Tirana, Albania

Presidential guard, Tirana, Albania (cc)

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Ah, a city with the biggest bang for the buck! where, amid a haphazard jumble of Communist-era apartment blocks and largely unadorned buildings, you can soak up a lively café and restaurant scene and feast on slowly-cooked lamb, flavored with Mediterranean herbs and accompanied by stuffed peppers, or linger over a glass of boza and a slice of traditional baklava, right alongside the locals.

Tirana Travel Guide

Introduction

Tirana, capital of Albania, offers the biggest bang for the buck amid the greatest urban chaos of any capital city in continental Europe. Indeed, here in a haphazard jumble of Communist-era apartment blocks and largely unadorned buildings – save for a rash of whimsically-painted, multicolored exteriors – you can soak up a lively café and restaurant scene and feast on slowly-cooked lamb, flavored with Mediterranean herbs and accompanied by stuffed peppers, or linger over a glass of boza and a slice of traditional baklava, right alongside the locals. There are domed mosques and Orthodox churches in the city, though few and far between, together with the ruins and foundations of ancient palaces and structures here and there, and presidential digs where guards wow curious onlookers, attired in vermilion capes and Greco-Roman helmets. But for the most part, what Tirana lacks in architectural and historical appeal, it more than makes up for in the stretchability of the tourist dollar (or euro), which goes a long, long way in this most unlikely of European capitals!

Location

Tirana is located in the northwestern part of Albania in southern Europe, some 20 miles (32 km) inland (east) from the Adriatic coast. From Dubrovnik, Croatia, Tirana is roughly 114 miles (184 km) to the southeast.