Përmet

Getting there

car, bus. On the SH75 up the Vjosa valley, about an hour and a half from Gjirokastër. Buses run from Gjirokastër and Tirana, but a car is what makes the valley usable, because everything worth seeing here is twenty minutes outside the town.

Parking: Street parking in the centre.

Photography

Best light: morning, golden.

A braided river in a wide valley under bare mountains, which reads from height and in low sun. The town itself is low and modern and photographs less well than what surrounds it. Check drone requirements with the AAC before travelling.

Drone: not confirmed. Albania's registration requirement is reported differently by every secondary source, so verify with the AAC before you fly.

Përmet sits on the Vjosa, one of the last large rivers in Europe with no dams on its main stem and since 2023 the core of a national park built around exactly that. The river is braided and wide here, and it moves between seasons.

The town's reputation is for food and drink rather than for sights: raki, and gliko, fruit preserved in syrup and served with water and coffee, which Përmet makes better than anywhere else in the country and is happy to tell you so.

Most people use it as a base. The Bënjë thermal baths and the Lengarica canyon are twenty minutes up the valley and Gjirokastër is an hour and a half west. April to June and September to October are the months here: the valley is hot in high summer and wet in winter.