Renting a car in Albania in 2026: Our road trip experience

“Oh boy, do we need to rent a car here in Albania” – that was my thought when I found out the distance between Tirana (the primary international airport) and Ksamil (the main destination for a beach vacation). 4 hours and 270 kilometers!

I immediately had my doubts. Why is the rental so cheap? Is it actually safe to drive here? Will the car be in decent condition? Sorry, I’m just an overthinker, especially when it comes to places I don’t know well yet!

In the end, Albania turned out to be a whole new discovery for us. We drove all over the country and put together a proper road trip, so this article is my big, experience-based review of renting a car in Albania in 2026.

I’ll share everything I learned on the road: What the rental process was like, how much it cost, what to know about insurance, and what driving in Albania is actually like. Of course, I’ll also cover traffic rules, fines, parking, and the hotels we stayed at along our route.

Article contents

1. Do you need a car in Albania at all? YES!
2. Which car did we pick for Albania
3. …and where we booked it
4. Requirements for car rental in Albania
5. What about the cost?
6. A quick look at how I search for rental cars online
7. Everything about insurance, deductible and deposit
8. Pick-up and drop-off
9. Driving in Albania – rules, speed limits, road conditions
10. Toll roads and parking
11. Where to go in Albania?
12. Final thoughts (and hotels we stayed at)

Is it worth renting a car in Albania?

Unfortunately, Albania is not the kind of country where getting around by public transport is easy or comfortable. It does exist, but it mostly means buses. And their schedule, route coverage, and speed are, let’s say, not exactly impressive.

So if you’re wondering is it worth renting a car in Albania, my answer is a very clear yes – especially if you want to see Tirana, Berat, the coastline with its beautiful beaches, and the north of the country with national parks in one trip. In almost every case, having a car saves a lot of time.

Here are the main reasons why car rental in Albania makes so much sense:

• Put it all together: Albania is mountainous + has only one main international airport + no real train network + buses are slow = renting a car becomes the most convenient way to get around.
• Even if your plan is just to swim and sunbathe in Ksamil – Albania’s most popular beach resort – you still need to get there somehow. And in practice, your choice comes down to 2 options: Driving there yourself or taking a bus from Tirana that crawls along for about 5 hours, with a transfer in Sarandë.
• Many of Albania’s most beautiful places are either very time-consuming or almost impossible to reach without a car. The country’s highlights are scattered between the coast and the mountains, so relying only on buses is very limiting.
• The car rental market in Albania is well developed and affordable. You can rent a car without a credit card, often with no deposit at all or with a small one like in our case, where the deposit was just €50 (we used Localrent for that).
• If there are at least two of you, a car can also help you save money – not only on hotels (since you don’t have to stay right in the center), but also on tours and private transfers.

My biggest yes to renting a car is this: You can cover almost the whole country in a relatively short time, combining beach time with mountains and hikes.

That’s what we did – from Tirana, we drove through Berat down to Ksamil, then made our way back along the coast, continued all the way to Theth, and finally returned to Tirana to drop the car off.

Which car did we pick for Albania?

Our trip to Albania was in the middle of October. I knew exactly which car we were getting as I booked a car through a website that almost always gives you a car model you choose (not something «similar»). We got almost new Opel Corsa, and it cost us €264 for six days, including €90 for insurance. The booking also came with free cancellation up to 24 hours before pick-up and unlimited mileage.

• We picked up the car at Tirana Airport and returned it in the city. In our case, this was a free option. My first tip is – you don’t need a car in the capital. We returned it one day earlier and that saved us money on parking, and we even got half a day of the rental refunded (that’s why I love renting from the local agencies).

I’m not entirely sure how well older rental cars are maintained, so I always try to choose newer options. We rented our car in Albania through Localrent, a platform that works with local rental companies. It’s actually my favorite car rental service. They are not present everywhere, but in Albania they have a huge number of offers – 1,000+ cars in Tirana alone. The only places where I’ve seen an even bigger selection are probably Georgia, Thailand, or Montenegro, where we’ve also rented cars through them.

