The road from Saranda climbs 300 metres through the Drino valley, leaving the Ionian behind for a landscape of limestone ridges and oak forest. Gjirokastër's silhouette appears first as a cascade of slate roofs, each house stepped above the next in Ottoman precision, the fortress perched at the summit like a stone crown. UNESCO inscribed the city in 2005, recognizing not just the fortress but the entire Ottoman-era core — 600 stone houses, their upper storeys cantilevered over cobbled lanes, many dating to the 17th and 18th centuries. The fortress itself predates the Ottomans by seven centuries, its walls enclosing five towers, an armory housing a captured American jet from the Cold War, and terraced ramparts offering unbroken views across the valley to the Greek frontier. Twenty kilometres north, Syri i Kaltër — the Blue Eye — reverses the architectural severity of the city with pure natural spectacle. The spring erupts from a karst sinkhole more than 50 metres deep, discharging 6,000 litres of glacial water per second at a constant 13 degrees Celsius. The eye's centre pulses cobalt, fading through turquoise bands to pale jade at the edges, the chromatic gradient a product of depth and mineral suspension. Soviet-era researchers attempted to measure the source's full depth in the 1990s and failed beyond 50 metres; the aquifer's true extent remains unknown. Plane trees shade the banks, and wooden footbridges cross channels where the spring fans into the Bistrica river. Blue eye and gjirokaster tour from saranda itineraries typically allocate three hours for the fortress and old town, one hour at the spring, with roadside stops at Lekursi Castle's belvedere and occasionally the ruins of ancient Antigonea. The pairing works because the sites contrast in character — Gjirokastër rewards slow observation of architectural detail and historical layering, while the Blue Eye offers immediate sensory immersion. Tours depart Saranda between 08:00 and 09:30, returning by late afternoon, covering roughly 120 kilometres round-trip on good asphalt but winding mountain grades. Guides narrate Albania's Ottoman and communist legacies, the fortress's role in successive occupations, and the geology that feeds the spring. The combination remains the most-booked excursion from Saranda, pairing southern Albania's two most distinct UNESCO and natural landmarks in a single traverse.