Tirana: practical tips
1 h route5 stopsBest: May-June and September-OctoberUpdated July 2026
This city is preceded by a reputation that no longer corresponds to anything: it’s safe, it’s calm, it’s cheap and visitors run into no serious trouble. What there are, are four practical things worth knowing in advance, because they don’t work like the rest of Europe.
Here they are, without figures: Albania has inflation and moving prices, and any number I put here today will be wrong next year.
The route, stop by stop
5 STOPS- 01
Albania is not in the European Union
Albania counts as an EU candidate country, but not a member, and it isn’t in Schengen either. You don’t need a visa if you’re coming from the EU, so you pass through without friction and it’s easy to assume everything works the same. It doesn’t.
Specifically: European roaming does not apply in Albania and you’re billed as an international destination. There is a process under way to bring the Western Balkans into the EU’s free roaming area, the Council authorised negotiations in June 2026, with 2028 as the horizon, but as things stand it isn’t in force and it depends on agreements still being negotiated.
Check your tariff before you fly: today, here, you pay.
- 02
The lek, and cash
Albania counts in lek, not euros. Many tourist places accept euros, but they apply whatever rate suits them and give change in lek, so you lose on the transaction. Take out lek from an ATM and pay in lek.
And the other half of the tip: Albania still runs heavily on cash.
The big places in the centre take cards, but neighbourhood cafés, market stalls, taxis and the byrek on the corner don’t always. Carry small notes: it’s a cheap country and you’ll be paying small amounts constantly.
- 03
Italian works
The most useful and strangest fact: plenty of people in Albania speak Italian, and not because of tourism. During the dictatorship, Italian television could be picked up from the Albanian coast and watching it was banned, so people did it in secret. An entire generation learned Italian by contraband, watching RAI, and along the way saw how life was on the other side of the Adriatic.
The consequence is that today, if you speak Italian, you’ll be understood by more people than in English, especially anyone over forty. The young go with English.
And four words of Albanian (faleminderit, thank you) land very well: nobody expects a foreigner to try.
- 04
The traffic is the real risk
You walk Tirana safely, and the bad reputation about crime is out of date. The real danger is crossing the road, and there’s an excellent historical reason: under the regime, private cars were banned for ordinary citizens. In 1991 there were a few thousand vehicles in the entire country.
When the dictatorship fell, hundreds of thousands of cars arrived at once, driven by people learning as they went, on streets never designed for it. Thirty years on it has improved a great deal, but the traffic is still energetic and zebra crossings are a suggestion.
Cross with the locals and don’t assume you have right of way.
- 05
Data on your phone
Take the above down to your wallet: Albania watches the EU from outside, your European plan doesn’t cover this trip and it’s billed separately. And because you enter with no friction at all, it’s easy to step off the plane without thinking and take the surprise on the bill.
You also use your phone a lot here: the alphabet is Latin but Albanian resembles nothing, so the translator comes into play, trips to Kruja or Berat get organised on the fly, and the airport bus times are checked online.
A local eSIM activates on landing and costs a fraction of roaming.
Frequently asked
Does European roaming work in Albania?
No. Albania is an EU candidate but not a member, so European roaming doesn’t apply and you’re billed as an international destination. There’s a process to bring the Western Balkans into the free roaming area, with 2028 as the horizon, but it isn’t in force today.
What currency does Albania use?
The lek. Many tourist places accept euros, but they apply their own rate and give change in lek, so you lose out. Take lek from an ATM, and carry cash: outside the centre, plenty of places don’t take cards.
Is English spoken in Tirana?
The young, yes. But Italian works better with anyone over forty: during the dictatorship people secretly watched Italian television picked up across the Adriatic, and an entire generation learned the language that way.