How to Visit Albania’s Butrint Ruins (and What to See While You’re There)

As part of our trip to Albania we spent a couple of nights in Sarande, the largest town on the southwest coast. We didn’t have many plans for our time there beyond chilling out on the beach, but we did have one must-do: visit Butrint.

Albania’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, Butrint is an ancient and fascinating place. Founded by the Greeks, colonised by the Romans, expanded by the Byzantines, sold to the Venetians, conquered by the Ottomans, and surviving wars, earthquakes, and floods, there’s over three thousand years of history to pick through across the 29km² (11mi²) site.

I’m always a sucker for historical sites, especially well-preserved ones that I don’t know much about. Butrint fitted the bill perfectly, and it ended up being one of my favourite spots in all of Albania.

If you’re planning a visit yourself (and you should, if you’re in the area), here’s what you need to know!

How to Get There and Back

Butrint is about 17km south of Sarande and 5km south of Ksamil, at the bottom of Albania towards the border with Greece. If you’re coming from either of those towns, or from the Greek island of Corfu just across the water, the site is easy to get to.

Public Transport

If you’re coming from Sarande or Ksamil, the easiest way to get to and from Butrint National Park is by bus. That’s not because it’s faster than driving (it’s not), but because unless you’re there at opening time, finding a parking space is likely to raise your blood pressure to unacceptable heights.

The bus starts its journey close to the ferry terminal in Sarande, also stopping beside the archaeological site in the centre of town and near Hotel Butrinti on the other side of the harbour, before carrying on towards Ksamil and then Butrint.

The stops in Ksamil are spread along the main road, so just keep an eye out for the blue and white bus signs. They’re marked on Google Maps, albeit not always in exactly the right place: here’s an example.

During busy periods, I’d suggest trying to get on the bus where it first stops in Sarande or Ksamil, rather than further along. This gives you a better chance of not needing to stand in the aisle for most of your journey, since this route is popular with locals and tourists alike.

Driving

If my comments about parking haven’t put you off, feel free to drive to Butrint instead. You can rent a car in Sarande if you don’t already have one, although most people pick them up when they fly into Tirana.

It’s easy enough to get to Butrint: just head south along the coast from Sarande or Ksamil, staying on SH81 until you see a sign pointing down a narrower road toward the national park.

There’s a small free carpark beside the entrance and an even smaller one slightly further back, and both are likely to be full for most of the day. There were still spaces available when we walked past just before 9 a.m. in mid-September, but the line of vehicles stretched back at least a kilometre by the time we left a couple of hours later.

With limited space to turn around, public and tour buses everywhere, and lines of cars on both sides of the road, expect mayhem if you arrive more than an hour after the park opens, at least during busier times of year.

There’s also free parking on the side of the road near the Venetian triangular castle on the other side of the canal, but from the north it’s only accessible by a rickety cable ferry that leaves from alongside the entrance carpark and charges 700 lek (7 euros) each way per car for the two-minute journey. It’s also 75 lek per pedestrian for the journey back to the park, and again to get back to your car.

If you’d prefer to avoid all that mess, I’d suggest taking an alternate, longer route from Sarande, mostly on SH98 before turning onto a small road near Xarrë that finishes right where the ferry would have dropped you off. Set your GPS for the Venetian castle, where you can leave your car nearby and take the ferry across as a pedestrian. The drive is about 10 minutes longer, and a lot less stressful!

Taxi

You can expect to pay around 5000 lek (50 euros) for a one-way ride in a standard taxi from Sarande to Butrint, and 8000-9000 lek for a return trip where the driver waits for you for a couple of hours. You’ll find taxis parked up near all three of the bus stops in Sarande that I mention above, and along the main road in Ksamil.

Be sure to confirm the price in advance, and exactly when and where to meet your driver if they’re going to wait for you.

There’s no Uber in Albania, and while local and regional alternatives exist, you’re less likely to find a driver that uses them in Sarande or Ksamil. Even if you do, there isn’t a lot of phone coverage in and around the ruins, so I wouldn’t rely on being able to call one to get back even if there are any in the area.

