Costs of Budget Travel in Albania in 2019
I’ve just spend 2 ½ weeks exploring Albania. More specifically, I stayed 18 days and 17 nights. I visited most of the major travel destintaions from the north to the middle of the country.
However, I skipped the Adriatic Sea coast and Albania’s ‘famed’ beaches because they all look like over-developed European-style beaches, crammed with sunchairs & umbrellas and backed by never-ending rows of restaurants, cafes, bars, hotels and condo buildings. No thanks! Not my idea of a great beach at all.
I also skipped a couple great places in southern Albania that I’d like to visit, simply because of my travel route – heading east into Macedonia next.
Before arriving in Albania, I’d read and heard from several different travelers that Albania is much cheaper than Montenegro. Wow, I’d like to know where they traveled in Albania!
Personally, I’ve found the costs to be nearly the same for both countries. In particular, budget accommodation and public transportation costs are pretty much the same.
The only real difference in prices is for food. I’ve found Albania to generally cost only ½ – 1/3 the price of Montenegro for most food & beverages, including meals in restaurants, pastries, ice cream, produce and groceries. That actually brought my total daily costs to travel in Albania slightly lower than in Montenegro. But not by much.
In this article I’ve detailed my costs of exploring Albania on a budget, with sample prices for many items. I hope this will help other budget travelers plan their explorations of this beautifully scenic & friendly country.
Keep in mind that I visited during the height of the high tourist season- July and August. Prices on accommodation are probably even cheaper during other times of the year.
Albania has its own currency, called ‘lek’. When I visited Albania in July, 2019, the main exchange rates were –
$1 US = 108 lek
1 Euro = 121 lek
Albanian countryside
Average daily food expense = $4.68 !
Average nightly room cost (almost all private rooms) = $10.30
Total daily average (including misc expenses) = $17.43 per day
Total Room Cost for 17 nights = $175.30
Total Food Cost for 18 days = $84.15
Total other expenses = $54.28 (mostly transportation)
Total costs to travel in Albania for 18 days = $313.73
Total Monthly Costs (based on above daily average) = would be $523 US
* note that my general monthly cost to travel in SE Asia, Mexico and Central America was $565=575 US per month. That makes Albania even cheaper! Who knew?!
Costs of Accommodation for Budget Travelers
As noted above, I traveled in Albania during July, the peak tourist season. Following are prices during that time. Probably rates are lower during other months.
I found that just about everywhere in Albania, a dorm bed in a hostel generally costs about $8-10 US per night. There are also more expensive options.
In the captial city, Tirana, beds go for as low as $5-6 US per night. While in the popular northern mountain areas of Theth and Valbona Valley, dorm rates are more like $12-17 US or more.
Quite interestingly, prices of private rooms listed on booking-dot-com and AirBnB are roughly the same as dorm beds! Private room prices are usually about $10-12 US and on up. And sometimes private rooms are as low as $5-6 US per night! I personally landed $6 per night private rooms twice in Albania – one in Shkoder and one in Berat.
Usually those super low private room rates are for a new listing, where the host is just starting out and therefore has no reviews yet and, therefore, is trying to gain some great reviews to kick off his new place. That works for me!
Over the course of my 18 days in Albania, I paid from $5.65 US to $17 US for a private room. The average overall worked out to $11 US.
Valbona Valley is the only place in Albania where I had to settle for sleeping in a dorm room. That’s because private rooms there cost Euro 30 / $34 US. Oops, a bit too expensive for me!
I ended up paying $17 US per night for a 2-bed dorm at one place (though I lucked out and didn’t’ have any roomates! Yeah!) and $8 US per night in a 6-bed dorm for the other place.
Probably if I’d opted for dorm beds in hostels instead of private rooms while travelin around Albania, my average would have been $7-8 US per night. Anyone on a tighter budget than me or who actually prefers hostels & dorms to private rooms can spend even less in Albania than I did.
* Note that anyone on a super-tight budget may want to skip visiting Valbona Valley and Theth, since they are both considerably more expensive than elsewhere in Albania – for both food and accommodation. Also the coastal beach areas are apparently expensive, especially during July & August.
