A three-star hotel in Gjirokastër's stone city, with garden-view rooms, an Italian restaurant, hot tub, terrace, free parking and free WiFi, minutes from the bazaar.
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The Stone Sky Hotel is a three-star hotel on Rruga Gjin Zenebisi, just off Rruga e Vezirit on the eastern side of Gjirokastër, the UNESCO-listed stone city of southern Albania. Guests rate it 9.6 across 1978 reviews, with staff at 9.9 and cleanliness and comfort both at 9.8 — among the highest scores anywhere in the region.
The eleven room types run from 22 m² doubles to a 39 m² Superior King Room, and all of them are air-conditioned and soundproofed, with a private entrance, a seating area, a private bathroom with shower, bidet and hairdryer, free toiletries, a flat-screen TV and views over the garden, the city or the mountains. Family rooms and a Family Junior Suite take up to four people.
Downstairs there is an Italian restaurant and a bar, with room service and kids' meals available; outside, a garden, a patio with outdoor furniture, a terrace and a hot tub. The front desk is staffed around the clock, WiFi is free throughout, parking on site is free and does not need booking, and bike and car hire can be arranged. Payment is by cash only.
The Stone Sky Hotel has an unusually wide choice for its size: eleven room types spanning doubles, twins, triples, quadruples, family rooms and a junior suite, from 22 m² up to 39 m². What they share is the same core kit — air conditioning, soundproof walls, a private entrance, a seating area, a flat-screen TV and a private bathroom with shower, bidet, hairdryer and free toiletries. What separates them is size, sleeping capacity and outlook: most look onto the garden, some take in the city, and the largest adds a balcony and a hot tub. Bed configurations are listed on each card below.
For a three-star hotel in a protected historic town, the list here is longer than usual. There is a proper restaurant serving Italian food and a bar, backed by room service and kids' meals, and breakfast comes in continental and Italian versions. Outside, a garden, a patio with outdoor furniture, a terrace and a hot tub give somewhere to sit once the museums close. The front desk runs twenty-four hours with private check-in and check-out, housekeeping is daily, and laundry, dry cleaning and ironing can be arranged. Free WiFi covers the whole property and free parking is available on site without booking. Bike and car hire are handled at reception. Note that payment is by cash only.
The Stone Sky Hotel stands on Rruga Gjin Zenebisi, just off Rruga e Vezirit on the eastern edge of Gjirokastër's historic quarter, roughly ten minutes on foot below the Old Bazaar. There is no passenger rail service in this part of Albania, so everyone arrives by road. The nearest airport is Ioannina, across the Greek border, about 82 km by road and an hour and a half of driving, but its flight schedule is thin. Most travellers land at Tirana International Airport instead and take a direct coach south: the run to Gjirokastër takes around five hours and costs in the region of sixteen euros, with departures spread through the afternoon and evening, and it is worth booking a seat in summer. Regular buses and shared minivans also link the town with Sarandë, Berat and northern Greece, setting down in the new town below the hill. Parking at the hotel is free and needs no reservation, which counts for a lot here, because the lanes of the old town are steep, cobbled and mostly closed to through traffic.
Gjirokastër is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the reason is obvious from the first bend in the road: slate roofs, stone walls and Ottoman tower houses stacked up the hillside. Start at the Old Bazaar, the wedge of restored eighteenth-century shopfronts at the centre of the old town, then climb to the castle, one of the largest in the Balkans, open all year and home to an armaments collection and a Cold War-era American aircraft parked on its ramparts. The two great house-museums are Skënduli House, where a member of the family still shows visitors around, and Zekate House, built in 1811–1812 with twin towers and a painted upper reception room. The Ethnographic Museum fills out the picture of how these households actually worked. Beyond the town, the Blue Eye spring lies about 36 km south, roughly fifty minutes by car and an easy half-day trip. Spring and early autumn are the kindest seasons; July and August bring heat and crowds. Bring shoes with grip — the stone lanes are slippery after rain.
