I'll be honest. I almost skipped meaningful time here. Capital cities can feel like mandatory checkboxes before you get to the "real" stuff. Tirana is not that.

It's chaotic and loud and under construction everywhere. The government has been courting some of the biggest architecture firms in the world, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Spanish, to build Tirana into what they're calling a "world city." The locals will tell you, somewhat conspiratorially, that the building boom is the government laundering money. Nobody can actually afford to live in these gleaming new towers going up everywhere. Whether that's true or urban legend I genuinely can't say, but it's a very Albanian thing to hear and I appreciate the candor.

The food here was some of the best I had the entire trip, which I did not see coming. After months in Asia I had made my peace with not getting fresh cheese and vegetables regularly. Tirana fixed that. The move is the Meze Shqiptare. You'll see it everywhere and every local will point you straight to it. 12 to 15 euros, comes loaded. Cheeses, salads, grilled meats, bread, dips. Just order it and stop overthinking the menu. The first place you should try this at is below. Everyone I recommended here said it was their favorite in all of Albania.

For getting around the city, download Patoko before you land. Albania's answer to Uber, cash only for Americans at least when I was there, though that may have changed. I spotted a promo for it at baggage claim and it worked great throughout. The drivers are also some of your best sources of local intel. Primarily just in Tirana, but expanding to more cities.

Honest take: Stay two or three nights if you can. I didn't get to see the nightlife and I'm still annoyed about it. Also, rule number one for staying safe: don't fight an Albanian. Pretty simple rule. They will use stools or pans as weapons, if you mess around. After hearing the stories, Albanians themselves will tell you the same thing. They absolutely love tourists, genuinely, as long as you don't come in with that energy. So if you're an angry drunk, maybe reassess. Everyone else will be fine.

Getting Out of Tirana (A Word on Driving)

First, the big picture on getting around. You pretty much need a car or a bus to explore the country. The bus system exists and from what I hear it's functional, just not particularly comfortable or punctual. If you're a mid-budget traveler working remote and want the freedom to move between places on your own schedule, get the car. You won't regret it. If you're on a strict backpacker budget, the bus will get you there just fine.

With that said, do not attempt to drive within Tirana itself. I have driven in a lot of places. I have never seen road rage at that level or that density of fender benders in a comparable stretch of time. I watched a kid on an electric scooter get clipped, and the response from the other driver was to get out of the car and start yelling at the kid.

What stuck with me more was an older Albanian man standing nearby watching the whole thing unfold, shaking his head: "how do they expect our country to be like the rest if we continue to have road rage like this and not care about our neighbor. This is why it's been so hard for us to catch up with the western world." Said it like he'd been thinking it for years.

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Tirana Buildings Looking Wild

Friendly people. Very unfriendly drivers. Once you're out of the larger cities it's genuinely fine, and the drive down the coast is peaceful, beautiful, and freshly paved. Just know that lane changes are a negotiation nobody agreed to enter with you. Signal and commit. Nobody is letting you in out of courtesy.

Car Rental: I found my car through Kayak, which pointed me to Discovercars.com, which is where I usually start. Ended up booking through Drive365 for $25 a day, which was genuinely lucky. Expect closer to $60 during high season. More importantly: expect a deposit. Mine was €800 and €1,000 is common across most companies. Have that card headroom ready before you show up or you'll be having a bad afternoon at the counter. Take photos of the car before and after, and check your statement a month later. I was personally fine but I've read enough stories.

One more thing worth knowing. The cars have GPS trackers and there are roads you are not allowed to take your rental on. They will know. Plan your route accordingly.

What I wish I knew sooner: Albania has a peer to peer rental option at localrent.com, more like Turo, where you rent directly from a local. Worth looking into for a more flexible setup. They are also in a few other countries. My referral link is below.

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The City of a Thousand Windows

About 120km south of Tirana, roughly an hour and a half drive, Berat is a small and beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the City of a Thousand Windows for the rows of Ottoman-era houses climbing up the hillside, their windows stacked and reflected in the Osum River below. You hike up to the castle, get lost in the old stone streets, and eventually find yourself at the top of this old castle. Get lost in the streets and end up at hidden restaurants.

