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Tirana is the capital city of Albania. It was the second country we visited in Europe as a family (with France being the first). As a full time, slow travel, and world schooling family, we tend to spend as long as we can in each destination. In Europe, that’s generally three months. So after enjoying three months in Tirana we’re excited to share our best tips on fun things to do in Tirana!
We loved our time in Tirana. If you’re wondering “What is there to do in Tirana?” then you’ve come to the right post. Although we have a young family, many of the places we’ve listed below can be enjoyed by all ages.
And because we spent quite a decent chunk of time there, we can share plenty of insights and tips that we wouldn’t have known about had we only experienced a short holiday there. We’ll share some of our favorite photos of Tirana Albania, and helpful links to further information.
Keep reading to find out about what to do in Tirana, whether you have kids with you or not. We hope you’re going to love Tirana as much as we do!
(This post includes affiliate links for which we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you should you make a purchase)
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The best things to do in Tirana
1. Pyramid of Tirana
Located in Central Tirana, the Pyramid of Tirana was abandoned long ago. It is wrecked but still stands, and serves as a reminder of Albania’s communist past.
Built as a museum in honor of the former Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha, the monument hasn’t been maintained since the fall of communism.
There are mixed views on the Enver Hoxha Pyramid. These range from those who value its historical importance and would like to see it transformed into something like a museum or cultural center. Others see it as a pile of trash that should have been removed long ago. Until Albania decides the future of the monument, it remains as is.
For now, it still stands. If you’re looking for weird things to do in Albania, or maybe more specifically “crazy” things to do in Tirana, some people (including Ayla and Colin) are making use of it as a climbing frame. Just be careful of all the broken glass around the bottom of the monument.
2. Tirana things to do with kids | Visit the playgrounds
If hanging around (or climbing) an abandoned monument isn’t your thing, there are plenty of great playgrounds (for the whole family ?) in Central Tirana.
There’s a playground right next to the pyramid, lots of play options in Rinia Park across the road, and another playground a little further along the road at the junction opposite Tirana Castle.
We’ve also found a few play areas attached to cafes and a skate park. The city is super walkable and you shouldn’t need to go far to find a play space for the kids (and grown-ups).
3. Explore the area around Tirana Castle
There’s plenty to explore in the center of Tirana. Start your Tirana sightseeing around Tirana Castle. Walk across Tanners Bridge, the restored 18th century pedestrian bridge.
Then head down the cobblestone street past the trendy bars, through the little green space, and over to the Justinian fortress wall.
Walk through the archway and through the pedestrian laneway, which has some nice, upmarket shops and restaurants. The whole area around what remains of the castle is lovely for a wander. It’s a nice area to start your itinerary of things to do in Tirana.
4. Things to do in TIrana | Check out Reja – The Cloud
Reja – The Cloud is an interesting art structure outside the National Art gallery in Tirana.
The first time we were in the area we just walked past it wondering what it might be. The second time around we went for a closer look and realized that you can go inside and even climb all over it (yes, it’s allowed).
Art can be interpreted differently by different people. Our girls definitely interpreted the cloud as a climbing frame. It provided quite a decent length of entertainment and we had fun exploring it! If you’ve got the National art gallery on your list of places to visit in Tirana, then make sure you also spend a bit of time enjoying Reja – The Cloud. It’s located between Tirana castle and Rinia Park.
Note that we didn’t visit the National art gallery as it didn’t really seem to be a place of interest for young kids.
5. Rinia Park
Rinia Park is very centrally located across the road from the Tirana pyramid on one side and the National art gallery on the other.
It’s a fab green space to hang out at. We’d highly recommend it as one of our favorite things to do in Tirana when you want to enjoy green space in the city. Our girls loved playing with the giant chess set and of course at the well-equipped playground. They also had fun running up and down the little grass hills.
There’s a big water fountain (the Taiwan “pool”) and even a dog training area. It’s a popular place to chill and you can also grab a meal or coffee at one of the Tirana restaurants in the Taiwan center.
6. The Grand Park of Tirana
Move over Central Park and Hyde Park! The Grand Park of Tirana could be one of the best city parks in the whole world! Best of all, it’s one of our favorite fun and free things to do in TIrana.
It’s super well maintained, and you can walk or bike the perimeter around the artificial lake. Veer off along some leafy green side trails if you choose to!
There are two places you can hire a bike to cruise around on (for only 100-150 lek per hour). We’d highly recommend doing so. The trail is smooth and easy to ride. You can also get a family sized bike if you wish.
If you’re wondering about restaurants in Tirana Albania, there are several cafes around the park. Most of them are drinks-only cafes but we can recommend the one by the little train track for delicious local food.
