Hello and howdy do, people. I’m Kelsey Kay Love. Welcome back to Travelin’ Fools. If you’re new here, and even if you’re not, Peter and I moved from Los Angeles to Europe 11 months ago, and I think it’s high time we give y’all some tips on long term travel in the country we’ve spent the most amount of time in Europe so far.
Enter Albania.
Travel Hacks for Albania
Now, Albania is currently growing at a rapid rate in terms of tourism—much like Croatia a few years back—but there are some definite quirks about traveling here, and living here, that you might want to understand if it’s on your travel list.
Top Reasons to Travel to Albania
So, what’s up with Albania? Why do people come here? Why did we come here? Why might you want to come here?
First, I’ve already covered this in Part 2 of our series on How to Stay in Europe Longer Than 90 Days, but very importantly, if you’re a U.S. passport-holder, as of 2024, Albania automatically grants you a stay of up to 1 year on arrival without any sort of specialized visa or application process. You show up, they scan your passport, boom done. Your 1 year officially begins.
364 days later, you need to leave Albania for at least 90 consecutive days, and then you can return and you’re granted yet another 1 year-stay, visa-free. Sweet.
When we decided to move to Europe, instead of applying for one of many available Digital Nomad Visas—almost all of which have requirements we cannot and/or do not want to meet, plus a certain amount of confusing documentation and processing time—Peter and I thought of Albania much like a Floridian warehouse called Guns-N-Stuff when encountering a white dude with potential rage issues… open for business.
Outside of Albania’s generous travel allowance, it also just happens to rule in several important ways.
There’s an amazing coastline called the Albanian Riviera with a million beautiful pebbly beaches and nice swimming spots. The Albanian people are extremely generous and kind. They happen to have some of our favorite food in Europe. There are mountains and lakes, and charming cities & towns, and while it is getting more expensive, especially in the summer months, it’s still largely a very affordable destination.
But as with anywhere, it’s got its quirks. Whether you plan to stay in Albania for a year, a month or a week, here’s a heads up of what you can expect when you get here.
Tips for Traveling to & from Albania
First, let’s talk about getting to Albania. As of 2024, the only international airport is in the capital city of Tirana. There are very inexpensive flights here from nearby countries like Italy & Greece, and also a lot of direct flights from Germany, Austria, the UK, France, Switzerland, Turkey, the Netherlands, and so on.
If you’re flying out of the country through Tirana Airport on a low-cost airline like WizzAir, you will almost always need to bring a printed copy of your boarding pass. Albania is many things, but technologically advanced in exchange for a 29€ flight ain’t one of ‘em.
A second international airport is set to open in the summer of 2025 in Vlora—a city about 2 hours south of Tirana and directly on the coast—which should make travel to the southern parts of the country, where the nicest beaches are, much more efficient.
You can take also overnight ferries to Albania from Italy. However, having a personal appreciation for communication, organization, sanitation, timeliness and also sleep, this is not an experience I can recommend or will personally repeat. You’ve been warned. There are also plenty of direct busses to Albania from Montenegro, Kosovo and North Macedonia.
Tips for Traveling within Albania: Busses, Private Taxis & Rentals Cars
Second, let’s chat travel within the country. Despite what Google or Apple Maps may say, passenger trains are extremely few and far between in Albania. Your best, and often only bet, is to travel by bus, private taxi, or rental car.
If you’re planning to take a bus from one town to another in Albania, which we’ve now done several times, you should know that if you manage to…
- a) find the correct bus schedule
- b) pinpoint the actual pick-up and drop-off locations and
- c) reserve and purchase your ticket on the interwebs before the day of travel
…you are in the top 3% of Successful Albanian Tourists, and you should celebrate with a well-earned bus beer. For whatever reason, the details of activities like taking public transportation are mostly kept secret in a game called What is Happening & Is That My Sweat Or Yours. Best of luck.
As a cost baseline, I recently took a 6-hour bus ride from Tirana to Saranda for 1500 LEK, or about 15€, and was, in fact, charged a very small fee on top of that because I failed to print my bus ticket ahead of time. Worth it.
I recommend joining one of several Albanian Expat Groups in the land where unfortunate opinions go to flourish—Facebook—and ask an audience of seasoned, and sometimes salty, expats and locals for clarification on bus times, routes, and pick-up and drop-off locations.
If you’re simply fresh out of patience for all of that, there are approximately 400 dudes in any given town on any given day who will gladly pick you up directly from your accommodation and drive you to your destination for a set amount of money.