At the hostel I stayed at, they had family dinner about every other night where you can meet people. We ended up going out after and drinking homemade Raki from plastic water bottles outside of a convenience store with some locals. That’s Albania for you. This hostel had some social events throughout the week such as wine tasting and rafting. Most of the hostels are pretty connected and family dinners are done between all of them. It’s not a big place.

The wine. Berat used to be a serious wine region. Then the dictatorship nationalized everything, the winemakers fled, and the whole thing essentially died. It's slowly coming back and it's surprisingly good. Not world-class, but genuinely enjoyable and interesting in context. Some of the wineries also make raki from walnuts and I was not prepared for how good that was. For context: raki in Albania is typically something handed to you in a recycled plastic water bottle by someone who made it in their garage. That's the baseline. The walnut version was a genuine revelation. Check out Cobo Winery.

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Wine and Cheese at Cobo Winery

Does everyone speak English? I’d say mostly. In Albanian, Just learn (hello) "përshëndetje" and (thank you), "faleminderit", but actually nail the accent. It doesn't map onto Spanish or Thai phonetically so getting it right takes real effort. If you pull it off though, locals treat you like a person who tries instead of a tourist who expects the world to speak English to them. Instant warmth. A few others worth having ready: "si jeni ju" (how are you) will get you further than you think, and "te dua shqiperi" (I love Albania) seals the deal.

Something I want to do next time: Canyon rafting on the Osum River is available seasonally. Check before you go if that's on your list. It’s more of just a walk or hike in June so I skipped it.

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A must visit spot

My Patoko driver tipped me off to a place called something that translates roughly to "cold water." A stretch of natural springs where you can fill your water bottle straight from the stream. Ice cold, clean, and the whole thing feels like it belongs in a different century.

The area is lined with restaurants all serving one thing: fresh trout. Most of them have decent enough reviews and look exactly like what they are. We skipped those. A guy my travel companion was talking to pointed us to a spot with one table and a grill. That's it. The owner picks your fish out fresh that day, guts it in front of you, cooks it. Vegetables on the side. No menu. No pretense.

Probably one of the best meals of the entire trip. Brought me back to my roots growing up fishing for rainbow trout in Pennsylvania.

Cold Water sits roughly between Berat and Gjirokastër, about 60km south of Berat on the way down. Easy stop, worth every minute. Restaurant location below.

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The saturation slider was not used in these photos

There are two Blue Eyes in Albania. The one in the south, near Gjirokastër, is the more famous one and absolutely worth stopping for. A natural spring so deep and so unnervingly blue it looks AI generated. The water stays around 10 degrees Celsius year round regardless of what the temperature is doing outside.

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View of the Blue Eye from above

And despite what some things online will tell you, there is an area where you can swim. It's downstream. You can even drink from the blue eye yourself… Well I think… I saw someone do it so I filled my 40 ounce water bottle up and didn’t get sick, so I’m going to call that a success. Absolutely freezing, like an involuntary cold plunge, but after walking around in the heat it's one of those moments that makes you briefly feel like a functioning human again.

Getting there: After parking, you can walk, which is a long haul in the heat, or take the little shuttle (Train with wheels) that runs back and forth. We rented electric scooters, which was fun until it became a negotiation I did not agree to enter. Around €25 an hour, and by the time we'd been out three hours the math had quietly become more expensive than my rental car for the day. The guy was not budging on the overage either. So. Take the shuttle, enjoy the walk, or go in knowing the scooter clock is running and it has strong opinions about time. I had to remember the number one rule about arguing with an Albanian after clearly having my time being rounded up 45 minutes 😂

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Getting into Gjirokastër is its own adventure. You're driving into a walled Ottoman city built into a hillside, and Google Maps will confidently send you down streets that have been closed since approximately the Ottoman period. It does a surprisingly decent job overall, but go slow and expect to improvise. Your tires will slip on the cobblestone. It's that smooth.