We combined our Albania trip with Montenegro, and instead of driving the same car across the border and then returning it, we rented two separate cars. Between the countries, we simply took a bus for €22 per person – the connection is well organized.

An Opel Corsa is a pretty standard car: It gets you from point A to point B, and does it well. You don’t need to overthink what kind of car you should rent in Albania. Even for a packed itinerary like ours – Tirana, Berat, Gjirokastër, the Riviera, and Theth – a compact car is enough. A big crossover or SUV is more likely to be inconvenient when it comes to parking, it will cost more to rent, and it will use more fuel.

If you plan on driving an automatic car, it’s worth booking it as early as possible in Albania. The reason is simple – there are fewer automatic cars than manual ones, and the best-value and newer options get booked up quickly in high season.

Aside from Tirana, you can also rent a car in Sarandë if you’re arriving by ferry from Corfu. The choice is more limited there, there are more older cars, and prices are higher. For example, in May, Sarandë has around 300 cars available, while Tirana has 1,000+ for the same month.

Where to rent a car in Albania?

I didn’t spend much time on this question – I knew I’d find a car on one of the websites I always use for renting abroad. For Albania I went with the first website, and for Italy – where we flew in from – I used the second one. Usually, the final decision comes down to price and rental conditions.

Best websites for renting a car in Albania:

1) Localrent.com – this is the service we use most often for car rentals when we travel, wherever it’s available.

What I really like is that they have fast and HUMAN customer support without making you deal with bots or wait up to 24 hours for a reply. You make a booking with just a 15% prepayment and pay that deposit with a card. The remaining amount is paid in cash or with a card on the spot.

Real photos of the listed cars help you understand whether you want this particular car or don’t. And in a way, they also act as a kind of guarantee of the car model – otherwise, why show the photos at all?

There are lots of cars with no deposit or with a cash deposit (which means you can rent a car without credit card). And in some countries, certain rental companies even accept cryptocurrency – we’ve seen this ourselves in Albania and Dubai.

2) Discovercars.com – a tried-and-tested plan B when Localrent isn’t available in a country, or when the rental conditions don’t suite us. Or when there are simply no cars left, which can happen too.

The main difference from the previous service is that they work with both well-known international rental companies and local agencies. They also sell their own insurance, which is cheaper than buying coverage directly from the rental company. I’m not a big fan of it, though – I’ll explain why in the insurance section. Customer support is not as fast either, but all of that is offset by the fact that they operate pretty much everywhere in the world.

My usual car-search routine – say, in Albania – goes like this: I open Localrent, apply the filters for no deposit, newer car, and full insurance, and then check what comes up. If there’s nothing interesting, I switch to Discovercars.

Requirements for car rental in Albania

In Albania, you only need a small set of documents – more or less the same as in any other country. The exact requirements can vary slightly from one rental company to another, especially when it comes to the driver’s minimum age to rent a car or whether you need a credit card in the main driver’s name at pick-up.

First of all: Your driver’s license. Some sources say an International Driving Permit is required; others say your regular license from home is enough. We always carry an IDP with us, just in case. But when we got our Opel Corsa in Albania, no one asked for it – our regular license was enough.

• Can you rent a car in Albania with a US license? Yes. With an EU license? Also yes.

Your age. Most rental companies only rent cars to drivers aged 21 and over. Sometimes an extra €3–€5 per day can solve the problem, if you’re younger. You can check this either in the listing for the specific car you’ve chosen or by asking customer support online.

Your passport or ID. This one is straightforward: If you’re planning a trip to Albania, you already have one.

Do you need a credit card to rent a car in Albania? If you book on Localrent, there are plenty of options that don’t require a credit card at pick-up – you’ll only need a card to make the prepayment online. With Discovercars, there’s a much higher chance that a credit card will be mandatory, as they don’t offer the option to leave the rental deposit or pay the rest in cash. On top of that, the rental conditions sometimes specify that the credit card must have embossed initials and numbers. Personally, I feel much calmer when there’s no card involved – no blocked deposits, no waiting for refunds.

