Vlora, Full Day Trip From Tirana

The St. Mary's Monastery, also known as the Monastery of Dormition of Theotokos Mary, is a medieval Byzantine church in Zvërnec Island inside the Narta Lagoon northwest of the city of Vlorë. One of the most interesting places to visit, apart from the clean coast line where the Ionian sea touches the ground, in Zvernec tourists get fascinated by the ancient Monastery. It is a treasure of locals’ religious history which unfolds the suffering of a nation during the communism period where from 1967 until 1990 the sacred place was abandoned. Built in X century A.C, the Monastery is situated in a tiny island in front of the village and it is connected with the land by a 100 meter wood bridge. The Monastery was restored and maintained regularly after the communism fall in 1990 and now plays the role of a religious place where locals and others hold pilgrimage each August 15th of every year (the birth date of Saint Maria).

Vlorë is the third most populous city of Albania. It is the capital of the surrounding Vlorë County. Located on the southeastern Adriatic Sea, it is one of the country's southernmost dominant economic and cultural centers. Vlorë was founded as an Ancient Ilirian city in the sixth century BC under the name of Aulona and has been continuously inhabited ever since. It became the seat of a bishopric. In modern times, the city served briefly as the capital of Albania. Notably, the Albanian Declaration of Independence was proclaimed here on November 28 in 1912. Culturally and economically it is one of the most significant cities of southwestern Albania. Vlorë is home to Albania's second largest port, the Port of Vlorë.

Ardenica Monastery is along the national road that links Lushnjë to Fier. Built by Byzantine Emperor, Andronikos II Palaiologos in 1282 after the victory against the Angevins in the Siege of Berat, the monastery is famous as the place where, in 1451, was celebrated the marriage of Scanderbeg, the national hero of Albania, with Andronika Arianiti. In 1780 the Monastery started a theological school to prepare clerics in Greek Orthodoxy. It had an important library with 32,000 volumes that got completely burned by a fire in 1932. The Church of Saint Mary within the monastery contains frescos from brothers Kostandin and Athanas Zografi, notably one of saint John Kukuzelis, born in Durrës, Albania.

Apollonia is located on the right bank of the Vjosa river. Its ruins are situated in the Fier County. Apollonia was founded in 588 BCE by Greek colonists from Corfu and Corinth on a site where native Illyrian tribes lived, and was perhaps the most important of the several classical towns known as Apollonia. Apollonia flourished in the Roman period and was home to a renowned school of philosophy, but began to decline in the 3rd century AD when its harbor started silting up as a result of an earthquake. It was abandoned by the end of Late Antiquity. The name of the city is mentioned among the modern bishoprics of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania (Apollonia and Fier). Apollonia is also a titular see of the Latin Church.