Parking is its own puzzle. There is parking inside the city walls, it's just not obvious when you're navigating in for the first time. I parked near a church for 5 or 10 euro a night. I forget where. Worth knowing: the hostel I stayed at also offered parking, which I only found out after I'd already sorted myself. Ask when you’re on your way for the best location to park.

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View looking from the castle

There are two hostels everyone ends up at and they're basically next door to each other. One of them, Stone City Hostel, is consistently ranked among the best hostels in all of Europe and is a good social hub. Everyone gravitates there eventually. The other, where I stayed, had a more incredible view of the castle, a quieter energy, and a family running it that was genuinely warm. I chose the view, but you can easily visit Stone as well to meet people until about midnight. I had a friend staying there, but you’ll meet people also staying there where you can probably just go in and grab a beer and socialize.

It's a quiet town, so it seems to shut down pretty early. The one spot everyone at the hostels typically ends up late in the old city is a little Irish pub beer pong place, basically the only thing open. It’s right next to Stone City. Sounds chaotic, but is actually just a good time.

Do the castle. I know that by the time most people hit their third or fourth old town on a trip they're starting to check out. I had that exact feeling somewhere in Italy. Gjirokastër is different. The scale of it, the way it sits above everything, the views from the top. One of those places that reminds you why you bother with old towns in the first place.

I did the bunker tour under the castle. Hoxha, the same guy who scattered 700,000 concrete mushrooms across every beach and hillside in the country because he was convinced the world was coming for Albania, built himself a secret tunnel under this city that nobody knew existed until the 1990s. Three hundred people were supposed to shelter down here. Bunk beds for everyone. His own private room for him. Four bathrooms for three hundred people, one of which was exclusively his. I'll let you sit with that math for a second.

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Eighty rooms, each labeled on the door with its purpose and nothing else inside. No exhibits, no context, just empty labeled rooms in a tunnel that was never used. Creepy in the best way. Should you go? It was super cheap, but it's a bunker, so I could probably skip it, but was nice to escape the heat and just learn about something offline for once.

Honest take: Two nights was enough, but could easily do 3 just to relax. Enough time to actually settle in, do the castle and the bunker properly, eat well, and not feel like you're rushing to check a box. Restaurants listed below.

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Boat stop at San Andreas Beach

Everyone goes to Sarandë and Ksamil. That's the move, that's what the blogs tell you, and honestly they're probably not wrong. Sarandë is lively and has a ferry to Corfu if you're routing into Greece after. Ksamil is where people say it's lost its charm, every corner of the beach covered in chairs that cost 20 euros a day, resort prices creeping in, the whole thing. That's the standard backpacker exit and there's nothing wrong with it.

I skipped both. Not because I'm above it, I genuinely want to go back and do them properly. But I kept hearing the same thing from people who'd just come from there: Himara was the move. Whether Sarandë and Ksamil have actually lost their charm or whether that's just the thing people say about anywhere that gets popular, I honestly can't tell you yet. Tune in later this summer when I go back and find out for myself.

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Tulum Vibes, but where is everyone? Enjoy it while it lasts!

Here's the honest Himara report: I was expecting more. Not because it isn't beautiful, it absolutely is, but I think I caught it too early in the season. End of June, early July, and the beach clubs were shutting down around eleven. There's a noise ordinance situation, one night a year in August there's a music festival where things actually go late, but outside of that the place wraps up earlier than you'd expect for somewhere with that much Tulum energy. The art installations, the beach clubs, the whole aesthetic is genuinely cool. There just wasn't much of anyone in them.

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Sea Bream or Sea Bass I forget 😂

Eat the fish. Specifically sea bass and sea bream, grilled fresh, simple, olive oil and lemon. Around twelve to fifteen euros. After all the inland trout, balance it with a saltwater fish. The seafood on this coast is as good as anywhere I've been in southern Italy and better than most of Greece, without the crowds or the markup that comes with both of those places. Sea Bream is the better choice here, which typically I’d think the opposite.

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Blue Cave all to ourselves!