The playgrounds in the Grand Park are spectacular. The main one is huge and starts with some outdoor fitness machines, and a great calisthenics area. There are also loads of play areas for the kids. They can climb ropes and bars, slide, swing, climb the bouldering wall, walk logs and lots more. There’s also a basketball court and table tennis tables.
We’d also recommend the New Fari restaurant on the lake, which has a big outdoor kids playground complete with a huge bouncy castle, trampolines, slides, etc.
7. Park Lojrash Per Femije
The Grand Park of Tirana has so much to offer. Park Lojrash per Femije is another cool little park and playground you can visit there.
There’s a ship playground for little kids, swings, bars and ropes to climb, plus a couple of really fast slides down the hill! As well, there’s a restaurant, fitness area, basketball court and plenty of chairs and tables to sit at.
Just across the path is Gear Bike Albania where you can hire bikes to cruise around the trails. They even have big novelty-type bikes that can fit a family or two!
The L2 bus goes past this park, which is essentially part of the Grand Park of Tirana. Just get off at the stop before the park, otherwise, you’ll have big busy roads to navigate to walk back to the park. And the L2 goes right past the park on its way back to town.
You’ll probably want to make more than one visit to the Grand Park of Tirana. Overall, It’s one of our most favorite things to do in TIrana Albania.
8. Harli Kafe
Harli Kafe is a great rainy day option for kids. It’s also fab when parents just need something easy to do!
Harli Kafe is located near the Grand Park of Tirana and the Blokku shopping area. It’s essentially a (drinks-only) cafe, but they also have a dedicated indoor play area. The indoor play area is next to the cafe with walls and a door in between so cafe goers can still relax ?.
It’s more of a ‘little kid’ playground, but Ayla still enjoyed it at six years old. Entry is 150 lek per kid and they can play as long as they like. The play area is open every day from 9:30am till 1pm and 4:30pm till 9pm. Definitely check it out if you’re looking for things to do in Tirana in Albania with kids.
9. Bunkart museums
We saw a few concrete bunkers around in Tirana, including at one or two parks. A couple of the underground bunkers have been converted to museums. We visited the Bunkart museum that’s located in the city center. There’s another one near the Dajti Ekspres Cable Car Station.
The Bunkart museum in the center covers relatively recent history from the war years and into the post-war years.Therefore, it’s one of the very educational Tirana attractions if you want to learn about Albanian history.
There is a series of underground rooms with pictures and objects. Together they help to form a picture of the communist era in Albania.
All the information is written in Albanian and in English. I took in as much as I could with two young girls in tow and would have read more on my own.
I did my best to summarise some basic points for Ayla. She reached a point where she wanted to get out though. She didn’t like the smell. It was nothing bad, just a damp underground-type smell. At six years old, she probably wasn’t quite ready for this sort of place.
Even though she only absorbed a very small amount of what was in there I think it helped her to get a better picture of the great things in her own life and to practice gratitude.
Overall, I think she just switched off when she had had enough. There are a couple of rooms that are R16 because they contain disturbing images. These are clearly marked on the door so you can avoid them if you have young children.
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10. Skanderbeg Square
Skanderbeg Square is the huge central square in Tirana. If you’re wondering what to do in Tirana, definitely spend some time wandering around here. Depending on when you visit, there could be any number of things going on there. We highly recommend Skanderbeg Square as one of the best free things to do in Tirana.
The Skanderbeg monument is a prominent feature of the Square. Skanderbeg is hailed as Albania’s National hero. He was a nobleman and military commander who led a rebellion of the Ottoman empire.
Many local children enjoy climbing up the rocks that hold the statue in place, so of course our little climbers wanted to join in too!
There are many important buildings around the square, including the National history museum and National opera. We visited the National Museum, which has a wide range of historical artifacts. It’s not so great for young children, especially because they can’t touch anything, but there’s plenty to see there which many people will find interesting.
There is a carousel in the square (200 lek), which the kids enjoyed. When we visited there was also a wooden art sculpture there. The girls also like the colourful seats and giant ‘Tirana’ letters.
Events, cafes, and International bookstore and more!
Skanderbeg Square is a great space for events. We took a look around the agricultural fair at all the local produce and artisan products while we were there.
There’s a lineup of about four lovely cafes along one side of the Square, which act as a great spot for delicious food and drink and just to watch the world go by.
Something else we love is the superb International bookstore there. It’s an amazing store with loads of books in English, including a wide range of activity books for kids. As full-time travelers, we have missed books, bookstores, and libraries a lot over the past three years. We don’t carry many around with us due to the weight but we did get an activity book (landmarks around the world), and a ‘learn to draw princesses’ book for Ayla to enjoy while she’s here!
Skanderbeg Square is a great place simply to come and hang out in Tirana. The central bus stop is right next to the square as well, so you can catch a local bus out in any direction from there if you choose to.
