I was not going to do a review on this site as Frederik Dawson had only just completed one not more than 2 months ago, which I read prior to visiting. His experience was not great, so my expectations were low. That being said, it informed my decision making and I had a better visitor experience than Frederik thanks to his review, so wanted to share my tips to assist others.

We are staying in Saranda, so noting the carparking issue and the visitor experience, we wanted to visit as early as we could. A local bus leaves on the hour from Saranda. We caught the bus 200LEK one way ($3.50AUD) at 8.00am to coincide with the opening time of 9.00am, arriving at 8.45am, we lined up with about 30 others to enter the Park and Archaeological UNESCO site. It costs 1000LEK for entry ($18.50AUD) which was very reasonable with a number of free pamphlets supplied in different languages that provide a map of the site and highlights key parts of the ancient city and a brief history.

September was much cooler walking around the open aired site and visiting early allowed opportunities to visit key areas in the site without too many other visitors present to detract your experience, views or ambience of the area. I actually got photos and videos with no other persons present. After about 2 hours though, you started to see the large tour groups and visitors grow expeditiously, even in the shoulder / off peak season, so I could understand how a nightmare Frederik's experience may have been.

I enjoyed the history and exploring the ancient ruins. The museum located in the old Venetian Castle is also worth the visit (free) with a lot more information, although I do not understand the no photography within the museum as everything (outside statutes) are within protective covers.

Another very interesting aspect of this site that I really enjoyed was the inscriptions which were carved into some of the limestone bricks around the theatre. These in the main appear to document the freeing of slaves, which in total indicate 597 slaves were freed. One of the interesting points to this is that women had the autonomy to free them (slaves) without the intervention (approval) of a man, which was unique at the time.

It is definately worth a visit and give yourself about 3 - 5 hours to explore the site but visit early via public transport and try to coordinate a visit outside peak summer.