A post appeared in an Albania Facebook group recently that perfectly illustrates why Albania is good value and not cheap. It got us thinking as to why that distinction matters more than most visitors realise
Someone had been quoted €160 for a day tour for four people in Berat, taking in Bogova Waterfall and Osumi Canyon. Their question to the group? Did anyone know somewhere cheaper?
It’s a small example. But it’s symptomatic of something bigger. Something that, if left unchecked, could genuinely damage the long-term future of tourism in Albania.
Albania’s Cheap Reputation. A Double-Edged Sword
Albania acquired its reputation for being cheap quickly. Social media, and TikTok in particular, played a significant role. Videos of gorgeous beaches, stunning scenery and low prices went viral, and suddenly Albania was on the map for a generation of travellers who had never heard of it.
That was, on balance, a good thing. Albania deserves to be discovered.
The problem is the expectation it created. Albania was marketed, often unconsciously, as a cheap destination, many visitors arrived expecting everything to cost next to nothing. The beaches, the food, the accommodation, the experiences. All of it.
The reality is more nuanced. Albania is good value. That’s a very different thing from being cheap and the distinction matters enormously.
The Low Cost Airline Effect
Part of the problem is what we might call the low cost airline mindset.
When you’ve paid €50 to fly with Wizzair from one end of Europe to the other, it recalibrates your sense of what things should cost. What people forget is the scale that makes those fares possible. Wizzair carries five to eight million passengers a month. That’s a lot of €50s, with operational efficiency taken to its absolute limit and anything resembling customer service stripped out entirely.
A local guide in Berat cannot operate on that model. Neither can a family-run hotel in Himara, a winery in the hills above the city, or a restaurant in the backstreets of Gjirokastër.
Similarly, the reliance on platforms like Booking.com, which charges hotels around 15% commission for the privilege of using their reach, means that the €30 per night hotel room isn’t quite what it seems. A significant chunk of that never reaches the people who own and run the property. These rates simply aren’t sustainable, and they aren’t genuinely helping the local economy in the way visitors might assume.
Back to the €160 Day Tour and Why Albania Is Good Value
Let’s return to our Berat example.
Is €160 for a day tour for four people too much? Let’s think about what that actually represents.
A local guide has to market their business, manage bookings, maintain relationships with sites and transport providers, and build up enough work during the main tourist season to sustain themselves through the quieter months. They have overheads. They have a family. They are trying to build something.
€160 for four people is €40 each. £34 in British money. For a full day’s expert guiding through one of Albania’s most beautiful and historically rich regions, taking in a waterfall and one of the most dramatic canyon landscapes in the Balkans.
Is that genuinely too much? We’d argue it’s exceptional value. The question isn’t whether you can find it cheaper… the question is whether driving the price down serves anyone’s interests in the long run.
What gives us, as international visitors, the right to haggle down the very ability of someone to put food on their table? Is there an inbuilt assumption that because we’re on holiday in a different culture, the local provider is somehow trying to rip us off? In our experience, remember, we’ve been going to Albania since 1993, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The Backpacker Mentality and Why It’s a Problem
So much of what you see in Albania Facebook groups is focused on the cheapest way of doing things. The cheapest flights, the cheapest hotels, the cheapest tours. A race to the bottom that feels, at times, like a competitive sport.
Can you get around Albania by bus? Yes. Is it cheap? Yes. Is it stressful? Often. Is it worth it? That’s debatable. Do you see the best of Albania? Absolutely not.
This backpacker mentality, understandable as it is, simply isn’t going to help Albania in the long run. The low cost market is, by its nature, fickle. It will move on to the next bargain destination the moment one appears. Albania will have taken the footfall, absorbed the pressure on its infrastructure and environment, and gained relatively little in return.
What Albania Actually Needs
Albania needs to concentrate on the middle market. Travellers who will spend good money in return for good value. People who want to understand the country they’re visiting, not just pass through it. People who will pay a fair price for a local guide, eat in a family restaurant, stay in a boutique hotel, visit a winery, and go home having genuinely connected with Albanian culture, history and hospitality.
These tourists will return. They will recommend Albania to their friends. They will contribute meaningfully to a sustainable tourism economy that lasts long after the bargain hunters have taken their towels to whichever destination is next in the TikTok algorithm.
Albania has so much to offer beyond its beaches. Its history, its culture, its food and wine, its mountains, its UNESCO cities, its extraordinary natural landscapes. These things have enduring value. They will keep drawing the right kind of visitor back, again and again, for years to come.
The €160 day tour in Berat? Worth every cent (or penny!) – and then some.
Planning Your Albania Holiday?
At Experience Albania, we believe in paying fairly for exceptional experiences and passing that value on to you. Every itinerary we create is built around genuine quality, real expertise and sustainable travel.
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