There is a town in the deep south of Albania that sits in a river valley so green, so sheltered, and so far from the noise of the modern world that arriving there feels like stepping through a door nobody else knows about. Permet sits in the valley of the Vjosa River, ringed by mountains, filled with the sound of water, and suffused with a particular quality of light and air that belongs entirely to southern Albania in the moments just before spring arrives in full. They call it the City of Roses. In March the roses are not yet open, but everything else is beginning, and the beauty of a place just waking up is a beauty unlike any other.
Must-read articles about Permet:
- Top 10 things to do in Permet
- Top 10 guesthouses in Permet
- Thermal baths of Benje
- Top 10 hotels in Permet
- Lake Neuron: The world’s largest underground thermal lake
- Leskovik calling: Your next Albanian escape awaits
Download the Albania360 app
Our Albania360 app makes it easy for everyone to discover hidden gems, explore 360 views of places before visiting, plan their meals & coffee dates, find perfect accommodations & book directly on the app, and much more!
Permet is not a large city. Roughly ten thousand people live here, going about their lives with a warmth and self-possession that you feel the moment you arrive. It is one of the cleanest and greenest towns in Albania, one of the most important centres of the Slow Food movement in the country, and the starting point for some of the finest natural adventures in the entire Balkans. The Vjosa River, which runs alongside it, is the last wild river in Europe — a waterway that has never been dammed or diverted, flowing as freely as it did ten thousand years ago through a landscape of extraordinary, untouched beauty.
In March, before the summer adventurers and the hot-spring tourists arrive, Permet is at its most genuine. Come now. The valley is opening, and it is magnificent.
Permet in March is what travel looked like before everyone started going to the same places.
Things to do in Permet in March
Soak in the Benje Thermal Springs
Fourteen kilometres outside Permet, at the edge of the Fir of Hotova-Dangelli National Park, the Vjosa River carves through a narrow gorge of pale limestone and dark forest, and from the rocks along its banks, warm springs rise from deep underground and pool in natural basins beside the water. These are the Benje Thermal Springs — one of the most extraordinary natural attractions in Albania and, quietly, one of the best reasons to visit the south of the country in any season.
The springs are not hot in the way a thermal spa is hot. The water temperature hovers between 22 and 28 degrees Celsius — warm enough to be deeply, pleasurably comfortable in the cool air of March, warm enough to stay in for an hour while the river runs cold and fast beside you and the canyon walls rise above. The minerals in the water — sulphur among them, with its distinctive and quickly-forgotten smell — have been drawing locals for their healing properties for generations. Skin conditions, joint pain, fatigue: the people of Permit will tell you the springs cure everything. Whether or not you believe them, the experience of lying in warm mineral water while a wild Albanian river rushes past and eagles circle the cliffs above is not one you will forget quickly.
In March the springs are at their best. The summer crowds are not yet here. The surrounding landscape is green and fresh with new growth. The air smells of cold mountain water and warm earth. You may well have the pools largely to yourself. This is exactly the right way to experience them.
Walk into the Langarica Canyon
Immediately beyond the thermal springs, the Vjosa gorge narrows dramatically and becomes the Langarica Canyon — five kilometres of vertical limestone walls, ancient rock formations, and absolute wild silence. The canyon is one of the most spectacular natural features in southern Albania, and in March, with the snowmelt swelling the river and the walls still damp from winter, it is at its most dramatic and most alive.
You do not need to hike the full five kilometres to be overwhelmed by it. Walk two hundred metres past the thermal springs and the canyon closes around you like a hand. The walls rise 150 metres on either side. The light comes in narrow and golden. The sound of water echoes from every surface. Guided tours are available from operators in Permet for those who want to go deeper into the canyon, and the full guided hike is extraordinary — but even the casual visitor who simply walks into the entrance and stands there for ten minutes will understand immediately why this place has no equal in the Albanian south.
Climb to the Katiu Bridge
Eight kilometres from Permit, above the thermal springs and the canyon, an Ottoman stone bridge from the 19th century arches over the Vjosa gorge with an elegance and confidence that two centuries of weather have done nothing to diminish. This is the Katiu Bridge, also known as the Ali Pasha Bridge, built by the Ottoman ruler who left his mark on so much of southern Albania’s architecture and whose name surfaces again and again in the stories of this region.
