Albania · Qarku i Durrësit
Where to Stay in Durrës, Qarku i Durrësit
The Roman amphitheatre of Durrës anchors this ancient port on the Adriatic Sea, capital of Durrës County and Albania's chief harbour.
Find your area →
Where to stay in Durrës
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Durrës keeps its lodging split between the old harbour town and the long beach that runs beside the Adriatic Sea. The two halves suit different trips. If you want the ruins, stay in the old town, where the Roman amphitheatre of Durrës, Durrës Castle, and the Venetian Tower stand within a short walk of the port and the county's services gather around the harbour.
The beachfront is the other option, a strip of sand along the Adriatic Sea south of the old town where the city's coastal life concentrates. Pick your side by what you came for. Choose the old town if the amphitheatre, the Durrës Archaeological Museum, and the Durrës Orthodox Cathedral are the draw, or the beach if the shore of the Adriatic Sea is, since both sit within the one city at the head of Durrës County.
About Durrës
What is Durrës known for?
Durrës is known as the chief port of Albania and one of its oldest continuously inhabited cities, on the shore of the Adriatic Sea. The harbour made it. The Roman amphitheatre of Durrës and the walls of Durrës Castle mark its ancient past, while the beach and the working port define its coastal life along the water, so Durrës reads as an ancient port city at the head of Durrës County.
What are the main landmarks in Durrës?
Durrës gathers its landmarks in the old town above the harbour, led by the Roman amphitheatre of Durrës. The arena is the anchor. Around it stand Durrës Castle and the Venetian Tower from the city's later walls, while the Durrës Archaeological Museum and the Ethnographic Museum of Durrës hold its finds, and the Durrës Orthodox Cathedral marks the modern town, together giving the port a dense core of built heritage.
What is the history of Durrës?
Durrës is one of Albania's oldest continuously inhabited cities, with some twenty-five centuries of recorded history on the Adriatic Sea. The Adriatic harbour came before everything else. Founded in antiquity on the flat plain between the mouths of the Erzen and Ishëm, the city grew as a great harbour of the eastern Adriatic Sea, and the Roman amphitheatre of Durrës survives as the mark of its classical age at the head of Durrës County.
Later walls shaped the town. Durrës Castle and the Venetian Tower record the medieval and Venetian centuries when the port changed hands and rebuilt its defences above the harbour. The past is still visible.
The Durrës Archaeological Museum keeps the finds of those long centuries beside the sea, so the history of Durrës runs unbroken from its ancient founding through its castle walls to the modern port city on the Adriatic Sea.
Where is Durrës?
Durrës sits on a flat coastal plain at the southeastern corner of the Adriatic Sea, between the mouths of the Erzen and Ishëm. The setting is low and open. The city spreads across the plain between the two river mouths and the shore, capital of Durrës County, with its harbour cut into the coast where the Adriatic Sea meets the Albanian lowland.
What is the climate of Durrës?
Durrës has a Mediterranean climate strongly shaped by the Adriatic Sea along its shore. The sea keeps it mild. Hot, dry summers and mild, wetter winters mark the coastal plain between the Erzen and Ishëm, and the water moderates the seasons the way it does all along this stretch of the Adriatic Sea, giving Durrës the warm maritime rhythm of Durrës County.
How do you get to Durrës?
Durrës is reached first by sea, the chief port of Albania on the Adriatic Sea. Ferries and roads converge here. The harbour of Durrës serves the sea approaches while land routes run in across the coastal plain from the interior of Durrës County, so the port that made the city is still its main point of arrival on the Adriatic Sea.
Good for
Updated July 2026