Costs of Food – Drink & Groceries
Albania’s super inexpensive eating costs are really what make the country affordable for budget travelers.
Prices of ‘snack’ foods like gyros, sandwiches and birek generally cost only 150-200 Lek / $1.40-1.85 US. A medium-size pizza costs 300-350 Lek / $2.75-3.25 US. These foods make a full meal for me. In fact, the pizzas are too big for one meal. So it’s actually easy to eat in Albania for as little as $1.40 per meal.
Bigger meals, like pasta or a dish of meat/chicken with french fries and a small salad cost just 300-500 Lek / $3.25-4.65 US. (Unfortunately, all Albanian restaurants seem to serve only french fries!)
One of my first meals in Albania was seafood pasta at a rather nice upscale-ish restaurant. I was served a huge bowl of pasta, jam-packed with assorted seafood, That cost only 500 Lek / $4.65 US. It was so much food that it made two meals for me!
However, seafood generally costs morethan other meals in Albania. And, of course there are even more expensive, upscale restaurants as well.
Coffee culture is really strong in Albania, as it is all over the Balkan countries. And coffee is super cheap. Espressos in Albania generally cost about 60 Lek / $0.55 US. Capuchinos and lattes cost a bit more, like 70-80 Lek / $0.65-0.75 US.
Juices and sodas at restaurants & cafes cost a bit more than coffees – around 100 Lek / $0.90 US, but are cheaper at grocery stores.
Icecream, cakes and breads are super cheap in Albania too. A scoop of icecream costs 50-60 Lek / $0.45-0.55 US. That makes a double scoop cone just $1 US! Really fancy little cakes at pastry shops & cafes cost just 70-120 Lek / $0.65-1.10 US. A large loaf of fresh bread t a bakery or grocery costs about 50 Lek / $0.65 Lek.
Fresh fruit & veggie shops are located all over the place. Prices vary a lot, from fruit to fruit / veggie to veggie, depending on the growing season and if they are local or imported. But they’re all quite cheap to reasonable in price, varying from 50-150 Lek per kilo / 25-75 Lek per pound. That’s about $0.25-0.70 US per pound.
Chicken and meats at butchers are also reasonably prices. For example, I often bought two hefty chicken thighs for about 100 Lek / under $1 US. Eggs cost about 10 for 120-140 Lek / $1.10-1.30 US. You can also buy eggs individually, as few or as many as you want, which is really handy if you’re going to be in a town only two days and need only four eggs.
Now you can see why my average daily food budget was under $5 US per day. Since tap water is potable, I never had to spend money on bottled water either. Ah, except in Tirana, where everyone advised me to buy water. In that case, I found that a 5L bottle costs 100 lek / under $1 US and lasted 2-3 days.
Conditions and Costs of Transportation
Contrary to what I’d read online, Albania now has a great road system, with very well-paved roads between major cities, towns and destinations. In mountains and more remote areas, roads are paved but generally in quite poor condition.
Albania also has an excellent pubic transportation system, with plenty of buses and mini-vans running regularly between nearly every place in the country. Travelers can pretty much get anywhere they want to go.
Even better, bus drivers and passengers always help foreign travelers catch the right buses, make transfers and get to their destinations. They are extremely helpful in this regard and feel its their duty to help guests.
Most buses and mini-vans are new, modern, in great condition and very comfortable. There are exceptions, however, and some buses & privately-owned vans are in poor condition.
In my experience, overland transportation costs the following:
A 1-hour trip = 200-300 lek / under $2-3 US
A 2-hour journey = 400-500 lek / $3.50-4 US
A 4-5 hour trip = 1000 lek / $9.25 US
Inner-city buses are super cheap! A single trip usually costs just 30-40 lek / $0.25-0.30 US.
Some drivers might slighty over-charge foreign passengers, but you really have no way of knowing what the real fare should be in most cases.