The bridge is not merely a viewpoint, though the view from it — down into the gorge, across to the canyon walls, along the river valley toward the mountains — is breathtaking. It is itself a thing of beauty: the proportions are perfect, the stonework immaculate, the way it sits in the landscape entirely natural, as if it grew from the gorge rather than was placed across it. Climb to it in the morning when the light comes from the east and the mountains are clear. The path up from the springs is steep in places and the stone is slippery after rain — wear good shoes and take your time. The bridge will wait.
Raft the Vjosa: Europe’s Last Wild River
The Vjosa is not like other rivers. It has never been dammed. It has never been straightened or managed or controlled. It runs from the mountains of Greece through the Albanian interior to the Adriatic coast entirely as nature made it, in great looping bends and braided channels and sudden rapids, through a landscape that is as close to untouched as anything in Europe. In 2023, the Albanian government declared the entire Vjosa a National Park — the first wild river national park in Europe — and the river’s international reputation as one of the continent’s last truly wild places has been growing ever since.
Permit is the centre of Vjosa rafting, and March is when the season begins. The river runs high and fast with snowmelt from the mountains, the water is cold and clear and green, and the scenery that passes on either side — canyon walls, pebble islands, the mountains rising beyond the valley — is spectacular. Half-day and full-day rafting trips run twice daily from several operators in the town centre, all of them with excellent safety records and guides who know every bend of the river. Book in advance even in March, as the operators are small and popular.
You do not need experience. You need only to be willing, and the river will do the rest.
Hike in Fir of Hotova-Dangelli National Park
The mountains that rise above Permet to the east are part of the Fir of Hotova-Dangelli National Park — a vast wilderness of ancient fir forests, alpine meadows, glacial lakes, and remote villages that is one of the least-visited and most beautiful protected areas in Albania. The park takes its name from the Macedonian fir trees that cover its upper slopes, a species found only in the mountains of the western Balkans and one of the oldest forest types in Europe.
In March the lower trails are open and the forests are waking up. The light through the fir trees in early spring has a particular quality — filtered and green and very still — that is unlike any other forest light. Higher up, the snow is still lying deep between the peaks, and the alpine lakes are only just beginning to thaw. Guides and horses for longer treks can be arranged through guesthouses in Permet. For a half-day walk without a guide, the forest trails above the town offer enough beauty and solitude to fill a day.
Visit the Church of Leus
On the hillside above the village of Leus, a forty-minute walk from Permet through stone-cobbled lanes and terraced olive groves, stands a post-Byzantine Orthodox church that many visitors — and some Albanian art historians — regard as the most beautiful church in Albania. The Church of St. Mary at Leus is covered from floor to ceiling in frescoes painted in deep, luminous colours that have somehow survived centuries of neglect, weather, and history with their power entirely intact.
The village of Leus itself is one of those rural Albanian communities that seems to exist slightly outside of time: riverstone alleys, haystacks, chickens in the road, old men watching from doorways. The walk up through it is half the pleasure. The church at the top is the other half. Go in the morning when the light is inside the building. Take your time with the frescoes. They reward very close looking.
Explore the Zagoria Villages
The Zagoria region, spread across the hills and valleys east of Permet, is one of the most traditional and least-changed rural landscapes in southern Albania. A handful of stone villages — Zhulat, Dobranje, Kato — sit in the folds of the hills above the Vjosa Valley, their houses built from the same grey limestone as the mountains around them, their way of life rooted in traditions of farming, shepherding, and hospitality that reach back centuries.
In March, when the lower meadows are beginning to green and the higher pastures are still snow-covered, the Zagoria villages have a particular stillness and beauty. The shepherds are preparing for the spring transhumance — the ancient seasonal movement of flocks from the valley to the mountain pastures — and the activity of preparation, of animals and families and equipment being readied for the journey, gives the villages a purposeful energy that is deeply satisfying to witness. Walk between two or three villages in a morning. Accept the offer of coffee that will inevitably be made. Stay longer than you planned.
