Wether you are considering to come to Albania as a tourist, to stay for a while, or to live here, that raw and honest local perspective always helps.

As an Albanian and as an international traveler, I think I can bring a thoughtful perspective to the table and give you some insight on what it’s like to actually live here.

So here goes, in today’s blog post I want to talk about 5 things I love about this country.

1. The weather!

Booohoo, that’s boring! Anything else? Ok ok, I understand that talking about weather might not be the most attractive topic but I bet many of you didn’t know that Albania’s capital city (Tirana) beats even Spain’s tourism capital (Barcelona) in terms of annual sunshine hours.

Yeah that’s right and on top of that Tirana ranks among the top 10 sunnies European cities with a total of 2544 hours of sun.

The weather here does not only affect your mood, but it also affects your lifestyle, enabling you to have a great time wherever you go, beaches, mountains, villages etc. Bringing us to the second thing I love about this country…

2. Environmental diversity

Albania is a small country which has it all. Wether you dig the beach, the mountain, lakes or villages, Albania has it all.

To give you a good picture, here’s a few things you can explore and experience on a maximum of 30 mins of distance from Tirana…

Mountain tourism, beaches (many of them), rural cuisine and adventures, beautiful scenery of all kinds, amazing shopping areas, lakes and much more…

A 30 min drive in Albania can get you all the diversity you want.

As an international traveler, I have yet to see a place with so much diversity in such a dense space of land.

3. The coffee culture


Oh man the coffees! It’s funny, but one of the things I miss most about Albania when I’m away for a long time, is the coffees.

And it’s not just the fact that Albania makes great coffees and cappuccinos, as much of the culture of bonding over a cup of coffee.

As Nas Daily detailed in a video he made when visiting this place, Albania offers the highest concentration of coffeeshops per capita in the world. 

Here, every corner you go to, has a coffee shop, with a staggering 18,000 of them available for a population of 3 million.

1 shop for every 169 people, and 0 of them are Starbucks.

In Albania, each coffee cup costs 50 cents and it’s one of the primary ways for Albanians to chat, meet, work, do business and bond over the most trivial things.

Albanians spend more time in coffee shops during the day than any other place, and while this might seem strange or awesome to you, the reason why I love the coffee culture is because here in Albania, even you’re an introvert, you will always have a chance to meet and talk to people, and for that reason, it’s very hard to feel alone.

4. Friendly and open people

Albanians are not perfect. We love to gossip an excessive amount about why the government sucks and a bunch of other things, but at core we are very loving and friendly people and most of us are really caring and compassionate.

If you are a tourist in Albania, you will be able to notice this even more, as we’re always going our way to show people visiting here a great time and to feel welcome.

Albanians love people, they love to talk, they love to bond and they love to give. Which is why you will notice people trying to treat you everywhere you go.

Even as a native, it’s always so evident to me that the sense of community here is so much stronger than many other places I have visited around the world.

If you want to have a good time and make friendships to last a lifetime, you might really love to visit here.

5. Cheap… Well… Everything!

This might sound strange coming from an Albanian, but the more I have visited places around the world, the more I feel like I’ve hit the lottery.

Albania has so much to offer.

Delicious food (some of the best in the world), nature, beaches, mountains, unbelievable scenery etc… and at the end of the day, when I account for how to access this types of fun and adventures, it’s sometimes unbelievable even for me as a native to think how cheap it actually is.

In one way, it makes sense, because we are not a rich country, but when you see all the kinds of food you can taste for just 5$ or the types of places you can visit for another 5$, you will feel rich indeed.

Albania is cheap and accessible to visit, and for many it’s a no brainer to put on their bucket list.