The real highlight was a private boat day that fell into my lap through friends of friends and somebody's birthday. They took us to the blue caves along the coast, places I genuinely could not believe had nobody in them. We were there in the early afternoon and saw maybe two other small boats the whole time. The water is some of the most crystal blue I've seen anywhere. On par with the best of Greece and Italy, but without a single tour boat in sight.

There's a hostel in Himara that runs a boat party twice a week I believe, if that's more your speed. I was working and missed it. Sounds like a good time.

Dhërmi

A little further up the coast and noticeably more built out than Himara. You can feel the investment happening in real time, the kind of place that nomads are going to find in the next few years and then everyone will say they went before it got big. Beach clubs everywhere, all of them beautiful, most of them empty when I was there which was genuinely surreal. Rows of beach chairs on a stunning coastline with nobody in them.

One thing to know before you go: it's all stone. No sand. Stone beaches are great for the water clarity and the overall look but hot on your feet in summer and a little awkward to walk on. Bring water shoes. Beds go for about 20 euros for the day if I remember correctly.

Honest take on the Riviera overall: Go later in the season if nightlife matters to you. August is peak. If you want empty beaches, crystal water, and genuinely being one of the only Americans anyone has seen all summer, end of June works fine. Just expect it to start getting more expensive.

Between Himara and Dhërmi, don't skip Gjipe beach. It's a short hike down, maybe 30 minutes, and the road to get there is single lane so go in knowing you might have to throw your car in reverse for a few minutes to let someone pass. It happened to me about 3 times on my way out. It's paved though until you reach the parking location.

The walk back is all uphill, which hits differently after a full day of being completely zoned out on a beach that looks like it shouldn't exist. Worth every step. There's a small restaurant there, nothing that's going to change your life, but I had fun conversations with the staff there. Also eavesdropping on the typical European complaining about how Albania isn’t as good as other European countries while they're speaking with… an Albanian… isn’t this the thing American’s get called out for? Anyways, I love a good hypocrite not going to lie haha

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Gjipe beach

I'll be honest, I wrote Shkodër off before I got there. In my head it was just a staging point, the place you sleep before doing the Theth hike or getting to Shala River. I was wrong. I wanted more time here.

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I didn't get to do the Theth hike from Valbona. Three days minimum and I had a friend to meet in Greece that weekend. That's the tax of working to fund the lifestyle. It goes on the list for next time.

What I did do, was Shala River as a day trip and I was not prepared for how beautiful it truly was. You won’t be able to bring your rental here, nor do you want to (there was a car hanging off a cliff on the way there), so I scheduled a shuttle bus through the hostel.

They call it the Thailand of Europe. Whether that's because of the longtail boats ferrying people through dramatic limestone cliffs or the plastic bottles and trash floating past you in a small subsection on the way there, I'll let you decide. Either way once you're actually on the water you get it immediately. It's one of those places where you find yourself quietly calculating what it would cost to book a sick hotel on the river for a long weekend, ideally with an IG girl who doesn't make you take too many photos without an @ credit. You can justify it. You should.

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The trash situation is real in parts of the lake, worth being upfront about. It doesn't come anywhere near where you're swimming or spending time, but it's there and it's a shame given how stunning everything else is.

Shkodër itself deserves more time than most people give it. Don't just pass through. Great restaurants, friendly locals, and let's just say Shkodër has no shortage of reasons to linger.

Honest take: If you're skipping Theth, Shala River as a day trip is non-negotiable. And if you can swing a night or two on the river itself, do that instead. They have some incredible properties on the lake/river. I’ll definitely be doing the Teth hike next time though as that’s a bucket list item.

Lastly, check out my Instagram recap below and shoot me a follow. My next trip to Albania will cover the spots I skipped this time around, Sarandë, Ksamil, Theth Hike and whatever else I missed by going off script. Feel free to reach out and tell me more places to visit!

One last thing worth knowing: visas for Americans are extremely relaxed. 90 days, no visa required, and Albania is not part of the Schengen Zone which means it doesn't eat into your European travel allowance. Just don't overstay without applying for a Digital Nomad visa before the 90 days is up. They've tightened up enforcement recently with digital tracking at Tirana Airport and the fine plus potential 5-year ban isn't worth testing. Plan accordingly.