What a visitor's money does in Albania: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.
Albanian Lek (ALL) · 1 EUR = 91.6 ALL · 1 USD = 79.8 ALL
Lek, and prices are often quoted in euros to visitors — pay in lek, the euro price is rounded against you. Exchange booths (këmbim valutor) in any town give a fair rate with no commission and beat the banks; skip the airport counter.
Avoid: the standalone machines in the tourist streets, which charge a flat fee, any machine offering to charge you in euros
Use: BKT, Raiffeisen, Credins, Intesa Sanpaolo
Cards work in Tirana and the bigger hotels and not much else; carry lek. The exchange booths are honest and beat the banks.
A short ride in Tirana: 300–600 lek across town in Tirana — cheap
The apps summon ordinary licensed taxis at a fixed price, which beats the street fare by a third. Outside Tirana there is no app: agree the price before the doors close.
Byrek from a window for breakfast, tavë kosi (lamb baked in yoghurt) for lunch, and the fish is better at the coast. The New Bazaar (Pazari i Ri) is where to eat and drink at any hour; a coffee is 100 lek and a xhiro, the evening stroll, is free.
Berat is wine and raki country — Çobo and Nurellari wineries are ten minutes out, and the restaurants in Mangalem pour the local white. Pispili (leek pie) and the lamb are the dishes; eat at a family place in the castle for the setting and in Gorica for the view.
Qifqi — rice balls fried with mint and egg — exist nowhere else and every restaurant in the bazaar does them. The tavernas up the bazaar streets are family-run and cheap; the view terraces charge for the view. Local raki and the mountain honey are the things to take home.
Grilled fish and mussels from Butrint lagoon on the seafront, priced by the kilo — ask before ordering. The restaurants a street back from the promenade are half the price and better. Byrek and a coffee for breakfast is 200 lek.
Greek and Albanian at once: grilled fish, octopus, and pilaf with the mussels. The tavernas in the old village are cheaper than the beach and better. Buy the olive oil — the coast makes some of the best in the country.
Mussels from the lagoon, grilled fish, and a lot of restaurants that charge Greek prices for Albanian food. The taverna on the road to Butrint beats the beach clubs on both counts. Buy fruit and water in the village; the beaches charge triple.
The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.
TiranaAlbaniaA capital painted in colours to shake off the grey, with bunkers turned into galleries and a café on every corner
SarandëAlbaniaA horseshoe bay facing Corfu, the gateway to the Riviera, and a town that quadruples in August
KsamilAlbaniaThree tiny islands you can swim to, water the colour of the Maldives, and a village that has grown faster than its plumbing
BeratAlbaniaA thousand windows climbing two hillsides above a river, a castle people still live in, and the best raki in the country
GjirokastërAlbaniaA city of stone roofs on a mountainside, a fortress with a captured plane on the wall, and the birthplace of a dictator and a novelist
HimarëAlbaniaThe quiet middle of the Riviera: a Greek-speaking old village on the hill, a beach town below, and the Llogara pass above it all