How Much for a Month of Luxury on the Albanian Riviera?

To be perfectly honest, we only came to the Albanian Riviera to chase the sun during chilly November. But as soon as we arrived, we realized that this part of Albania has so much more to offer than sunshine and warm temperatures.  

We’ve had the entire region to explore, including historic villages, ancient ruin and a seemingly endless coastline that is perfect for hiking. We also scored a very comfortable apartment in Sarande that comes with million dollar views of the Ionian Sea. We’ve found a luxury experience here at a surprisingly affordable price. 

As full time travelers, we’re always looking to get great value from each destination. Even though we aren’t budget travelers, we are budget minded. And we love it when our money goes a long way. There are a lot of places in southern Europe we could have gone this autumn to chase the sun. But there are very few warm, sunny places in Europe that are as affordable as what you’ll find on the Albanian Riviera.

Now that we’re at the end of our month here in Sarande, it’s the time when we look back at our experiences – where we stayed, where we ate, what we did — and put a price tag on it. How much did we spend and what did we get for it?

We were sure that our budget would go pretty far here on the coast of Albania but what would the experience be like? It’s November, the tourist season is over, the beaches are empty. Would anything be open for us to enjoy? Would the off season be a little too quiet? 

Well, it’s certainly been quiet here in the city of Sarande. It has the largest population of any city on the coast but it still feels pretty sleepy. 

However, even though the tourists are gone, there’s actually lots to do in the region and Sarande makes for a great base.

In fact, two of Albania’s most epic sites are an easy day trip from Sarande. There’s Gjirokaster, a beautifully preserved city from the Ottoman era. There are the Roman ruins of Butrint, Albania’s most significant archeological site. Closer to Sarande is Lekuresi Castle, which offers a great view of the whole region, and Finiq Archeologial Park. It’s much smaller than Butrint but still made for a great morning walk with the dogs.

We also took advantage of the hiking trails along the coastline. The Albanian Riviera is dotted with beaches and little towns and hiking between them makes for a great day out.  

Of course, all of these excursions had one thing in common: we needed some form of transportation to get there. It’s possible to use the informal bus system but there are fewer buses in the low season and it takes a lot of time and patience to get around that way. 

What made all these day trips easy and convenient for us was renting a car for the entire month. We loved the freedom of being able to hop in the car and be at a beautiful hike completely surrounded by nature in just 15 minutes. Of course, renting a car for a whole month isn’t cheap, even in Albania. 

That brings us to one of our favourite parts of travel: dining out. To be honest, if we had visited the Riviera in September or even October, there would be lots of restaurants to choose from. But we arrived in late October and over the subsequent weeks most of the restaurants shut down for the season. What’s left are the restaurants that serve locals. The food is good but the menus are all fairly similar: lots of grilled fish, fried fish, pasta and risotto. There’s that Italian influence just like we saw back in Tirana. 

Of course, we did have a few favourites, including a great spot just five minutes out of town with a spectacular view of the mountains. It served up a lot of classic Albanian dishes like chicken and rice casserole, baked cheese and roasted veggies.

Another favourite was a place we found during our day trip to Gjirokaster. They also served Albanian classics but these ones had a Greek influence, like moussaka. We saw more of that Greek influence back in town at our favourite spot for casual eats. They made a great souvlaki with fries just like the ones we had when we visited Greece last year. 

Since we weren’t dining out as much as we did back in Tirana, we did a lot more cooking at home. Sometimes we would do like the locals do and go to our neighbourhood fishmonger who cooked up the fish on the spot. Otherwise a typical dinner at home made the most of whatever’s available locally. So we might make a ratatouille and pair it with chicken breast and polenta or we would make a potato salad with olives and capers and have it with burgers and more salad. Generally we had to keep our cooking pretty simple since we didn’t have an oven, just two burners. 

One of the challenges with these types of seaside resort towns is that the apartments available for rent are generally designed for short holidays. They aren’t necessarily equipped or even comfortable for long stays like a month or two.

We had to look through a lot of listings before we found one that we were really excited about calling home for a month. 

Knowing that it was going to be a quiet month on the coast we decided to splurge on a really nice place in a central location with an amazing view. The inside of the apartment was quite luxurious by Albanian standards: light, bright, spacious with modern furniture and pleasing design accents. But what we loved most about it was the balcony with a view of the entire city and the Ionian Sea. The sunsets were magnificent. 

Sarande is not a very well known destination — yet. It’s extremely popular with Albanians but it hasn’t quite found its way onto the tourist map. What that means is that there’s amazing value available here. You can buy a lot of luxury: a spectacular view of the sea, very affordable dining out and lots of outdoor activities and it won’t break the bank.

Speaking of which, let’s see what our final bill came to for a month of luxury living here on the coast. Entertainment came in at a very reasonable $32 USD, covering a few entrance fees. Transportation wasn’t cheap at $522 USD but this gave us the freedom of a car at just $15 USD per day. Totally worth it, in our opinion. Dining out was almost $346 USD. Quite frankly, we would have dined out more if we could have but the pickings were slim in low season. Groceries were $360 USD. 

Finally, the big ticket item: our Airbnb. By local standards our apartment was outrageously expensive. However, as slow travelers, we felt that the amount was very comfortable for our budget coming in at $1,440 USD. The view was certainly worth it. The total amount we spent for a full month here in Sarande was $2,700 USD.

Now that’s how much we spent enjoying the great outdoors on the Albania Riviera. If you’re looking for more of a big city vibe, you should take a look at our month in Tirana. That’s a buzzy city with lots to see and new restaurants popping up all the time. You can get the full scoop on what we did and what we spent in the next post right here. 

How Much for a Month in Albania’s Biggest City?