Entrance Fees
Entrance fees to museums, castle ruins and other tourist attractions are generally very cheap. All the places I visited cost just 100-200 lek / roughly $1-2 US. A few specialty museums in Tirana cost 500-700 lek / $4-6.50 US. I skipped those.
Another thing to note is that there’s no entrance fee for Valbona National Park (where both Theth and Valbona Valley are located) because the park has no staff, infrastructure or facilities yet. That may change in the future.
Low Cost Features of Albania
There are several aspects of Albanian life and customs that just naturally cut down on travel costs, without you having to do anything special. These things make travel in Albania naturally cheaper and considerably less hassle than even neighboring countries like Montenegro.
Albania has no visa or other entrance/exit fees
A great money-saving aspect of travel in the Balkan countries is that none of them require travelers to purchase a visa to visit. Travelers can just come and go as they please with no entry/exit costs… at least for nationals of the major world countries.
This really cuts down costs compared to vistiing countries where travelers must pay anywhere from $20-30-150 US for a visa.
No extra fees for luggage on buses
I’ve found that in most countries, overland buses do not charge extra fees for large luggage that’s put below. However, there are exceptions, including – to my great surprise – New Zealand (!) – and Albania’s neighbor, Montenegro.
All the buses in Montenegro charge an extra 1 Euro per bag. Although that doesn’t seem like so much, if you take many buses around the country, it does add up.
In my case, I have not one but two bags that go in the baggage compartment. So in Montenegro I had to pay an extra 2 Euro for every bus I rode. In most cases, that added about 30% more to my bus costs! That’s actually a lot.
During five weeks of travel, I spent more than 10 Euro just to haul my bags with me. (For some reason, the Montengro trains don’t charge a fee)
So traveling around Albania by bus was actually considerably cheaper for me than in Montenegro, eventhough bus fares are about the same in both countries.
Public toilets are free
In many countries around the world, there’s a charge to use public toilets, including neighboring Montenegro and Macedonia. Fees vary considerably from country to country, from a mere pittance (like a few cents) to more than $.50 US.
This may be a very minimal expense to many travelers, especially those who rarely need to use a toilet. But for people like me who need to dash to a toilet regularly, toilet fees can become super annoying (as you usually have to have coins. Exact coins, to boot) and can add up to a surprising amount of money in places where two toilet uses costs and entire $1 US.
Quite happily in Albania, all toilets are free! That includes toilets in parks, bus stations, restaurants & cafes. On top of that, most restaurants & cafes are perfectly willing to let non-customers use their toilets.
Honestly, I think Albania is the most toilet-user-friendly country I’ve ever visited!
Tap water is potable
Any country with potable water can really cut down on expenses for travelers, budget travelers in particular. Compared to having to buy bottled water, drinking tap water can save up to $30 per month or more.
In addition, there’s much less chance of getting any stomach/intestinal problems from eating & drinking since rinsing fruits, vegetables and other food items in tap water won’t cause any problems.
Food is very inexpensive
As detailed above, eating in Albania is extremely inexpensive. It’s even ½ to 1/3 the cost of eating in neighboring Montenegro (where restaurant meals are actually rather expensive!).
I hear that Croatia is even more expensive. I’m not yet sure of food costs for other Balkan countries, but I’ll keep you posted!
Summary
During my 18 days traveling around the wonderful country of Albania, I found my total travel costs to be slightly cheaper than traveling around SE Asia, Mexico and Central America. And I was traveling during the high tourist season, to boot.
For the moment, many Balkan countries are still quite inexpensive to visit. If you’re a budget traveler looking to explore other parts of the world, this region is an excellent choice. And it would be a good idea to come soon before some of these countries join the EU or become big tourist hot spots. Travelers are starting to pour in, but Albania has not yet become overly touristed nor over-priced.
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Hi! I'm Lash, an American nomadic world traveler who's been traveling solo since 1998. I’m passionate about traveling the world nomadically and then sharing it all with you. I hope to inspire you to travel the world, to entertain you with tales from the road, and to help you reach your travel dreams. Welcome! 
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