The Gliko of Permet
Every region of Albania has its food specialities, but few are as distinctive or as universally beloved as the gliko of Permet. Gliko is a preserve made from whole fruits — walnuts, figs, plums, quinces, wild cherries — suspended in thick, intensely sweet syrup and served in small quantities as a welcome gesture, a spoonful at a time alongside a glass of cold water and a small cup of strong coffee. It is one of the oldest traditions of Albanian hospitality, and Permet makes it better than anywhere else.
The walnut gliko of Permet is particularly famous: young walnuts harvested before they harden, preserved in syrup with spices, dark and rich and complex in a way that no description fully captures. You will find it in every restaurant and guesthouse in the city, offered freely to arriving guests, sold in small jars at the market, pressed into your hands by hosts who are genuinely pleased that you have come. Accept every jar. Buy more than you think you need. Gliko does not survive the journey home in sufficient quantities — there is always someone at home who deserved a jar and did not get one.
Eat at the Slow Food Restaurants
Permet is one of the most important centres of the Slow Food movement in Albania, and its restaurants take their food with a seriousness and joy that is immediately apparent. The philosophy here is simple: use what the valley and the mountains produce, cook it in the way it has always been cooked, and serve it to people who are hungry enough to appreciate it.
That means wild greens from the hillsides above the city, dressed with olive oil and lemon in the way that southern Albanians have been dressing wild greens for centuries. It means mesnik pie — a deep, flaky pastry filled with veal and spring onions that is one of the signature dishes of the Permet area. It means pule fshati, the traditional village chicken soup thickened with crumbled egg-and-flour dough, which is the kind of dish that makes you understand why people stay in the places they were born. It means homemade wine from local grapes, raki distilled in the village, cheese made from the milk of animals that grazed on the mountains you can see from your table.
Mountain Biking the Vjosa Valley
The terrain around Permet — flat river valley giving way to steep mountain roads, old tracks connecting villages across the hillsides, forest paths that climb into the national park above the town — is among the best mountain biking country in Albania. Electric mountain bikes are available for hire in the town and guided biking tours along the Vjosa River take in small villages, river crossings, and views of the valley that no car road reaches.
In March the conditions are close to ideal: cool enough for sustained effort, the paths not yet dusty from summer, the valley landscape at its most vividly green. A morning on a bike along the river is one of the best ways to understand the scale and beauty of the Vjosa Valley — the way the mountains close in and open up, the way the river changes character around every bend, the way the villages sit in the landscape as if they have always been exactly there, which they have.
Getting There and When to Visit
Permet is approximately four and a half hours from Tirana by car via the SH4 highway south toward Gjirokaster, turning east at Tepelena into the Vjosa Valley. The drive through the valley itself, following the river through a succession of gorges and meadows and small towns, is one of the most beautiful road journeys in Albania. Direct buses run from Tirana’s North-South station to Permet several times daily; the journey takes around the same time as driving.
From Gjirokaster, Permet is roughly one hour north by car — an easy and very scenic connection that makes the two cities natural companions for a southern Albania itinerary. From Saranda, the journey is approximately one hour and thirty minutes.
March temperatures in Permet range from around 8 to 16 degrees Celsius — somewhat warmer than the northern cities at the same time of year, thanks to the sheltered valley and the southern latitude. Rain is possible, particularly in the first half of the month, but the days are lengthening quickly and the afternoon light in the valley is already warm. Pack layers and waterproof shoes for the canyon and the hiking trails. Plan to stay at least two nights. Three is better. Four begins to feel like the right amount.
Permet in March: The Valley Before the World Arrives
Permet will not stay undiscovered forever. The Vjosa Wild River National Park has put it on an international map, the Slow Food restaurants are finding their audience, and the word about the thermal springs and the canyon is spreading at the speed these things always spread now — which is to say, quickly. In two or three years, summer in Permet will be crowded in the way that the best places in Albania always eventually become crowded, which is to say not unbearably, but noticeably.
March is the last chapter of the time before that. March in Permit is the thermal springs with hardly anyone else in them. It is the canyon with your own footsteps as the only sound. It is a table at Trifilia with the choice of any seat in the house, and a plate of mesnik pie, and a glass of local wine, and the valley going green in the window behind you.
Download the Albania360 app
Our Albania360 app makes it easy for everyone to discover hidden gems, explore 360 views of places before visiting, plan their meals & coffee dates, find perfect accommodations & book directly on the app, and much more!