Atreyee Poddar
Albania’s southern coast looks a lot like Greece with its white stones, translucent water and cliff-hugging roads but the bill at lunch won’t make you wince. Ksamil, Himarë and Dhermi deliver swim-perfect beaches and unbothered sunsets, minus the lounger politics and cruise-ship crowds.
The Albanian Alps in the north are not decorative. These are serious, jagged, hikers-only mountains with villages that feel end-of-the-map remote. Trails like Valbona to Theth offer the kind of walking Europe used to do before cable cars got involved.
The capital is chaotic, colourful and oddly likeable. Communist architecture sits next to playful modern design, cafés are excellent, and the nightlife is casual rather than curated. Tirana doesn’t sell an image; it just gets on with it.
Accommodation, food and transport cost a fraction of Western Europe, without feeling compromised. You’re not “slumming it”; you’re just paying sane prices. That alone changes how you travel—longer meals, better rooms, fewer mental calculations.
Albanians are direct, warm and refreshingly unpolished. Help is offered naturally, not as part of a tourism script. English is widely spoken, especially among younger people, and interactions rarely feel transactional.
The timing is right
Albania is improving fast—roads, hotels, access—but hasn’t tipped into overexposure yet. This is that narrow window travellers are always hunting for: good infrastructure, low crowds, high reward.