And finally, the thing everyone always mentions but we’ve never once been asked for: The car rental voucher. Still, have it handy – a photo on your phone, for example.

How much does it cost to rent a car in Albania in 2026?

Here’s what we paid in mid-October:

• €29 per day for a 1-year-old Opel Corsa, with basic insurance included
• €15 per day for SuperCDW insurance – I don’t always add it, but in this case the price was good (for comparison, in Milan, this type of insurance cost us €35 per day!)
• €50 cash deposit

In total, our 6-day Albania car rental came to €264, with pick-up at the airport and drop-off in the city (they actually came to our hotel to collect the car). Out of that total, €90 was for insurance. The deductible (or excess fee) was only €200, meaning that was the maximum amount we would have had to pay in case of damage. In Europe or the US, for example, this amount is usually at least €2,000–€3,000.

Car rental prices in Albania in 2026 start from €10 per day in the off-season and from around €25–€30 per day in high season.

• There’s not much point in making a comparison table with different cities here – almost everyone flies into Tirana and rents a car there anyway.

The cheapest cars you’ll see in search results are manuals, so if you want an automatic, make sure to select the automatic transmission filter. In high season, automatic cars usually start from €35 per day. In October, you can find them from €15.

So why did our car in October come out to €44 per day? That price included SuperCDW coverage, which didn’t cover glass or tires but did cover all other damage above the €200 excess. And a good share of rental cars in Albania are on the older side, while our Opel was only about a year old.

Quick guide to finding a rental car online

Since we’ve used Localrent for car rentals many times – including our trip to Albania – I’ll use it as an example to show how I search for a car online.

1. Once I know our travel dates, I open the aggregator and enter them, usually matching our arrival and departure dates. But if our return flight is early in the morning, I often set the car return for the evening before. It just gives me peace of mind, because not all rental companies operate very early in the morning or late at night.
2. Then I go straight to the filters. I filter out cars by setting a maximum vehicle age – for example, no older than three years. I select automatic transmission and after that I look at the deposit conditions. Ideally, I want either no deposit or a small deposit that can be left in cash.
3. For insurance, I usually choose SuperCDW or full coverage, although it’s not available for every car. If the search results get too limited, I either increase the maximum car age or remove the insurance filter.
4. Then I open the listings that actually look good to me one by one. One thing I like about Localrent is that you can see real photos of the car you’re going to get. But I don’t rely on photos alone – I also check the detailed terms: The deductible, payment options, whether there’s a mileage limit. If everything checks out, I move on to that specific car and start the booking process. It’s also worth choosing a car with free cancellation when possible – there are plenty of those, but not every listing has it.
5. The next step is to set your pick-up and drop-off times. This is more important than it may seem: If you don’t want to pay for an extra day, make sure your return time is the same as your pick-up time, or earlier. Also check the rental company’s working hours – that way, you’ll avoid any out-of-hours fees.
6. If free pick-up doesn’t include the airport (it happens), I check on the map where the rental office is located and how easy it is to get there. If the office is in an inconvenient area, I check how much it costs to deliver the car to the airport. And if the price is reasonable, I go for it.
7. After that, the rest is simple. You just fill in a few personal details and pay the deposit. Usually, it’s 15% of the booking price. Then you receive a voucher by email with your booking number. Sometimes it arrives instantly if the booking is confirmed automatically.
8. About a week before, the rental company may message you on WhatsApp and ask you to send photos of your documents in advance (your passport and driver’s license) to prepare the rental agreement ahead of time. So when you meet, they only need to double-check everything, have you sign the paperwork, and hand over the car without wasting too much time.

Can you cross borders with a rental car from Albania? Yes, but if you’re planning to do so – most commonly to Montenegro, North Macedonia, or Greece – check the rental terms for that specific vehicle when booking. Cross-border travel may be free, or it may cost from €20 to €40.

Insurance, deductible, and deposit

The part of renting a car abroad that really makes your palms sweat – and has you squinting at the tiniest fine print – is, of course, insurance.

