Is Tirana the cultural city of Albania and Albania is a destination that is growing in popularity and I think in 2024, 2025, and so on, more people will be making trips, vacations, and holidays to Albania. So in this video, I’m going to go through 5 things that you must not do in Albania. Now, a couple of things before I go into these 5 things you must not do in Albania: if you happen to visit Albania or if you’re from Albania, do drop a comment in the comment section and let us know some of your key tips for visiting the city and the country. It’ll be very helpful for other tourists and travelers who are reading this blog. And let’s get into the 5 things you must not do when you visit Albania.
Getting into Tirana: Don’t take taxi.
Now, the first thing that you must not do when you get to Tirana is not be prepared for how you’re going to get from the Airport into the city center. There is no metro, tram, or train system that connects to Tirana Airport with the city center, so you’re going to have to take a bus or a private transfer. In theory, you could take a taxi from outside the Airport to your accommodation, but I never recommend tourists to take taxis from the Airport because taxis at Airports charge very high prices and they can scam tourists. The cheapest way to get from the Airport into the city center is to follow the method that I used, which was to take the bus.
Firstly, if you are going to take the bus, you need to go to the ATM in the Airport and you need to take out 400 Albanian Lek because the cost was 400 Albanian Lek in 2024 and it currently is still 400 Lek at the time of writing. That may change in the future, but that’s the price now, and you cannot pay by card; you need to take cash out at the airport. It can be a bit of a pain trying to find where the bus to Tirana is, but if you just head outside the airport, walk down, you’ll see all these minivans and buses, and just ask around for the bus to Tirana. You will also see a sign saying “Tirana”, so that is the bus you want to take, and just make sure that you pay in cash and it’s 400 Lek. However, if you don’t want to take the bus and you seek a more convenient option, you can take a private transfer. If you go to the description of this video again, there will be a link where you can book your private transfer. I’ll also drop a link in the comments section as well, so if you are maybe coming with family, it may be more convenient to get a private transfer. Of course, it’s going to be more expensive, but you can book a private transfer ahead of your arrival.
Debit and credit cards
Now the second thing that you must not do when you are in Tirana is think you can rely on debit and credit cards in the city. Now, this could all change in the future, but when I went in August 2023, you had to have cash on you to survive; the street vendors will only accept cash, many restaurants will only accept cash, some bars, some cafes will only accept cash, so you cannot rely on debit and credit cards. As mentioned before, the currency is Albanian Lek, it is not Euros; roughly €1 is equal to 100 Albanian Lek, roughly. Given that, you will need to go to an ATM at the bank to take cash out, or if you do have Euros or any other currency, there are currency exchanges around in Tirana that you can exchange your money for. Now, just a little side note, do be aware that Albania is not in the European Union; Albania is currently not a EU country. So all the visa rules, all the entry requirements will be different from EU countries.
SIM Card
So you have 2 options: you can either get a SIM card when you arrive in Tirana. There are 2 shops you can get SIM cards from; the first one is Vodafone, there are Vodafone shops where you can get SIM cards, there are also some stores called 1 telecom where again you can get SIM cards from the 1 telecom stores. But the alternative thing you can do, which is what I would personally recommend, is you can actually purchase a ready-made SIM card before you arrive in Albania. See if you click on the description again, I’m going to put a link to the BreezIn website. I also highly recommend BreezIn for other countries because they are available in over 150 countries, they have over 240 mobile networks, so I would recommend that you do this before you go to Tirana.
Don’t forget to try the local food.
