Kortn’s Crib: Durrës, Albania

$23.55 per night; the cost of our current Airbnb apartment at the beach in Durrës, Albania.

Monthly rentals are easily double that price during summertime. But it’s ‘shoulder season’. The summer vacationers are mostly gone. More of the thousands of rental beach chairs and umbrellas are disappearing into storage every day.

Still, daily temperatures remain in the 80s – with full sun. (There’s only been rain one overnight during our two weeks here.) The Adriatic Sea water temp is 72°. Very pleasant!

Albania is lovely this time of year! Lol.

As for our specific accommodations: we are two blocks off the beach, but have a nice sea view from our 6th-floor balcony. We’re  on the main commercial ‘strip’ road – but on the backside, away from the bustle. It’s an easy 5-minute walk to the waterfront promenade which is lined with cafes and restaurants — and the remaining $6-a-day beach loungers.

The $23+ per day rent is a big drop from the $42.65 daily average rate we paid in Budapest, Hungary, and Krakow and Warsaw, Poland, where we spent most of this summer. And honestly, we got pretty good deals in those places, too.

More recently, we spent nearly 3-weeks touring with my wife’s parents in Berlin, Germany, Prague, Czechia, and Vienna, Austria. During that time we stayed at ritzy Marroitt hotel properties at prices off the charts for vagabonds like us. Thanks, Linda & Mike! We miss you guys.

Anyway, after our maximum 90-day, European Schengen Zone stay, we are back on our slow-travel schedule and budget in Albania.

Below is a Kortn’s Crib video tour of our Durrës, Albania Airbnb rental.

As usual, the Airbnb price includes utilities: electricity, internet, smart TV. Our kindly host also provided a complimentary, 45-minute, private taxi ride from Albania’s capital city, Tirana, where we stayed after the flight ($29pp) from Vienna. A couple added expenses include a stand fan we bought for the bedroom ($15) and about $3 per week for large jugs of drinking water. Tap water is not drinkable in Albania.

The vibe in Durrës reminds us a bit of Mexico about 20 years ago – and Türkiye today: a little rustic, a little unkempt, a little fashion-challenged… lol. The diet here is heavy on feta cheese, olives, buttermilk, and gyro style meats. Heck, Greece is just 175 miles to the south. They also smoke a lot of cigarettes here. A lot!

Aside from the beach, there is some history here. For better or worse, it is not protected and preserved like in other places around Europe and the Mediterranean. We’ve visited ancient outdoor Roman and Venetian ruins in central Durrës. The National Archeological Museum is closed for renovation.

Albania was invaded by Italy prior to WWII, then occupied by Germany. After the war the country became an isolated communist nation led by a paranoid socialist named Enver Hoxha. Fearing U.S. invasion, 173,000 concrete bunkers were installed around the nation – many remain today. Hoxha died in 1985. Multi-party, democratic elections held in 1991 were the start of Albania’s ‘modern history’. The country is a candidate for EU membership and is expected to join by 2030.

We’ll be in Albania into mid-November. Our next Kortn’s Crib will be from Vlorë — another Adriatic beach town about half-way to Greece. We expect the beach chairs to all be gone by that time. But we’ll take advantage of another off-season Airbnb deal as we plan out our vagabond travel schedule for the upcoming winter; Cyprus? UAE? India?

As always, be thankful and generous – happy trails & more beer.

Life is NOW!

Thanks for reading, “Kortn’s Crib: Durrës, Albania.”

Kortn’s Cribs in other cities