Again, as a baseline, Peter and I took a 2-hour private taxi from Vlora to Tirana for 5000 LEK, or about 50€. You can find private drivers in the aforementioned Facebook Groups, or also just by Googling local taxi companies in whatever town you’re currently in. Most will communicate via WhatsApp, so make sure you have this downloaded before you request rides.
If you’re looking for slightly more freedom and absolutely more adventure, rental cars in Albania are affordable and plentiful, though beware that drivers here are very impatient and can and will pass you in even the sketchiest of spots. Let them.
As far as rental cars—and this goes for all of Europe—my recommendation is to use a site called Discover Cars and only choose suppliers with a rating of Very Good or Exceptional, which you can filter for on the website or in the app. I also had no problem finding an automatic rental, which is rarely the case in Europe. Make sure you review the Rental Conditions section, and add Full Coverage so that in the off chance something unfortunate does happen on your journey, your decision to rent a car in Albania will not be the one that haunts you until the end of time.
Albania was actually the first country I drove in in Europe, and maybe it’s coming off of 4 years driving in Los Angeles, but I had a great experience. The roads are mostly in good condition and well-traveled, but just understand that there are very few rules here when it comes to driving, and lanes are more of artistic suggestion, so keep your eyes peeled and your head on a well-oiled swivel.
Day-to-Day Albania Hacks: Cash, Language Barrier, Cell Data, Food & Cigs
Now that we’ve chatted planes, no trains and automobiles, let’s get down to the day-to-day stuff. I’m talking sexy stuff, like preferred payment methods, the language and its barrier potential, cellular data, and last but not least, Albania’s favorite recipe: water and cigs.
Let’s start with currency and payment methods. The currency in Albania is the LEK and the large majority of the country, especially outside of Tirana, deals solely in cash. Restaurants. Hotels. Taxis. Spas. Tours. Dermatologists. Dentists. The Guy on the Corner You Buy Tampons From. You name it. While it’s a pleasant surprise when the vendor you’re currently dealing with accepts Visa or Mastercard, you absolutely should not expect to use your cards, of the debit or credit variety, on the day-to-day.
If you live in the U.S., I highly recommend opening a bank account with Charles Schwab, who will reimburse you for all of your foreign ATM fees.
Moving on. As you may have guessed, in Albania they speak a language called… Albanian. I’m not gonna blow smoke up your butts… it’s a difficult language. Learn your pleases and thank yous and yes’s and no’s, and use the Google Translate app for the rest. Most of the younger generation in Albania speak English very well, but the older generation is more likely to speak Italian, Greek or Macedonian versus English.
Next up, let’s chat data. Assuming your phone is unlocked and assuming you’re spending more than a few days in Albania, my recommendation to get a physical SIM card or eSIM through Vodafone. They have physical stores all over the country, and it costs about 1500 LEK, or 15€, for 10 gigs of data, 2,000 text messages and 2,000 national minutes with a local phone number to use within 30 days. You can also top this up on the Vodafone app so you don’t have to go into the store every time you want to renew your plan. If you’re listening, Vodafone, you’re welcome.
It’s useful to have a local phone number in Albania for getting food delivered, making appointments or reservations, contacting your accommodation hosts, and booking tours. If you don’t want to mess with getting this set up in person, or if you want to buy a package that you can use in more countries than just Albania, I’d recommend getting an eSIM through Nomad, which has been our go-to for most of Europe. My referral code is KELSBQWC if you want a sweet lil 25% discount on your first eSIM. And that may be the douchiest thing I’ve said this year.
Another day-to-day thing you’ll encounter immediately, assuming you’re half as thirsty as the general population, in a non-sexual way, is that you’ll need to buy and drink only bottled water in Albania. While people have told us that the water is actually drinkable but simply tastes bad because of high levels of chlorine, all I know is that if I show up and look around and all the locals are buying bottled water, I sure as hell am too. I’ve had Bali Belly and Montezuma’s Revenge and I’m just not trying to add Albania Ass to that list.
As far as food, especially outside of Tirana, you won’t find a ton of variety. Vlora has mostly Italian food, the south has mostly Greek food, and most places have a very similar menu to their neighbors. Luckily this isn’t a bad thing, as I personally think Albanian food is better than any of its Balkan neighbors, plus most countries in Northern Europe, and dare I say even Portugal. Strong words. Stronger tastebuds. Call me when the Portuguese figure out sauces.
And lastly, if your hair doesn’t smell like tobacco and your hands aren’t shaking from a caffeine high, were you ever really in Albania? Trust me when I say they are blowin’ endless darts out here, y’all. I thought Texas was bad. Then I thought Asia was bad. But never in my life have I seen literal children on a swing set smoking the Albanian equivalent of Marlboro Reds. I’ve seen kids smoking cigs with their parents. I’ve seen bus drivers smoking cigs while they’re driving. I’ve seen a man smoking a cig with his left hand while he was smoking a cig with his right. Dang ole dang.