Let me explain it in simple terms. You can have:

— Insurance from the rental company itself; usually offered and purchased when you pick up the car
— Insurance from the booking platform; added when you book the car online
— Insurance from your bank; something like car hire excess insurance

Personally, I always rely on either the first or the third option. And this is exactly why I prefer to start my search with Localrent.

• On Localrent, the insurance options shown on the website are the ones offered by the actual rental company. So there’s no back-and-forth over different insurance plans – you’ve already chosen what you need.
• DiscoverCars, on the other hand, sells its own insurance. It is valid, but I’ve often heard the wonderful phrase from the managers: “We don’t know anything about that, you don’t have insurance with us. Would you like to buy coverage?”. The way it works is this: If something happens, you first pay for the damage out of pocket, and then Discovercars reimburses you later, up to a certain amount. The main advantage is that their insurance is much cheaper than buying it directly from the rental company.

Based on our experience, I wouldn’t save money on insurance when renting a car and driving in Albania. The main roads are generally good, but you can still come across gravel roads, especially when driving down to beaches. So small scratches are definitely possible. Mountain roads are another reason to be careful – it can get very narrow in places.

I recommend getting full coverage with the lowest possible excess IF the daily price is reasonable compared with the cost of your rental. In our case, we took SuperCDW for €15 per day, and it was worth it just for the peace of mind while driving.

Now let’s quickly break down what all these different insurance names actually mean:

Third-party liability (TPL) – this is the basic insurance that covers damage you cause to other cars. It does not cover damage to your rental car. In most countries, this type of insurance is included by default.

Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) – this one protects the rental car itself. It usually covers damage to the body of the car, but often excludes glass, tires, the underbody (for them you pay in full out of your pocket).

Super Collision Damage Waiver (SCDW / SuperCDW) – this is an upgraded version of CDW. It adds coverage for things that CDW does not include, such as wheels or glass. I often choose this type of coverage, but always check if the excess is low enough. In Albania, the excess was €200, which was okay.

Full coverage – the most stress-free option if you don’t want to worry about anything at all. With this kind of insurance, you don’t even need to inspect the car at pick-up and drop-off. I would still take photos or record a quick video just in case. Full coverage often comes with no excess* and no deposit**.

*Excess or deductible is the maximum amount of euros or dollars you pay for the repair if something bad happens and there’s no one else to blame except you. Don’t confuse it with a deposit – they are different things, although rental companies often ask you to leave a deposit equal to the excess amount.

So in a way, the excess is both your friend and your enemy – it can save you if the damage is expensive, but it can also hurt if the amount is high.

Our experience: In all our car rentals abroad, I can think of exactly two cases where the excess saved us. The first was in the US, when a stone hit the bumper of our Tesla on the highway and the damage was estimated at $3,000 (!!!), but our excess was only $500. The second was in Portugal, on the islands, when I scraped the underside of the car against a curb and damaged the underbody protection. In that case, they charged us €200 out of the stated €500 excess.

**Deposit is the amount held as security for the duration of your rental. The company may also deduct tolls, fines, fuel, or a car wash fee from it – all of this should be stated in the rental terms.

The deposit amount and the way you leave it really depend on the country and the rental company. In Albania, the deposit can be in cash, or you can even find a car with no deposit at all, which I find extremely convenient. If you leave a cash deposit, you get it back immediately when you return the car. With a card, it’s a different story: The rental company may release the hold right away on their end, but the money will be unfrozen whenever your bank decides to process it. Sometimes it takes a few minutes; sometimes it takes much longer. We once had to wait about a month for a hold to be released.

Side note: On Localrent, you can find a car with no deposit, cash payment on arrival, and still have an excess in the rental terms. So what happens then? We had a similar situation in Dubai: At pick-up, we signed an extra sheet attached to the rental agreement stating that we agreed to cover any damage up to the excess amount – $800 – otherwise there would be consequences. What kind of consequences exactly, we didn’t ask!