11. Dajti Mountain
Dajti mountain is an easy and fun half-day or full-day trip from Tirana. There is plenty to do up the mountain so you can even opt to stay at a hotel up on the mountain if you choose. It’s definitely one of the best places to visit in Tirana, especially if you’re a nature lover, or you just want some slightly cooler weather!
Catch a taxi or a bus to the Dajti Ekspres cable car, which is the gondola that goes up the mountain. I believe it’s also possible to walk up!
A bus or taxi ride from the center takes about 20 minutes, and the cable car ride is around 15 minutes. When you buy your gondola ticket you can also opt to buy tickets for activities on the mountain if you want to. These include the adventure park (high ropes, etc), rollerblading, or mini-golf.
The cable car ride is gorgeous and you’ll soon be into the crisp mountain air! Even if you don’t opt to do any paid activities on the mountain, there’s still plenty on offer.
There are a couple of great playgrounds for the kids, with a gorgeous mountain backdrop. There is also a drinks-only cafe at the top, which has bouncy castles outside (for free). We had a delicious meal at the main restaurant at the top, from which you can enjoy beautiful views.
Other possible activities once you’re up the gondola include hiking and mountain biking, ATV rides, horse riding, and paragliding.
We’d definitely recommend visiting Mount Dajti. It was one of our favorite things to see in Tirana. The gondola makes it an easy and doable option to get amongst nature.
The only dampener for us was being pickpocketed on the bus on the way home!
12. Take a day trip to Durres
At just under 40 minutes from central Tirana, Durres is the closest coastal area you can visit. It’s a port town, where you can catch a ferry to Bari, Italy. Durres is well worth at least a day’s visit, if not more.
The town beaches we saw weren’t spectacular, but the ocean was beautiful and we loved being by the sea. There are small beaches in the town area with a little grey sand, some pebbles, quite a bit of rubbish, and plenty of some sort of seagrass that we hadn’t seen before. There are plenty of restaurants and cafes along the seafront, and some have cleaned up the patch of beach out in front of their location.
The amphitheater is worth a look, as are the remains of Durres Castle. As they’ve also done in Tirana, a modern shopping area has been built around it.
We enjoyed hanging out at “Durres sea view” (on Google maps) which is a big set of steps on the oceanfront. Overall, visiting Durres is a great option to add to your list of things to do in Tirana (or more specifically, ‘near’ Tirana!)
How to get to Durres from Tirana
You can catch the bus to Durres from Tirana. Get the L5B from the center and get off at the bus terminal a little beyond the Dogana roundabout (which has some major renovations going on right now).
Buses leave every 30 minutes to Durres from here and take a little over 30 minutes. When you arrive at the terminal in Durres you can walk to the coast via the amphitheater and Castle.
With a higher budget, you can also catch a taxi to Durres which will likely range from about 17-30 Euro (1 way) depending on traffic. This option will save time since you can get picked up and dropped off wherever you like. We took the local buses, which was all part of the adventure!
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13. Hiking in the Sauk Hills
The Sauk Hills just South of Tirana city is a fantastic area for easy hikes and exploration. It’s certainly one of the free and best things to do in Tirana for people who love the outdoors, nature, and adventure. The hills hold a lot of history, which you will no doubt get a feel for on your meanders.
Most of the paths and the road leading up the hills are concrete, and the elevation is only a few hundred meters, making it a doable hiking route for most.
Alternatively, you could get a taxi ride up, which wouldn’t cost too much. I would have taken the family if we were covering a shorter distance, but I ended up clocking up 23km on the walk from Central Tirana, and back again. Plus, it was my first opportunity for a kid-free adventure in a very long time!
I walked with an expat group that hikes regularly. We first walked through the Grand Park of Tirana and enjoyed the beautiful autumn colors on display. Here we learned a bit about WWII history in the area.
From there we headed up into the Sauk hills and walked along Olive road where we saw the olives being harvested.
In the hills, we got amazing views of the city below, and the surrounding mountains. We could even see the mountains of Montenegro in the distance!
Monuments, abandoned nuclear bunkers, and more
There are two Lapidari’s (monuments) to visit in the hills. They’re called ‘Lapidari’ and ‘Lapidari 2’ on Google maps. One of the monuments marks the spot where a cannon was fired by the Partisan artillery unit during WWII. They managed to break up an important conference being held down below in the Nazi collaborator government building.
There are abandoned bunkers all over the hillside that you can observe or explore. Some of these are long networks of tunnels that you can take a look through if you dare. I can’t confirm any safety standards of what remains! You’ll be able to go further into the tunnels with a flashlight.
If you’re catching a taxi you could ask them to drop you outside the tunnels on the hilltop. There you’ll get great views and be able to walk to the monuments. You could negotiate for them to wait and drive you back down. Or you could walk back down to the Grand Park in about an hour.
