I spent 7 weeks in Albania - Here's a quick recap!

When I started traveling 7 years ago, little did I know that my journey will take me to a little known country in the balkans - Albania.

The country is known mostly for its communist history and presence of over 173,000 bunkers from the cold war, made of concrete steel and mostly useless in these modern era.

The question I get asked a lot is "why Albania?", to which I respond "why not?".

As a digital nomad there isn't a shortage of interesting places to go, places that offer far better infrastructure, quality of life, and tourist traps than Albania, but there are reasons why I decided to go... I'll share 3...

1. Ease of access: Covid turned our lives upside down, and as someone who loves to travel, there aren't many countries open without strict restrictions. Albania is one of those place that offer very little restrictions when coming in and almost none when you're in it. So, this was a big consideration for me.

2. Visa: Albania is one of the few countries that offer the same privileges to a US residents and Citizens. You only have to be a US resident to obtain a visa on arrival (which is my case). I only needed to show up at the immigration counter and I got 6 months visa.

3. Mystery: Everyone almost always do an extensive research before they even commit to buying a ticket, which sometimes take away all the fun for someone like me. I mean...what more will be there to discover when you've already seen it all in a YouTube video? For Albania, it's still an up and coming digital nomad spot, it's one of the few countries in Europe that hasn't been fully discovered. A perfect spot for me!

I digress...

I'm finally in Albania and it's nothing like I've seen before, not in a bad way at all.

The first thing that stood out to me was how beautiful from above it looked...

But all that excitement quickly dissipated when I landed in Tirana and got in the Taxi to my AirBnB. I noticed there was A LOT of traffic, but nothing I'm not used to.

I spent the next couple of days exploring Tirana, discovering new food, meeting up with new Youtuber friends and just taking it all in. A few things stood out to me - the architecture, they didn't look too modern. Although there are a couple of new developments here and there.

The coffee culture in Albania is strong. If you're not a big coffee lover like myself, there's a good chance you'll get drawn into it. By the time I left, I was visiting a coffee shop at least once a day.

Anyway, still in Tirana, a must-visit is the Skanderberg square. An enormous open space at the center of the city with a giant statue of Skanderberg beautifully adorning the skyline. Here, you'll find tourists from all over the world, and some even using it as meeting spot in order to then proceed to other areas of the city. You can't miss it!

Away from the city center, another attraction you definitely want to visit is the Dajti Express, the longest cable car in the Balkans. It also offers a beautiful vantage point to see the entire city and is reasonably priced. A roudtrip will cost you about $10. Not bad.

Next is the Bunkart - a museum with an interactive learning experience where you can learn about the history of Albania and its 170k plus bunkers from the cummunist era. It was strange to be in but I promise you'll learn so much about Albania in a very short period of time.

I promise, this isn't a travel guide, you'll find more detailed information on Tripadvisor. But if you love to travel and you're considering Albania as your next travel destination, there are a few things to keep in mind...

1. It's not going to be your typical digtial nomad destination for many reasons. Of course, there are many cities that you can visit that offers so much to offer in history and culture - think Gjirokaster, Vlora, Berat, Theth, Durres, etc. Meeting other digital nomads is hard, as there are very few of them (but that's rapidly changing).

2. It takes a while for people to warm up to you. Being a country with a conservative culture, people don't necessarily want to be friends with you, but they will be kind to you. So, take a moment to get to know them, strike up a conversation and maaaaybe they will reciprocate. But once they do, you'll quickly find that they're very nice and outgoing.

3. If you're vegan, you won't find a lot of options here. I don't think there's a lot to be said about this one.

4. Internet is pretty darn fast in Tirana. If you work online, you won't have any issues with the internet speed in the capital city of Tirana. I may have experienced the fast internet I've ever used in Tirana with upload and download speeds surpassing 100mbps. And you can get a sim card with unlimited calls and texts, 20GB of internet for $25/mo. Pretty affordable!

5. Ridesharing like Uber/Lyft doesn't exist. This came as a shock to me, but given that the city has an abundance of taxis for cheap, the effects can be easily mitigated. And it's pretty walkable, I'll even advise you take to your feet if you're within the city 'cos traffic can be very bad most of the time.

Riding a bus will cost you a whopping $0.40 (40cents/40Leke) regardless of distance. So, keep those coins, you'll be needing them a lot.

6. Traveling from one city to another is pretty easy, you can find buses at huge parks that leave at random times. So get to the bus station early and pray that your bus leaves on time.

Speaking of other cities, I visited two outside of Tirana. If you're looking for a way to get out of the hustle and bustle of Tirana, maybe you want to be closer to nature (ocean, beach), Vlora and Durres will be your best bet.

Although Vlora is a lot more relaxed than Durres, be ready to find the least friendly people as well (I got into trouble for saying this).

But I must say though, Vlora and Durres are two of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. See for yourself...

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Talk soon!