Just returned from an overnighter in Tirana Albania 🇷🇴
This would be an easy day trip as there’s plenty of gap between flights and options to both Stansted with Ryanair and Luton with Wizz. We chose to do an overnight to give us more time and hotel accommodation is really cheap with us paying around £25 per person based on two sharing.
My main reason for visiting is I’m trying to complete 40 counties before 40 and I’ve never been to Albania before. It also seems to be an up and coming destination based on the number of people going!
Flights with Wizz from London Luton. These were booked on 13th November 2023 and cost £25.98 return per person.
Outbound Flight - Saturday Scheduled: Departure time - 07:45 Arrival time - 11:50
Flight was very delayed and we arrived over 3 hours late arriving at 15:30 local time. The reason for the delay was a technical fault with the assigned aircraft. Under UK261 this means we are entitled to £350 compensation and we will be submitting a claim to Wizz. The return flight was even more eventful but I’ll come to that later. Border control was fairly quick, UK passport holders can use the e-gates to enter the country and don’t need a stamp.
A note on currency: Albania use the Lek which is closed currency and cannot be obtained outside of the country. Euros are widely accepted and price lists sometimes give both options. We changed over €40 in the airport so we had some local currency straight away.
Coach to the city centre costs 400 Lek each (£3.31) or €5 (£4.27) so you save money paying in the local currency. To find the coaches come out of customs and keep walking straight to the bus the signs start well but abruptly stop so easy to miss and get confused. You just get on the coach and someone comes round to collect the money just before it leaves. Supposed to depart on the hour but it seems it goes once it’s sufficiently full and doesn’t really have a schedule.
The transfer to the city centre took around 30 minutes. Due to the delay on the outbound flight this had reduced our time to explore and it was getting dark by the time we arrived in the city centre. We explored Skanderbeg Square which is the main plaza in the centre of Tirana before heading to our hotel and then getting dinner in a local restaurant.
For dinner we went to a restaurant called Zgara Supreme 2. This was a really nice meal with good service. The grilled vegetables were incredible and so was Xaxiq (Tzatziki) the meal including drinks came to 3040 Lek (£25) A beer cost 180 Lek which is around £1.50! On the Sunday we decided to make the most of our day in Tirana and fit in as much as possible.
We had breakfast in the hotel and then walked to the House of Leaves museum. This is the museum of secret surveillance and explained the role of the "Sigurimi" during the communist times. Bugging devices used were on display along with cameras and long range microphones it was very informative. They only accept cash for tickets and these were 700 Lek per person. Photography is prohibited in many areas of the museum and staff seemed hot on enforcing this. We then paid a quick visit to Orthodox
Autocephalous Church of Albania. It’s worth going inside as the ceiling artwork is incredible. Following this we went to Bunkart 2 which is another museum but this one is housed in a former nuclear bunker. There are two Bunkarts in Tirana with Bunkart 1 being near the mountains. This again only accepted cash and we paid €7 per person in Euros as running low on Lek. Change is given in Lek so that topped us back up with local currency. Bunkart 2 covered more of the history of country and photography is permitted. It also covered some of the content as House of Leaves but in less detail.
If pushed for time you could just do Bunkart 2 and skip House of Leaves as the key parts of the story are covered.
We then returned to Skanderbeg Square and had lunch at one of the many restaurants. This seemed like a popular spot and was also slightly more expensive but still reasonable compared to eating out in the UK. Spending 2140 Lek (Around £17) for the two of us. We couldn’t complete a visit to Tirana without going on the Dajti Ekspres cable car.
The cheapest way to get there is to take bus L11 from Skanderbeg Square. This is the same area the airport bus stops. The bus is blue in colour and is labelled Porcelan. It wasn’t clear how paying worked but just get on and once the bus left a guy came round collecting money and giving out tickets. He was dressed in jeans, tracksuit top with a baseball cap, it was a bit confusing who he was to start with but was totally legitimate. The bus fare is an absolute bargain at 40 Lek (£0.33) and is also cash only. Bus took about 25 minutes After getting off the bus it’s about 5-10 minute walk up to the cable car station.
The cable car costs 1400 Lek each (£11.50) and they take card. This takes 15 minutes to get to the top, the views are spectacular. Once at the top we walked around and admired the view, given the position of the sun it was very hazy and hard to see Tirana so I would go in the morning if you can. It is also closed on a Tuesday if you are visiting mid week.
While up the mountain we were notified by Wizz that the return flight was not going to leave until 0405 instead of 2305.
Coming back down the sun was starting to set and it was a fantastic sunset. By this point we were preoccupied with sorting our flight out so spent some time sorting this out. Having looked on Skyscanner and seen there was also a Wizz flight at 2050 with seats available, we decided to ring Wizz and see if we could change our flight given the delay. After about 30 minutes in the phone queue they agreed to a free transfer to the earlier flight due to the delay. We only had about 40 minutes left to check in on the app and also needed to get to the airport. Then the next problem. Mobile boarding passes are not valid in Albania you MUST have it printed but how could we print it when we were on a bus back from the cable car?
Originally booked flight: Departure time - 2305 Arrival time - 0135 New flight: Departure time 2050 Arrival time - 2320
We got off the bus in the city centre and went to the nearest hotel which was the Tirana International and managed to print the passes at their reception. It must be a frequent occurrence as they have a printer attached to the free Wi-Fi and can connect directly and print. Really handy especially as we were not even staying there! We then headed back to get a coach to the airport, they don’t seem to run to a timetable and leave once they are sufficiently full. The fare was again 400 Lek each (£3.31) or €5 (£4.27) and someone comes round to collect as the coach leaves. Around 25 minutes later we were at the airport. Having to leave earlier meant a change to dinner plans but was worth it to avoid the long delay home.
As a reminder they do not accept mobile or PDF boarding passes you MUST print it, I saw a number of Italian tourists being sent back. Security was relatively quick and is followed immediately by passport control and straight through the e-gates.
The VIP business lounge is really nice and had a good selection of food and drink. Access costs €25. I get free access via a credit card so use lounges at every opportunity. Finally landed back at a Luton at 22:47. Actually 32 minutes arriving early! UK Border Control took 20 minutes.
Tirana is well worth a visit and works well as either an overnight or day trip. I just hope you don’t get delayed as that ate into the time and had it had been a day trip we would have missed out a lot.