Month-to-Month Albania Hacks: Directions, Addresses, Utilities & Activities
Now, let’s put the pack down and switch from day-to-day to month-to-month considerations for a minute, yeah?
When friends ask me about Albania, I always say that it reminds me more of being in Southeast Asia than it does the rest of Europe. There are many reasons for this, but the first major one is that not everything in Albania is listed on Google or Apple Maps. And I consider that a good thing. As opposed to pre-planning every potential activity you can expect to do and find here, I find Albania’s lack of dedication to the internet, reviews and hours and all, very rare, sometimes frustrating, and ultimately charming.
One of our favorite restaurants in Tirana, for example, is incredibly delicious and costs about 500 LEK, or 5€, for lunch for 2 people. It does not exist on a map, there’s no website, no reviews, and no staff outside of the solo dude who is your host, server and chef, and I sincerely hope it stays that way. Some places in the world are just better experienced on the fly, and Albania is one of them.
Also on the Southeast Asia note, Albania has many, many stray dogs and cats. If you have a soft spot for animals and time to spare, there are several organizations that are always and forever looking for volunteers to foster pets, for help with spay and neuter programs, and even flight volunteers to assist with transporting animals to the U.S. to be picked up on arrival by someone who’s agreed to adopt them.
On a different note, and to reminisce for a minute, when we moved back to the U.S. after previously spending about 6 years abroad, we were asked by our landlord in Los Angeles to list every address of ours for the previous 5 years. Since our official address in Thailand could be summed up as ‘up the hill with the duck restaurant on the second floor of the blue building’, this did not go well.
Similarly, Albania has a distinct lack of legitimate addresses, and therefore a distinct lack of methods to easily receive national or international packages. Again, this is where having a local phone number comes in handy. Whether you want to have a pizza delivered to your apartment or an important document delivered from a family member back home, chances are you’re going to have to participate in the Gen Z nightmare of speaking to a human on your cellular device. I know… so cringe.
For international packages from the U.S., we have successfully received mail in Tirana by having it sent through the United States Postal Service to the Tirana Post Office, who then called us on our local number when it arrived to let us know to come pick it up. Just ensure the paperwork is filled out correctly, and that your local phone number is included in the shipping details and on the package itself. I will note that while we had a tracking number, it stopped tracking after it reached Germany, so maybe don’t ship anything that’s irreplaceable.
As far as an Amazon equivalent, you’re crap out of luck. Time to re-adopt the ancient practice of leaving your house to shop for stuff you probably don’t need.
Again, on a Southeast Asia vibe, there are somewhat frequent power and water outages. We personally haven’t had much of an issue with this outside of a 4-day no water, no fun stint in Tirana, but it can and will and does happen, and there’s no good way to prevent or pre-plan for it.
Now, back on the nature side of things, while both the Adriatic and Ionian Seas are thankfully mostly flat and incredible for boating, swimming and floating, there’s not no trash. Skip the scuba diving, buy yourself an inner tube, and float merrily alongside both the micro and macro plastics.
You should also note that especially down south in places like Ksamil and Saranda, it’s semi difficult to find free places to swim that are also nice. The majority of beaches are paid and range from 1000 to 2000 LEK, or 10 to 20€, for 2 chairs and an umbrella. Not a huge deal, but if you’re like us and are here for weeks or months at a time and plan to swim most of those days, you’re going to need to hunt around a little for places where you can take a righteous dunk without paying a cover charge.
And lastly on this note, if you like late night fireworks for no reason at all, a lot of Albanians are here to deliver the goods. Compared to Los Angeles, where I’d frequently wake to the sounds of helicopters, human screams, car alarms, car crashes, and my neighbor loudly faking orgasms, fireworks are typically the least of my concern.
Why You Should Come to Albania
I’m realizing now that most of this this list has the potential to come off negatively. And I don’t want y’all to come away from this video with the same sense of doom you get from learning literally anything about Clarence Thomas.
Albania is a wonderful place, and a wonderful country, with an immensely complicated recent history. If you’re into food, culture, having chats with interesting locals & vibrant expat communities, coffee, cigarettes, swimming & nature, you’re in the right place.
You won’t run out of places to explore, even in an entire year, and if you do, first of all, I don’t believe you, and second of all, I don’t want to travel with you, as that sounds exhausting.
Next time we’ll talk more about where to base yourself in Albania and the process for renting an apartment, but for now, as my fellow millennial brethren like to say, keep it 100. Later.