Car pick-up and drop-off

The most important piece of advice here is simple: When you pick up the car, take a few minutes to photograph and film all the important areas – bumper, glass, interior, wheels. This is absolutely not being overly cautious. If there’s any dispute when you return the car, you’ll be able to show that the scratch was already there.

And if the car has even the slightest smell of cigarettes, ask them to note it in the rental agreement! We once had this situation in Italy – they gave us a new car, but the interior smelled of smoke. I made the effort to walk back to the office, asked the manager to check it again, and had it added to the agreement. When we returned the car, another manager immediately pointed out that someone had smoked inside – which was not allowed, obviously – then saw the note in the paperwork and dropped it right away. So yes, these things matter.

We chose to rent from Tirana Airport, but you can also request delivery to your hotel, another location in the city, or the rental company’s office. In our case, the office was only three minutes from the airport.

A quick checklist for picking up your rental car:

• Check the documents and rental agreement – it’s often just one sheet with the marked damage, fuel level, and other details
• Photograph and film any damage
• If the car isn’t new, check the headlights, indicators, windows, and cameras
• Check whether there’s a spare tire
• If you’re planning to cross the border into the other countries, confirm this in advance and make sure the paperwork is in order
• Save the contact details of the person or company you should message if you have any questions

For the drop-off, you arrive at the agreed time and place. If you want to return the car earlier – as we did – it’s better to message the manager at least a day in advance. They will check the car, the fuel level*, and return your deposit if you left one. I usually take another quick video or a few photos of the car, and that’s it – we say goodbye.

Side note: In 20+ car rentals around the world, we’ve never signed any kind of return document! I’m still surprised by this every time.

*A full-to-full fuel policy means the car is given to you with a full tank, and you need to return it with a full tank as well. If you bring it back a few liters short, you’ll be charged for the missing fuel at a less favorable rate than you’d pay at a regular gas station.

Well, I’ve covered everything you need to know about renting a car in Albania. Now let’s move on to… driving in Albania!

Driving in Albania: Traffic rules, speed limits, and road conditions

When planning a road trip in Albania, there’s one major thing to keep in mind. The biggest challenge here, at least in our experience, is not aggressive local driving or terrible roads (we didn’t really run into either!). It’s the pace.

Distances that look short on the map can take surprisingly long. The country is incredibly mountainous and hilly, especially closer to the south and the north, so roads often snake between the mountains, climb over passes, or wrap around hillsides. That means constant elevation gain and loss, mixed with frequent switchbacks.

• For example, there are two main ways to drive from Tirana to Ksamil. The faster route takes about 4 hours and 270 kilometers and it’s a proper highway for part of the way – you can sometimes get up to 90 km/h. But if you decide to take the scenic coastal SH8 road, the drive can stretch to 6 hours for the same distance. Because it’s a one-lane mountain road with endless bends. It’s very tiring.

You’ll often see Llogara Pass – on the way from Tirana to Ksamil along the coast – mentioned as one of Albania’s trickier mountain roads. Personally, we didn’t find it difficult at all in daylight. It was wide enough and not especially stressful. I’ll add photos here, because the views really are something.

But the road that stayed with me the most was the one to Theth national park on the north of Albania. It’s only about 70 kilometers (from Skodër), but it takes more than TWO HOURS because the road is sooo narrow and the switchbacks are steep and relentless. And oncoming cars appear quickly and there isn’t always much room to pass.

Side note: All of this is pretty easy to picture, but I also filmed a video for my YouTube channel during our road trip around Albania! And it gives an even clearer idea of what driving here is really like:

In Tirana and big cities like Skodër or Vlorë, traffic is more chaotic, dense, and sometimes completely detached from any logic. Roundabouts deserve their own separate warning: Everyone seems determined to cut each other off and absolutely no one wants to yield. So while driving around Albania as a whole turned out to be easier than expected, driving inside towns and cities left us with far less rosy impressions.

What are the road conditions in Albania? The road surface itself – at least on the routes to Ksamil, both inland and along the coast – is generally good. On our first day, the road from Tirana to Berat surprised us in a bad way: It was full of deep potholes and uneven patches, and I thought, “Is this what it’s going to be like everywhere?” But no, it was an exception.