Sadly, there is a lot of rubbish on the sides of the roads all the way up. That aside it was a beautiful area to explore.
14. Indoor playgrounds
If you’re after things to do in Tirana with kids (especially on a rainy day), there are plenty of great indoor play areas in Tirana. Two that we have tried are in Toptani mall and the Tirana ring center. We originally went to the ring center to see if we could go ice skating in their mini ice rink. However, it has been closed for a while due to Covid.
The playground at the ring center is 200 lek for two hours ($2 USD), and the Toptani playground is 300 for two hours. You’re even allowed to drop your kids and go!
Romy is still rather little and there was a kid that was getting a bit rough with her on our first visit. And something similar was happening to Ayla on our second visit so I stayed close by. But at both the playgrounds you can have a coffee just outside the play area and still keep an eye on them.
15. Libraria cafe
“Libraria” cafe is located in Central Tirana, but it’s a little hidden gem that’s well out of the way. It’s certainly not a tourist place and it’s not marked on Google maps. However, with a little bit of curiosity, you can find it ?.
It’s a little library where you are welcome to go inside and read kids’ books. There are two boxes of books for reading, which include some books in English. The books on the surrounding bookshelves are for sale. They also have some toys and stationery for sale.
There’s a school upstairs and many of the kids come down to the library to hang out after school. We were there mid-late morning and the kids told us they had already finished for the day!
They also have a kids’ table for art and have a kids’ art lesson there on Saturday mornings, as well as English lessons on other days.
You can order a coffee and croissant and sit at one of the tables just outside while the kids read books ?. The coffee is only 60 lek (about 60 cents US!)
Libraria cafe is in a little alleyway that’s basically an extension of the new bazaar. Head to the northeast corner of the new bazaar, and into the square. Walk across it and follow the little alleyway. Libraria cafe is at the end, next to the pizza restaurant. There aren’t many Google listings right there but if you look for the “old bazaar” it’s a bar that is currently being built, and Libraria is very close by.
16. Latitude Tirana
Latitude Tirana is a super fun place for little kids and big kids alike! It’s definitely one of the most fun things to do in Tirana Albania, especially on a rainy day.
The big kids’ area (110cm and above) has amazing trampolines, foam pits, climbing walls, a skywalk, sky fly, and more!
It’s 800 lek to play for the first hour and 600 for the second (take the zeros off for an estimated dollar amount). You also need to wear their special socks (100 lek per pair). They obviously want you to be branded because our non-branded trampoline grip socks weren’t accepted. The sessions start every hour on the hour so show up a bit early to make the most of it.
There’s also a fab play area for little kids, which is 400 lek for unlimited play. They also have a cafe upstairs, and tables in the little kids’ area where you can have a coffee.
We definitely recommend Latitude Tirana as a fun and exciting place to take the kids for a play.
17. Walk a homeless dog
@arsalbania does some incredible work rescuing, rehabbing, and caring for Tirana’s furry friends. Without an amazing organization like this, these guys wouldn’t have much of a chance ?.
There are opportunities to volunteer with the organization when you visit. You can walk the dogs that are being looked after by the Tirana Vet hospital. Outside of being taken for walks by volunteers, these guys end up in their cage most of the day, so they need you!
If you’re in Tirana and would like to take some of these gorgeous pups for a walk (on your own schedule) get in touch with Mike (@an_american_in_albania). He’ll introduce you to the staff at the Vet Hospital, and show you some ideas for walking routes.
18. Visit Petrele
Petrele is a lovely hilltop village about 20 minutes South of Tirana. It’s the home of the beautiful Petrela castle and makes for an interesting and worthwhile visit from Tirana. From the car park in Petrele it’s a short and picturesque walk up to the castle.
There’s no entry fee and you can meander around and enjoy the wonderful views. There’s an onsite restaurant where you can enjoy local food, or just a strong coffee before continuing to explore the surrounding hills.
It’s a fab area for easy-level hiking and you can explore around the remains of an ancient Illyrian city. Just as fascinating is the evidence that in even more ancient times the ground underfoot was an ancient seabed. We enjoyed discovering shell fossils all the way up the hill during our hike with Expats in Albania.
Just as fun was foraging for ‘mare’ fruit (the “strawberry tree”) on the hillside. The fruits straight off the ground were the best of all. We still left plenty for the wandering goats! At only a hop, skip and a jump from the city, visiting Petrele is one of our highly recommended things to do in Tirana.
Other things to do in Tirana
There are so many wonderful, free, and fun things to do in Tirana. I’m sure we only just scratched the surface during our three months there. We didn’t go into any of the mosques while we were there. However, if you’re interested, check out the Et-hem Bey Mosque.
Do you have any questions or comments about what to do in Tirana? We’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to join the conversation, and leave a comment below!
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