Now, the third thing that you must not do in Tirana is forget to try the local food. Albanian food is very tasty, and food in Tirana will be cheaper than food that you will get in Western European countries. It is definitely one of the cheapest capital cities in Europe. Firstly, a highly recommended dish is “byrek” (I probably did not pronounce that very well; please do correct my pronunciation in the comment section if you are Albanian). But “byrek” is a traditional Albanian dish made with tomatoes, cottage cheese, and it’s usually filled with red peppers as well. Now, if you like meat, you can also get “flija” with liver instead of red pepper; it was very tasty. But a must-eat dish is “flija”; you can also try this pair of meatball soup as well. I’m not even going to try and pronounce the name of that soup, but it’s very tasty too. And with this meal here, I got served some nice Albanian bread; it was quite chewy but very nice with the soup. And the best snack that you will want to have on when you’re in Tirana is “byrek”. So “byrek” is a pastry filled with either meat or cheese; you can find it everywhere, there are bakeries or rather pastry shops. It’s a great affordable, tasty, and snack or breakfast. Now, if you are looking for a chain of coffee stores in Tirana, I really like this chain called “Mullery”. It’s kind of like the Albanian equivalent of Costa Coffee or Starbucks. They sell coffee, hot chocolates, pastries, biscuits, cookies, milkshakes, smoothies. I really like the lemon milkshake, which is what you can see here on the screen now. And having these milkshakes and smoothies will be very important in Tirana because that links into the next thing that you must not do when you’re in Tirana, and so that…
Not forget Hydration
And so the fourth thing that you must not do when you visit Tirana, Albania, yes, you must not forget to bring hydration with you if you are coming in the summer months, July and August. I was there in August 2023, and it was scorching; it was 38°C. Now, Tirana is not located by the coast, so you don’t have any sea or any beach to go to like other coastal places in Albania. But the good news is that the heat is quite a dry heat; it’s not really a humid heat, so it isn’t unbearable. But do be aware you’re going to need to stay hydrated. You may even want to be like that dude in the picture there with his top off because it was scorching on this date. Or alternatively, you can drink some water or go to Mullery and get yourselves some smoothies and shakes. Now, contrary to that, I’m sure that the winter months will be really cold as well. So, November, December, January, and even March, those months will probably be very, very cold in Tirana. Now, I didn’t go in the winter months, so I couldn’t confirm that, but in the winter, it will be much, much colder.
Don’t set your mind its dangerous place
And now finally, the fifth and final thing that you must not do when you visit Tirana is to believe that Tirana is a dangerous place. Now, in the West, especially in the UK and the United States, there seems to be this perception that Albania is a really dangerous place. Now, I’m not saying that Albania does not have any crime; however, of course, every place in the world has crime and can have crime. But for me personally, Tirana felt very safe walking around the city center during the day and also at night, as you can see here as well, as walking around at night recording this video here. Of course, you will want to take safety precautions as you would anywhere in the world, but again, I didn’t feel any sense of danger. The people, for me, seemed really friendly. I didn’t really see many dodgy characters around, so this perception that Tirana and Albania are not safe is not true in my opinion. Albania felt as safe as any other country in the Balkans, and the Balkans is a very, very safe region in Europe to visit.
But I will just mention one thing about the people in Albania: don’t expect everyone to speak excellent English. I mean, most of the young generation in supermarkets and coffee shops would be very good at English, but a lot of the older people do not speak any English at all. So do be patient with people, do use Google Translate if you don’t know any Albanian words. So overall, Tirana is a cool place to come and check out for a couple of days. You can have a little walk around Skanderbeg Square, you can go to the Bunk’Art museum, there are actually two car museums, the Championship in Tirana that portray history museums where you can learn more about the history of Albania and the city. Other than that, there isn’t really too much else to do other than have a walk around, have food, have a few drinks. It’s just a nice, easygoing experience, in my opinion, and it is one of the cheapest cities in Europe.
So if you are looking for a cheap weekend break, I would recommend a trip to Tirana. And again, if you are a local or if you live in Albania, do drop a comment and commit to me all your tips that you would recommend tourists to bear in mind before they come to Tirana. Now, I do hope that this blog has been useful to you and that you have enjoyed it. And also, please do subscribe for more travel content. It is free, and it really does help the website. Again, thank you so much for reading, and I’ll see you all in the next blog.