For navigation, Google Maps does work in Albania, but it’s much better to have Organic Maps as a backup. In our experience, it catches new roads faster and is better at showing which dirt or rough roads you really don’t want to end up on. Definitely download it before your trip and use it as a second navigation app.

Speed limits and road signs. In towns, the speed limit is usually around 40 km/h. On roads outside populated areas, it’s typically 80 km/h. There are some stretches where the limit goes up to 110 km/h but we didn’t see that very often. On the toll road near Tirana, we even came across a 130 km/h speed limit, but that happened only once.

❗️You can go up to 5 km/h over the limit, but not more than that. The rental manager warned us that there were lots of speed cameras on the roads. In reality, we barely noticed any traffic cameras ourselves! Police, on the other hand, were everywhere along the roads but they didn’t stop us.

Overall, it felt like our entire Albania road trip happened at 50–60 km/h.

Driving style. After Georgia or southern Italy, it takes a lot to surprise us on the road. The only things we noticed were the usual small violations: Drivers may overtake where they technically shouldn’t, skip turn signals, or bend minor traffic rules. The main thing, as anywhere, is to double-check at intersections that the other driver is actually letting you through.

On narrow roads, locals may drive fast, so it’s better to pull over slightly and let them pass – they’re used to driving those roads every day. But overall, everything stayed within the realm of reasonable.

Gas stations. The only places where you might risk running low on fuel are the mountains or more remote areas like Theth. Everywhere else, the sheer number of them every few kilometers is impressive! The only country where we’ve seen even more gas stations was Georgia.

Gas in Albania costs around 200 lek per liter / €2. Many gas stations accept cash only, so always ask before they start filling up your tank. We once stopped at a station where they did accept cards, but only with a €2 fee. At the very next gas station, though, they took our card with no issues and no extra charge at all.

Toll roads and parking

Albania has two toll roads, and you pay for them right there at the booth. The A1 motorway runs near Tirana and connects Albania with Kosovo. You may end up on it if you’re driving from the capital toward Theth national park – we paid 250 lek / €2.

There’s also the Llogara Tunnel, a 6-kilometer tunnel that lets you skip Llogara Pass – a beautiful, dizzying mountain pass on the way to Vlorë. Technically, the tunnel is also a toll road and should cost 250 lek, but at the time of our trip, and as of May 2026, everyone is being let through for free.

Side note: If you want to drive over Llogara Pass on your way from Tirana to the beach resorts, keep an eye on the turnoff! It’s easy to miss. Otherwise, you’ll need to go through the tunnel and then have to approach the pass from the opposite side.

Parking. In Tirana, we got lucky and found a free, empty spot near our hotel – with white road markings, which means residential free parking.

Paid street parking in Tirana is marked with blue lines and divided into zones:

• Zone A costs 100 lek per hour / €1
• Zone B costs 40 lek / €0.4
• and Zone C costs 20 lek / €0.2

On Sundays, parking is free.

The catch with local parking is that you can only pay for it by SMS. First, we didn’t have a local SIM card. Second, we returned the car a day early, on a Sunday, because you really don’t need a car in Tirana – it’s a compact city, and most of the interesting places are within walking distance. So we never actually had to deal with paid parking ourselves. Our hotel didn’t have its own parking either.

In beach towns, finding a spot can be a real headache during high season, so I’d strongly recommend booking a hotel with parking – especially in places like Ksamil! Or you’ll have to use one of those chaotic local parking lots for €5–€10. I’ll include the hotels with parking that we stayed at in Ksamil and Dhërmi in the recommendations below.

Where to go in Albania?

With a rental car, you can put together a really good Albania road trip and drive all the way from the south to the north, taking in both the beaches and the mountains.

Public transport in Albania does exist, but it’s not well developed, so traveling around the country by bus can be inconvenient. With a car, though, you can see a lot. And aside from the fortresses and the wild northern landscapes, what surprised me most were the beaches – Albania’s beaches are beautiful. Like, unexpectedly beautiful.

