Albania.

Two museums built inside actual communist-era nuclear bunkers — walking through them is genuinely surreal. Bunk'Art 1 (on the city's edge, reached via the Dajti cable car road) is the huge five-storey bunker covering the regime and daily life. Bunk'Art 2 (central, near Skanderbeg Square) covers the secret police (Sigurimi) and surveillance. Entry around A$5-A$7 each.

Tip: Do Bunk'Art 2 first (central, an hour) for context, then Bunk'Art 1 (allow 2-3 hours, it's enormous). Pair Bunk'Art 1 with the Dajti Ekspres cable car up Mt Dajti — same direction, big views over the city.

The vast pedestrian heart of the city, named for Albania's national hero. The beautifully frescoed Et'hem Bey Mosque sits on one corner (free, dress modestly). A 10-minute walk south, the Pyramid of Tirana — a former communist museum, then a derelict icon — has been reborn as a climbable public landmark with cafés and tech-hub spaces inside.

Tip: Climb the Pyramid at sunset for the city panorama. The square is liveliest in the early evening when families come out for the xhiro (the evening stroll).

The former secret-police surveillance HQ, now a quietly devastating museum about how the Sigurimi bugged, watched and informed on its own people. Small, sharp, essential for understanding what Albanians actually lived through. Around A$5 entry.

Tirana's nightlife is the secret weapon — it genuinely runs until sunrise and almost no one outside the Balkans knows. Start with cocktails and craft beer in Blloku (Radio Bar, Nouvel Vague, Komiteti for raki in a communist-kitsch setting), then on to the late clubs. A full dinner with drinks runs around A$20-A$25.

Tip: Komiteti Kafe-Muzeum is the one not to miss for a drink — wall-to-wall communist-era objects and an enormous raki menu. Albanians eat late and go out later; nothing gets going before midnight.

The restored market square ringed with restaurants doing proper Albanian food — tavë kosi (baked lamb with yogurt, the national dish), fërgesë (peppers, tomato and cottage cheese baked in a clay dish), qofte (grilled meatballs), and stalls of fruit, olives, honey and spices. Oda and Mullixhiu nearby are standout sit-downs.

Tip: Mullixhiu (just off the Lana river) does refined farm-to-table Albanian and books out — reserve. For cheap and perfect, eat byrek from a bakery on the square and a coffee for under A$2 total.

2 hours and A$3-A$4 by bus from Tirana. Ottoman houses stacked up a hillside, their rows of windows giving the town its name. A UNESCO old town (Mangalem + Gorica quarters either side of the river), a hilltop castle that's still a living neighbourhood with people in it, and some of the country's best wine country around it. A great stopover between Tirana and the south.

Tip: Walk up to Berat Castle (Kala) in the late afternoon — it's free to enter the inhabited fortress and the light on the white houses below is the photo. Stay one night in a Gorica-side guesthouse to get it at dawn before the day-trippers.

An hour from Tirana (and close to the airport). The mountain stronghold of Skanderbeg, Albania's national hero who held off the Ottomans in the 1400s. The castle, the Skanderbeg Museum, and a restored Ottoman bazaar lane selling traditional crafts, copperware and antiques. Easy half-day or a good last stop before a flight out.

Albania's second city and main port, 40 min from Tirana. A huge Roman amphitheatre sits in the middle of town, and there's a long city beach. Honest read: the beachfront is over-developed concrete and not why you come to Albania — the Riviera down south is a different planet. Worth it for the amphitheatre and as the ferry port to/from Italy, not as a beach base.