Tour

The Greek island of Corfu sits just west of Albania, only two or three kilometres from Ksamil. With ferries running regularly to Sarande, it’s very common for tourists visiting Corfu to pop over to Albania for a day trip, often including Butrint in their itinerary.

You can do it yourself, but by the time you factor in entry tickets, ferry tickets, and transfers at both ends, it’s noticeably cheaper to jump on a tour instead. The price also includes lunch and a guide, so at under 60 euros for the day, it’s a bit of a bargain!

If you’re staying in Sarande, jump on this small-group tour to Butrint and Ksamil instead, again with a knowledgeable guide. It doesn’t include lunch, though, so grab that during your time in Ksamil or wait until you get back to Sarande.

Ticket Prices and Opening Hours

The Butrint National Archaeological Park is open between 8:30 a.m and 8:00 p.m. in summer (April through October), and 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. in winter (November through May). Last entry is two hours before closing time.

Adult tickets cost 1000 lek (~10 euros) per person, with a 20% discount for groups of 10+. Children aged 12-18 cost 500 lek, while those under 12 are free. If you’re an Albanian citizen and a student, pensioner, or have a disability, you’ll pay half price. It’s cash-only at the ticket office.

Entry is free for everyone on 18 April, 18 May, 21 May, and 29 September each year, and additionally for Albanian citizens on 28-29 November and the last Sunday of each month. Expect larger crowds on these days!

There was no line at the entrance when we arrived, but around 20 people were waiting to get in as we left. Make sure you pick up a brochure from the stand outside as you pass: it’s available in several languages, with a useful map (shown above) and a bit of the history of the site.

When to Go and What It’s Like

If you’re visiting Butrint during the warmer months, you’ll want to get there early. That’s both because it gets very busy once the tour buses start rolling in from about 9:30 a.m. onward, and due to the summer heat in Albania, where afternoon temperatures often top 35°C (95°F).

On the upside, much of the site is well-shaded by tall trees, so you won’t be fully exposed to the sun the whole way round. Even so, take plenty of water with you, as I didn’t see any water fountains or other places to fill your bottle.

You can buy drinks and snacks at the onsite cafe at wildly-inflated prices if you want to: it wasn’t open on the day we visited, so we disappointingly didn’t have the opportunity to get fleeced. There are also clean toilets here if you need them.

What to See

You’ll need about two hours to explore the area at a brisk pace; add another hour if you walk slowly or are just really into ancient and medieval architecture.

It doesn’t matter too much which route you take, and the way that the sites are laid out in the brochure map, from 1 through 15, is as good an approach as any. That’s not the way that we did it, but in hindsight, it would probably have made more sense!

There are a few pinch points that attract the crowds, so if you’ve arrived early as suggested, I’d recommend turning left at the entrance and heading straight for the first of those, the ancient chapel and theatre (numbers 2+3 on the brochure map).

From there, follow the path around past the baths and agora to the gymnasium. This is where we turned back, returning the way we’d come and then heading up the hill to the acropolis, Venetian castle, and the small Butrint museum before looping back past the Lake Gate, Great Basilica (another popular spot), baptistery and civic house.

As I say, if you’d rather just follow the numbers in the brochure, that works as well: just note that not all of the interesting buildings are numbered on the map, so don’t be afraid to wander off-route. You’ll finish at the museum/castle/cafe up on the hill before returning back to the ticket office and exit.

As you can tell, there’s plenty to see. We really enjoyed our time at Butrint and it’s hard to pick out my favourite parts, but a few of the highlights included:

Asclepius’s Sanctuary

Butrint’s rise from a small port town to a major settlement was all thanks to Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine. It was believed that the waters here had healing properties, and after a chapel was built in the fourth century BC, people looking for cures came from far and wide.

The complex also included a covered walkway and a treasury to hold all of the offerings made by visitors: those donations helped pay for, among other things, the theatre that was built alongside soon after. There’s a nearly 2500-year-old inscription mentioning this on one of the seats!

I’ll admit that the waters didn’t look quite so medicinal on the day I was there. I guess if I was desperate enough, I might still consider a dip: I’m just not sure I’d leave with fewer diseases than I arrived with.

