🇦🇱🇽🇰🇲🇰 Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia Balkans trip!
For my first time visiting Europe, I decided to join my friend Kenneth to explore the Balkans. These three countries share close history with each other, and it was an ideal round-trip to cover most of the bases within a week.
The trip began and ended in Tirana, Albania. We rented a car and drove up north to Kosovo, and then into North Macedonia, finally ending back in Tirana.
Along the way, we hit some of the popular cities as well as two nice hiking trails. This was during the summer, so the weather was simultaneously cooling with blazing hot sun.
Anyway, there's a lot to share. Please enjoy the post!
Albania
Landing in Tirana airport, we were able to quickly make it out and not-so-quickly get our rental car, which was booked from Cargini. With that, we got used to the right-hand driving and set off north for our guest house at Shkodër, where we'd leave our luggage and car to head to Valbona-Theth.
Shkodër, Valbona, Theth
We stayed at InTown Guesthouse, which I highly recommend. The host was extremely kind and the location was right in the middle of a lively street. At night, the bars open and the street is closed to cars. It's a shame we didn't stick around for some drinks. The crowd was so lively on that Friday night.
Valbona
Kosovo
North Macedonia
Itinerary
Getting Around
If you look online, you might find sentiments that Albania has some really shitty drivers. I found the whole experience to be generally decent, with little cause for concern. In the end, I had zero major incidents across all three countries. In fact, I loved the North Macedonian traffic for being very straightforward.
You might find it hard to go as fast as the locals do on the curvy mountain roads, but overall the highways and city roads are decently maintained. There were also lots of police around for some reason, which helped to keep traffic in check.
Driving was probably the right choice for this kind of trip. If you just plan on visiting a few key spots like Theth, there are bus services that should serve you well.
Packing Notes
Bring sun protection in the summer. I still got sunburnt.
Albania and North Macedonia don't actually recognise the Euro as legal tender, but some shops should still accept them. Just note that they might vary in exchange rate.
For example, the exchange rate was about 1 Euro to 90 Albanian Lek. Most shops round it up to 100. Meanwhile, if you're exchanging Euros to Albanian Lek, you'll probably get a rate that's lower than 1:90 at the money changer.
In short, if you have to pay something that's 100 Lek, using 1 Euro (if the shop accepts it) is beneficial to you. Otherwise, if you're expecting 100 Lek in change and you get 1 Euro back, that's actually worse because you'll technically lose about 10 Lek in that exchange.
The same goes for the Macedonian Denar. It's about 1 Euro to 60 Denar, but some shops might set it at 50 Denar because it's easier to calculate. Each shop might specify the exchange rate that it follows.
Me personally, we exchanged some Lek but no Denar at all, which was judged based on the number of days spent in each country and the respective activities done.
Costs
Costs listed are the total prices.
- Flights: SGD 1014 (Emirates, SIN to DXB to TIA)
- Car Rental:
- Rental: 379 SGD (EUR 258.64)
- Gas: SGD 181
- Cross-border fee: SGD 148 (EUR 50 per country)
- North Macedonia green card: SGD 74 (EUR 50)
- Accommodations: SGD 721.26
- Food: SGD 318
Total
We split the costs over 2 pax, so the total cost paid by each of us was somewhere in the range of $2000 to $2500. For me, I spent a bit more on beers and souvenirs, so my costs might be closer to $2500.
Between the three countries, I think Albania is the most expensive, followed by North Macedonia, then Kosovo. The prices weren't too cheap, granted we spent most of our time in touristy places.
It depends on what you're buying. A beer and pizza in a tourist spot like Theth is still going to be cheap and fulfilling. Gas is definitely cheaper outside of Albania.