological Museum on Taulantia Street, right along the sea. Recently reopened after a long restoration, it holds thousands of pieces pulled from the ground in and around Durrës itself, sculptures, gold jewelry, amphorae crusted from decades on the seabed, all tracing the city's story back through the Greeks, the Romans and the Byzantines. Stepping back outside, the promenade runs right along the water, an easy and pleasant stretch to walk off a morning of ruins and history.
An Afternoon Durrës Beach
By early afternoon, most people head down onto the beach itself. Durrës has one of the longest sandy stretches on the Albanian coast, easy to walk for a long way in either direction, with water that stays shallow and warm far out from shore. It is the kind of place where you can find a peaceful stretch away from the busier beach bars if that is what you are after, or settle in near one of them if it is not.
King Zog's Villa, Above the City
Before heading back to camp, it is worth the walk or short drive up to King Zog's Villa on the hill above the city. Built for Albania's only king in the years before the Second World War, it has stood empty and half ruined for decades now, but the hill it sits on gives one of the widest views over Durrës, taking in the port, the rooftops of the old town and the sea stretching out beyond them. Late afternoon, with the light turning gold and the sun dropping toward the water, is the best time to be standing up there.
Back to Camp as the Lights Come On
By the time you drive back into Wonderful Camping, the sun is usually low over the water and the lake has started catching the last of the light. As evening settles in, the lights around camp switch on one by one, tracing the edge of the lake and lighting the paths between the orchards. After a full day moving between the coast and the old town, there is something genuinely good about coming back to a campsite glowing softly in the dark, dinner nearby, and a lake that has gone calm again for the night.
