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We are going to Ksamil next month and I believe that Albania uses both LEK and euros. Do most places favour local currency and are credit cards widely used here? I am thinking of things like buses, taxis and beach clubs.
Whilst Euro is accepted, it prices off separate menus. When I was there, paying in Lek on the locally priced menu even at international hotels worked out at atound £4 for a main course, 70p for a dessert.
My Curve card was happily accepted at hotels and department stores. I didn’t venture further.
I went to Sarande last year, cards were accepted, but you will probably need some cash. Prices were a bit better in Lek. I couldn’t find a free ATM, but there were decent rates available for exchanging cash, both £ & €.
I didn’t see any separate euro price menus when I was there, but at that time 1 euro had never been less than 100 leke.
So shops simply treated euros as 1 to 100 and a €10 note was just considered a variant of a 1000 leke, even though at the time you could easily go to a bureau de change and get ~1030 leke for it. Two shops even gave me euro coins in change despite paying in leke (I accepted as after all it was worth slightly more).
Now that the euro is about 1 to 98, I can see why there might be separate pricing.
Fixed establishments are likely to accept card, particularly in tourist areas.
I think all ATMs charge fees, so bring euro cash if you have it, otherwise bring a bit of GBP cash, it should be easy to exchange at an acceptable spread. I’ve not been to Ksamil but elsewhere public transport was cash only, and I suspect few taxis if any have card readers.
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