Ancient Theatre

The ancient theatre is probably the most popular section of the ruins, and it’s not hard to see why. After being used for public debate and religious ceremonies by the Greeks, it was enlarged and rebuilt in a Roman style, including a stage in the centre. It’s still in great condition, and used for public performances to this day.

Because there was hardly anybody else there at the time, we could spend several minutes sitting on the steps in the morning sun, enjoying the tranquillity and looking down at a view that hadn’t changed all that much in the previous couple of millennia.

That peace didn’t last: less than two hours later, this is what it looked like as we headed towards the exit! If it’s particularly busy when you first get there, wait a few minutes for the tour groups to move on, or come back later: you’ll pass nearby on your way out of the site as well.

The Great Basilica

The Great Basilica dates back to the late Roman/early Byzantine era of the early sixth century. It was a major Christian church of its time, and still functioned as one right through to the 18th century. It’s one of the better-preserved ruins on the site, with a good chunk of it still standing, and attracts plenty of visitors as a result.

The multiple stone archways are the most impressive aspect, but the mosaics inside are definitely worth a look: they’re in the far right corner if you’re standing where I took the above photo, in front of what was once the altar.

Very well-preserved given their age, the mosaics apparently depict Biblical scenes and symbols, although I’m not sure I can really tell. Either way, though, be sure to check them out as you wander past.

Lion’s Gate and Lake Gate

Built in the third and fourth centuries BC, these were two of the gates in the city walls. Lion’s Gate was probably the more major of the two, heavily fortified with large stone walls surrounding it.

The carving on the lintel is of a lion eating a bull, and was originally part of a temple that dates back to the sixth century BC. It was moved to its current position when the gate height was lowered by the Romans to make it more easily defendable, several hundred years later.

The Lake Gate is, as the name suggests, beside the water. Built a little later than Lion’s Gate, it provided direct access to the lagoon, and the canal leading from it out to the Ionian and Adriatic Seas. It was most likely used for sea trade, with goods being taken through here for loading and unloading at the docks.

The Baptistery

Built during the early Byzantine period, the Baptistery is one of the most well-preserved buildings in the entire Balkans from this time. What you can see above ground is impressive enough, with the remains of over a dozen stone columns of various lengths surrounding the baptismal font in the middle, but it’s what you can’t see that really gives the site its value.

A floor mosaic depicting Christian baptism scenes was discovered here back in 1928, its seven circular bands still in remarkably good condition. To keep them that way, they’ve been covered back over with sand and plastic sheeting: a real shame for visitors, but probably a big win for the mosaics themselves.

You can see photos of some of them in the museum (and on the front of the brochure), and the mosaics are very occasionally uncovered for scientific and public access, but otherwise, you’ll just need to take my word for it that they’re under there!

Roman Villa/Triconch Palace

One of several Roman villas at Butrint, this is the most impressive. Expanded from a traditional townhouse into a grand palace around 400 AD, it’s easy to see the remains of the various rooms and courtyards that once made up the complex.

No matter how much the owners spent, however, they couldn’t hold back the rising water levels: as you can see in the photo, there’s no shortage of flooding, and apparently it wasn’t much different back then either!

Abandoned before the work was completed, the area was used for everything from workshops and craft markets to a church over the next thousand years.

Venetian Castle and Museum

Butrint, along with nearby Corfu, was purchased by the Republic of Venice in 1387 to help it cement control of sea-based trading along the Adriatic coast. There are several architectural reminders of this, including the small tower near the entrance, the triangular castle on the other side of the canal, and this larger castle on a hill near the centre of the site.

Built to help defend the surrounding area from attack, the castle fell into disrepair as Butrint changed hands between the Venetians, French, and Ottomans over the following centuries. It was restored in 1930, and now houses the small Butrint museum that’s full of artefacts from the city’s long history.

You can climb up onto the walls of the castle to look out over the peninsula, but for an even better view, climb up the steps of what used to be the old watchtower. Inside the walls, you’ll also find public toilets (clean and well-maintained, at least on the day I was there), and the cafe I mentioned earlier that’s best avoided unless you’re desperate.

Got any questions about visiting Butrint? Leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to help!