We came to Albania planning to check it out. We stayed for four months. That’s the short version.
The long version starts with Durrës, on the coast, where we landed first. Rough. Bird’s nest above the door, construction we hadn’t been warned about, the kind of place you leave early. So we did. Then we got to Tirana. Second-floor unit on Bulevardi Bajram Curri. Looked fine on paper. In practice it had some structural quirks we weren’t going to wait out. Walter and Olive were ready to destroy us for putting them through all the moving.
Two rough apartments in ten days. And yet the second we stepped outside, Albania was busy convincing us to stay. Which it did. For four months, across three different apartments, we couldn’t leave. Because Albania turned out to be one of the best long-stay decisions we’ve ever made.
Finding a long-stay apartment in Tirana
The Bulevardi Bajram Curri apartment was in central Tirana, not far from Blloku but not inside it. Communist-era building, second floor, one bedroom. Cheap, central, and mostly fine.
If you’re looking at Tirana apartments, this is the lesson: the building matters more than the neighborhood. Central Tirana has a lot of stock, and the quality varies. Ask questions about the building itself before you book. But the neighborhoods themselves? Almost all worth it.
Living in central Tirana
This is what pulled us in from the start. Blloku (five minutes from us) is where the young population of Tirana spends its time. Cafés open at 7 AM and don’t close until midnight. Everybody is outside. Everybody is drinking coffee. Everybody is friendly, and we started to suspect it might be the raki, which is a powerful elixir that makes friends of strangers with the first Gëzuar.
Albanians were the warmest people we met in Europe. Locals sat down at our table, asked where we were from, and stayed to talk. That happened more than once. Every day, actually. We’ve never lived somewhere that made a stranger feel like a friend faster.
A typical day in Tirana
Coffee. Two or three per day. Long walks through the pastel-painted streets. Groceries at the small local shops. Dinner at a byrektore for local pastries or a proper restaurant for grilled meat.
Weekends: Durrës on the coast (we gave it another chance and it’s actually beautiful once you’re past the wrong neighborhood), Berat (UNESCO old town, two hours away), Kruja (mountain fortress, one hour). Albania is small and full of surprises.
Tirana: our verdict after a rough first month
The first apartment wasn’t the right fit. That’s the honest report. But everything else about that first month was reason enough to move to a second apartment instead of a second country. Which is what we did. Then a third apartment. Four months total. We fell for Albania and never quite un-fell.
Tirana long-stay stats
- Duration: One month, spring
- Neighborhood: Central Tirana, steps from Blloku
- Cost tier: Very affordable
- Walkability: Excellent
- Wifi: Fast and reliable
- Cat-friendly: Yes (Walter and Olive eventually forgave us)
- Best for: Test-run stays that turn into long ones, budget travelers, café obsessives, people-first travelers
- Would return: Yes (and we did, twice more)
Book the stay: Our first Tirana apartment on Airbnb →
