What Tirana costs
A taxi from the airport and the day trips push the bill up; the bus, a byrek and the free squares bring it down.
- From the airport
- €4.40, Rinas Express bus
- City bus
- €0.44 (40 lek)
- Dorm bed
- €10–15 (dorm bed)
A Tirana budget is settled twice, once at the airport exit and again on the morning you pick a trip out of town. Between those two decisions the city is cheap or free, which means the bill rises on arrival and on the excursions and hardly anywhere else. The table below lists the daily costs, and the two sections after it show where the money goes and where to keep it.
Everything per person, in euros.
Where the bill rises
The bed is the first line of the bill. Most hostels are in Blloku and around Skanderbeg Square, and Trip'n'Hostel in Pazari i Ri lies about 300 m from the centre, so a bed is paid for near everything and no fare is spent getting to the sights. A three-star hotel is counted per person with two sharing, and both prices stand in the table above.
The first expensive choice is the ride from the airport. A taxi costs €22–27, while the Rinas Express costs €4.40 and drops you behind the National Opera, about two minutes on foot from Skanderbeg Square. Take the bus, since the gap in price is large and the walk from the stop is short. Taxi meters are not standard in Tirana, so any cab is worth agreeing on before you get in.
Day trips come next, and each is paid in cash on the bus. Return fares per person for the three towns are Berat €13–15, Krujë €2.20–4.40 and Durrës €3.30. Inside the city, the House of Leaves costs €7.70. Tickets for Bunk'Art and the Dajti Ekspres are bought at the desk, so give them a line of their own in your plan. The cable car ticket is valid only on the day it is bought, so it cannot be booked ahead. Time counts as well: Berat takes about 2 h each way and the last bus back leaves around 4 pm, so Krujë and Durrës, which fit into half a day, are the lighter choice for anyone watching both the budget and the clock.
Where to save
The centre costs nothing to look at. Skanderbeg Square, the Et'hem Bey Mosque (entry is free, with donations welcome), Postbllok and the Grand Park are free, and the market at Pazari i Ri can be walked for nothing as long as you do not sit down to eat. Postbllok, on Dëshmorët e Kombit boulevard, holds beams from the Spaç prison, a piece of a concrete bunker and a fragment of the Berlin Wall, all behind no turnstile. A morning that strings these together spends no money on tickets at all.
The rest of the saving is small and daily. The city bus is €0.44 (40 lek), paid in cash to the conductor, who seldom has change. Breakfast from a bakery is €0.50–1.65 (byrek), and lunch in a tavern is €8–13 (main course, ordinary restaurant). One combined ticket for Bunk'Art 1 and 2 stays valid for three days, so the two bunkers can be split across two days without paying twice. The House of Leaves is cheaper for seniors and students at €2.31, and children up to 12 go in free. Cash decides most small purchases, since many mid-range restaurants take cards but smaller places and stalls want lek, so withdraw for a day or two at a time and decline the euro conversion the machine offers at the airport.
The same comparison for 156 places: hostel, hotel, getting into town and a day pass. Travel costs →
Where to next
Tirana beyond the main sights: the Pyramid, Postbllok and Pazari i Ri
→A dictator’s museum turned into a youth centre, a memorial to political prisoners, a market after its renovation and a park with a lake from 1955.
Berat · 70 km
→The town of a thousand windows on the Osum: white Ottoman quarters, an inhabited castle and a stone bridge, in a day or two
How well does Tirana suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
Nomadinho scores out of 100, the same ones behind “Where to go”.
If you like Tirana
Three places with the closest scores, from any country.
Ready for Tirana?
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