Tirana Airport – any advice?

[The Original Nick]

Hi – Has anyone any experience of Tirana airport? I’m seeking advice wether there are reliable ATM machines at arrivals?
Also, What are the taxi services like to get into town?
Thanks.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

Hi, my experience was that the norm is for ATMs to charge ridiculous fees. The locals will happily accept EUR, albeit sometimes by giving you a menu enturely of EUR prices that in no way equates to the local currency price. I had no issue settling my hotel bill or restaurant bill in international hotels with a credit card.

As for taxi, all mine were pre-booked and billed post-trip so sorry I can’t help there. Pretty sure a driver would bite your hand of if you tried paying in EUR.

[Tocsin]

Flying on Saturday, so if there are any surprises I’ll post here. My research also suggests that € are accepted in main areas.

[The Original Nick]

Thanks to you both. I’m flying there on 20th May.

[LD27]

Sorry didn’t post earlier. Saw Tirana airport and didn’t read post as although we have recently spent a couple of weeks in Albania, we hadn’t been through the airport.

My understanding from talking to others whilst travelling, is that there are ATM machines in baggage arrival hall as well as money change bureau. There are lots of local car hire booths and taxis outside and someone mentioned a bus. If you use a taxi agree price in advance.

There are lots of ATM machines in all towns and I understand the lowest charge seems to be about €5 and we’ve been told some charge a set percentage on what you withdraw. Others will only accept locally issued cards.

Cash is key. We brought a large amount of Euros with us. There are change offices everywhere so you exchange Euros to Lek. Slightly better rate than bank. In tourist towns larger hotels and restaurant will let you pay by card and Euros. Away from tourist areas, restaurant prices are in Lek. Usually you can also pay in Euros but not everywhere and change will be in Lek. We only used small local buses so paid with Lek, or international buses which we booked online. Didn’t stay in any international chain hotels, but small local ones. Although breakfast was included in price, not one had a restaurant for lunch or dinner.

If you’re driving, be aware that away from main routes from/to Tirana, which are mostly dual carriageway, other roads are one lane each direction with some passing places. Although not many cars the further you go away from Tirana, you will likely find driving times longer than expected. Albania is mountainous, starting immediately behind the coast. Quite a lot of police pulling over cars checking papers and many accidents. Also many large, deep potholes so wouldn’t advise driving at night and make sure you have full excess cover.

Albania is fascinating. We had a wonderful time as I’m sure you will. The food in local restaurants was excellent and always freshly prepared.

[gtellez]

I have been in Sarande the last 4 days and I have been paying everything with either card or euros. So far I have avoided withdrawing or changing LEK. At least in the south everybody is happy accepting euros and almost everytime at the perfect exchange rate. A couple of times they have only offered me 1eur for 100 lek (like 10% worst than official rate). However, this has only happened a couple of time for small purchases.
I agree that the country is wonderful and the food is amazing and very reasonably priced. A meal with wine, starter, main and dessert for two in a nice restaurant doesn’t go over £50.

[Colin MacKinnon]

Hi Nick,

Taxi to/from town is around 20-25 Euros. Loads of taxis at the airport.

The bus, Rinas Express, only runs once an hour – I think – and I had just missed it when I arrived from Athens. So I just went to the rank and got a taxi.

For 20 euros, even though I was staying at the obviously Hoxha-era hotel on the main square and just minutes from the bus, I just took a taxi back to the airport.

Have a great time!

[Tocsin]

Looks like currency issues have been well covered!

For those renting cars, the booths are turn left and go out of the main hall – they’re about 30 yards outside. For AVIS, the cars themselves are parked in a rubble-strewn ‘development’ past the other end of the terminal. Fuel is NOT ‘return full’ – they mark the gauge value in the docs and charge if returned with less and say ‘thank you’ if returned with more 🙂

Immigration was quick and straightforward, though I guess a lot depends on if there are other flights arriving just before. Short trip on a non-overloaded bus from the stand.

Exit is also ok – security have the new CT scanners, but no announced changes to procedure. UK can use the departure eGates, but the BP needs to be hand stamped immediately after.

Boarding was ‘interesting’ – absolutely no organisation apart from two long queues for each agent. I think I prefer this to badly-organised group boarding 😀 Then a wait around the exit for cleaning staff to finish before a short walk to the aircraft.

We enjoyed the holiday, particularly the friendly people, but didn’t do half the things planned partly due to three days of thunderstorms passing through. Will happily go there again.

[John]

So a physical BP is always required for departures?

Is arriving 75 minutes before a flight doable? No checked bags.

[John]

John wrote:

So a physical BP is always required for departures?

Is arriving 75 minutes before a flight doable? No checked bags.

Yes to both as at least for my airline check in closes 30 minutes before departure, you have to check in with a human, but I got through security and e-gates in 7 minutes. Lounge is quiet but nothing interesting and charging points don’t work.

No passport stamps from Albania… So it looks like I’m overstaying in North Macedonia as they didn’t stamp on land exit.

[PK]

We are travelling to Tirana next month. I was thinking of taking a short trip across the border to Montenegro. Does anyone has any experience of travelling across the border by car, in which case I would be keen to hear about your experience at the border crossing and whether you had to buy insurance (Green Card)?

Honestly, if it is too much hassle, I would start looking at crossing the border on a coach.
TIA.

[redlilly]

PK wrote:

We are travelling to Tirana next month. I was thinking of taking a short trip across the border to Montenegro. Does anyone has any experience of travelling across the border by car, in which case I would be keen to hear about your experience at the border crossing and whether you had to buy insurance (Green Card)?

Honestly, if it is too much hassle, I would start looking at crossing the border on a coach.
TIA.

We went to Shkodra Lake, on the Montenegro side in October. Absolutely stunning and would definitely recommend. We hired our car with Hertz, and (at the time) they were the only internationally recognised car hire company at Podgorica airport who would let you drive over to Albania, however they charged at a rate per day for whatever dates you said you were going over there for. We didn’t bother in the end. May be a similar story on the Albanian side with the car hire companies there. Word of warning, whilst the roads are seriously improved in Montenegro, some of them are very very slow especially if you get stuck behind lorries.

[cires18869]

It’s not in the Schengen Area could be good to know… but Schengen residents can travel to Albania for 90 days without VISA. Transfer is 30 minutes. https://www.airportinformation.com/TIA