Visit Albania .guide

Gjirokastër and the south · hike

Lengarica canyon

A walk up a river through a narrow gorge to thermal water, with the river itself deciding whether it is walkable at all.

August: avoid. Peak heat and peak crowds at the thermal baths.

The year · August is underlined

Lengarica canyon: viability by month
RegionJFMAMJJASOND
Lengarica canyon

The walk

Distance10 km
Ascent150 m
Time3.5 h
TrackGPX in preparation

The Lengarica cuts a narrow gorge below Benjë, and the walk goes up it: about 10 km there and back, 150 m of climbing, three to four hours. The Ottoman bridge at the entrance is the photograph everybody takes and the least interesting part of the day.

The river is the timetable. In winter and early spring it fills the gorge and the walk is not on; from late April the level drops and you can work up the bed and the shelf beside it. Wear something you are happy to soak, because the crossings are unavoidable and the water is cold even in August.

It pairs with the thermal pools at the mouth of the canyon, which is where the walk starts and finishes, and which is also why the middle of summer is the worst time to do it: the pools fill up, the parking fills up, and the gorge itself gives you no shade in the open sections.

Nearby

Bënjë Thermal Bathsno photograph yetStone-walled hot pools on the bank of the Lengarica beside an Ottoman bridge, twenty minutes from Përmet, and at the mercy of the river's level.Përmetno photograph yetA small town on the Vjosa, one of the last undammed large rivers in Europe, and the base for the thermal baths and the canyon above it.Grey slate roofs of Gjirokastër stepping down the hillside below the castle, the Drino valley beyondAI imageGjirokastërThe stone town: slate roofs stepping down a hillside under a fortress, above the Drino valley and an hour from the southern springs.