Experience the best of Shkodër

Shkodër lies at the southern end of Lake Shkodër, the largest lake in the Balkans, where the Buna river leaves it for the Adriatic. Rozafa Castle crowns a rocky hill above the town, with views over the water and the plain, and an old legend of a woman walled into its foundations so that the stones would hold. In town, the Marubi museum keeps nineteenth and twentieth-century photographs, and Kolë Idromeno street is a pedestrian promenade lined with cafés.

This is the main city of Albania's Catholic north, with a large cathedral, and the Lead Mosque stands among the old streets, named for its roof. Bicycles fill the roads. To the north the Albanian Alps rise towards the villages of Theth and Valbona, to the west the sandy coast at Velipojë faces the Adriatic, and across the border Montenegro shares the lake.

Fish from the lake, including carp, appears in local restaurants, alongside grilled meat, byrek pies and home-made fruit preserves. Evenings centre on the pedestrian street, where families stroll and the cafés fill. Spring and early autumn are mild and green, summer is hot, and winter is wet, with snow on the peaks.