Përmet in two days
River in the morning, baths in the afternoon, and where to eat between them.
Two days is enough to do Përmet properly, if you spend them in the right order. The rule is simple: river in the morning while the water is still and the light is good, baths or the table in the afternoon when the heat has gone out of it. Here is how we would spend them.
Getting here
Përmet sits in the Vjosa valley in the south of Albania, about an hour by road from Gjirokastër. Most guests come from there, from Berat, or straight from Tirana, and we can arrange the pick-up for any of them. If you are driving, the road follows the river up the valley and is a pleasure in itself.
Stay in town. Honey House Kastrioti, our own guesthouse, is on the riverbank 150 metres from the centre, which means the morning departures are a walk and the evenings are yours.
Day one: the river, then the water
Morning. The half-day rafting is the reason most people come, and it belongs at the start of the trip. You meet us in the centre of Përmet for coffee, gear fitting and the briefing, drive a few minutes up the valley to the put-in, and paddle roughly nine kilometres of Class II-III rapids, swimming stops and canyon narrows. Children from six can do it. You are back and changed by early afternoon.
Lunch. Ask for the riverside barbecue and we cook it on the gravel bank where the rafts come out. Otherwise, the taverns in the centre do slow food the way Përmet is known for - lamb, greens from the garden, bread from the wood oven.
Afternoon. Up the Langarica valley to the Bënja thermal baths. Warm sulphur pools beside an Ottoman bridge, 28 to 32 degrees all year, and after a morning in cold water there is nothing better. If you have the legs for it, the canyon walk starts at the bridge and finishes back in the pools.
The Rafting & Thermal Baths combo packages exactly this day, transport included.
Evening. Përmet is the City of Roses and, across Albania, the city of gliko - whole fruit preserved in syrup, figs and walnuts and quince, made by every family to its own recipe. Have some with a coffee after dinner. Have the raki too.
Day two: pick your valley
The second day depends on who you are.
For walkers: the Sopot waterfall and Nemërçka trek. Seven to eight hours on foot, up through beech forest past a twenty-metre waterfall into a glacial cirque, with the whole Vjosa valley underneath you. Demanding, and the best view in the region.
For everyone else: the beekeeping and stone village morning. Kastrioti opens a hive at the family bee park and you taste the honey raw, then you walk up into the stone villages above town - cobbled lanes, slate roofs, small churches with hand-painted frescoes - and back for lunch. Easy, four to five hours.
For the curious: the historic churches by 4x4, to Leusë and the villages the road does not reach.
Lunch and afternoon. Whichever you choose, finish with a Degustim - a village tasting at the family table. Gliko, raki from the yard still, raw mountain honey, homemade wine and whatever is cooking that day. The cultural day wraps the old quarters and the tasting into one unhurried afternoon.
If you only have one day
Do the Ultimate: rafting in the morning, barbecue on the bank, the 4x4 tracks to the canyon, a walk through the narrows and the thermal pools, back in Përmet by evening. Everything is in the price. It is a long day and you will sleep well.
Where to eat between them
Breakfast at the house, made by hand. Lunch on the riverbank or in a tavern in the centre. Dinner in town - ask us and we will point you to whoever is cooking best that week; it changes with the season and the market. Bring an appetite for gliko. Everyone leaves with a jar.