Our road trip itinerary:

• Tirana—Berat: A historic town with fascinating architecture
• Berat—Gjirokastër: Another major piece of Albania’s cultural heritage
• Gjirokastër—Ksamil: The land of truly gorgeous beaches
• Ksamil—Dhërmi: More beach-hopping along the Albanian Riviera
• Dhërmi—Durrës: We wanted to see what Albania’s biggest beach city is all about
• Durrës—Theth: A complete change of scenery for mountains, hiking, and northern Albania
• Theth—Krujë: A mountain town with deep significance in Albanian history
• Krujë—Tirana: And finally, we ended the trip in the capital

Cross-border travel is possible, but only with the rental company’s approval. The rules are normally listed in the car’s rental terms before you book, so if you’re planning to drive from Albania to Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo, or Greece, make sure to confirm this at the booking stage.

There is of course an extra fee, and you’ll need permission from the rental company, which you may have to show at the border. Sometimes, you may also need additional insurance for €20.

Are there any places where you SHOULDN’T go by car in Albania? Yes! It’s an incredibly popular Bovilla Lake near Tirana. The lake is beautiful, but the road there is a completely undeveloped dirt track. You can easily ruin both the tires and the car. Some rental companies even state in their terms that driving to the lake is not allowed.

So how does it gain its popularity? Because of the day trip tours from Tirana – and I’d strongly recommend doing it the same way, with a tour rather than in your rental car.

Renting a car in Albania – my review

In one week in Albania, we drove almost 1,500 km and managed to cover nearly the entire country. We spent around 13,000 lek / €135 on fuel.

None of my worries about driving and renting a car in Albania actually came true! Maybe it was because we were traveling at the very end of the season (October), but the roads outside the cities were empty. What was unexpected me is how long it can take to get from one place to another in Albania, even with no traffic. There are just so many switchbacks and mountain roads here and very few direct convenient highways.

The rental process itself also went smoothly: We picked up the car on time, it was in good condition, and we returned it without any issues or overly picky inspections. That’s exactly why I like renting cars abroad through Localrent – so far, everything with them has always gone well for us.

This time, I learned something interesting from the rental company in Albania: If tourists leave negative reviews on Localrent, the platform lowers the company’s rating and shows its cars less often in search results. If there are several serious complaints, the company’s cars can be removed from the platform altogether.

So I made a little mental note: If a rental company has genuinely good reviews and appears near the top of the search results, there’s no need to assume that a low price means a catch 🙂

And now, a few words about our hotels in Albania:

• Berati Castle Hotel (Berat, from €55 a night) – a lovely small hotel right inside the famous Berat Castle. But since it sits on a hill, you pay for that location with a climb up or down every time you want to go into the modern part of town!
  🅿️ free street parking nearby
• Hotel Meta Ksamil (Ksamil, from €99 a night) – a simple hotel with basic breakfasts and interiors, but with a very good location: Close to the beach, with the sea right outside the windows, cruise ships sailing past, and sunsets lighting up the sky.
  🅿️ free hotel parking
• La Brisa Boutique Hotel (Dhërmi, from €200 a night) – a true resort-like gem right on the beach, where we happened to stay during its final week before closing for the season! What can I say: It’s modern, stylish, and has incredible views of the piercing blue sea from the rooftop (although some rooms come with those views too). There’s also a decent restaurant, a spa, and a small gym outdoors.
  🅿️ free hotel parking
• Hotel Jezerca (Theth, from €100 a night) – a hotel close to the start of the most popular hike in Theth national park. Even better, it has an ATM, fuel canisters (the local version of a gas station), a large free parking area, and a good restaurant. That’s why we chose it over other hotels in roughly the same price range.
  🅿️ free hotel parking
• Hotel Boutique Vila 135 (Tirana, from €95 a night) – I wouldn’t say we were blown away by this hotel. It’s definitely not “boutique” in any sense. But the rooms are huge, and the location is right in the city center – we walked everywhere from there.
  🅿️ no parking