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Travel and Tourism in Albania
Travel alerts, currency, climate, transit, health, and safety information for visitors to Albania.
Practical Information
Travel alert status, currency, climate, and transit details.
- Travel Alert Status
- Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution
- Time Difference
- UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
- Currency
- 121.9
- Climate
- The plain of Albania, where the capital city Tirana is located, has a typical Mediterranean climate with hot summers and generally mild winters with abundant rainfall. In the mountains, winters can be very severe with low temperatures and high snowfall. On average, temperatures range from -3°C in January to a maximum of 35°C in July. Parts of Albania are on a fault line and experience earthquakes and tremors.
- Language(s) Spoken
- Albanian 98.8% (official - derived from Tosk dialect), Greek 0.5%, other 0.6% (including Macedonian, Romani, Vlach, Turkish, Italian, and Serbo-Croatian), unspecified 0.1%
- Ethnic Groups
- Albanian 82.6%, Greek 0.9%, other 1% (including Vlach, Romani, Macedonian, Montenegrin, and Egyptian), unspecified 15.5%
- National Holiday
- Independence Day, 28 November (1912) also known as Flag Day
- Geographic Coordinates
- 41 00 N, 20 00 E
- Location
- Southeastern Europe, bordering the Adriatic Sea and the Ionian Sea, between Greece in the south and Montenegro and Kosovo to the north
- Airports
- 11
Destinations
Regions and cities, top sights, national parks, UNESCO sites, and festivals for visitors.
Berat — The City of a Thousand Windows
Two hours south of Tirana by road — about 120 kilometers, much of which passes through pleasant agricultural country — the city of Berat rises dramatically from the eastern bank of the Osum River, its white Ottoman houses stacked up the slopes of a limestone hill toward a medieval castle that crowns the summit. Berat was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008, recognized jointly with Gjirokastër as a Rare Example of Ottoman-Era Balkan Architecture. Its popular epithet, the City of a Thousand Windows, captures the visual character of the older neighborhoods, where the characteristic Ottoman houses present their rows of large windows to the hillsides, creating a rhythmic pattern of white walls and dark openings that is particularly striking at dusk when interior lights begin to appear.
The city is divided into distinct quarters. Mangalem, on the western bank of a ravine that cuts the hillside below the castle, is the Muslim quarter, characterized by the tall Ottoman tower houses with their ranks of windows. Gorica, on the opposite bank of the Osum River, was historically the Christian neighborhood, and its whitewashed houses reflect beautifully in the river on calm mornings.
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Health and Safety
Medical facilities, vaccinations, disease risk, and sanitation conditions.
Medical care at private hospitals and clinics in Tirana has improved in recent years but still remains below western standards. Medical facilities outside Tirana have very limited capabilities. Emergency and major medical care requiring surgery and hospital care outside Tirana are often inadequate because of a lack of medical specialists, diagnostic aids, medical supplies, and prescription drugs. There are very few ambulances in Albania; therefore, injured or seriously ill U.S.
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