Why Albania Just Earned a Spot on Our Family Bucket List

Every family has their version of the holiday bucket list. Ours lives on a notes app, getting added to and crossed off in fits and starts. Some of the big ones have been ticked off over the years, some sit there permanently, and the list shifts as the kids grow up. Recently, one new name has quietly elbowed its way in and refused to leave: Albania. Partly it’s the prices, which sound suspicious when you first see them. Partly it’s the viral Instagram coves on the Ionian coast. Mostly, though, it’s that trips to Albania keep turning up in conversation with other families I know, and every single one of them has come back wondering why it took them so long. With three kids now at an age where real travel is possible, rather than a series of logistical booby traps, it felt time to look properly. Here’s what’s earned Albania a proper spot on the family list this year.

Why Albania Made the Cut

Albania has been having a moment for a couple of summers now, and the noise has built from the usual suspects (travel bloggers, the Greek island crowd looking for somewhere new) to something wider. A friend of a friend has been. Someone at school pickup mentioned their in-laws went in September. A colleague built a whole week around Berat. It’s the kind of moment where a place shifts from “I should look that up” to “we really need to book this before it gets properly expensive.”

There are real reasons too, not just hype. The country is roughly the size of Wales, so you can see a proper slice of it in ten days. The coastline sits on the same Ionian and Adriatic sea that Greece and Italy charge a fortune for, at a fraction of the cost. Flights from London are around three hours, with direct options running through the summer and increasingly year-round. And for a family, the fact that English is widely spoken in tourist areas makes the whole thing a lot less daunting than the more off-grid bits of the Balkans.

The History and Architecture Side Older Kids Actually Enjoy

This is the part that really hooked me. Older children, in my experience, start engaging with architecture and history somewhere around nine or ten, especially if a place has a proper visual story to tell. Albania has two, and both are UNESCO-listed. Berat is the “city of a thousand windows,” a stack of white stone houses built into a hillside where every facade seems to be half window. Gjirokastër is the “stone city,” laid out in slate-roofed houses that look almost uniform from above. Both are walkable, both have dramatic castles at the top, and both reward an entire afternoon of wandering.

Tirana, the capital, is a different kind of stop. It has a heavy Cold War legacy that surprises older kids. The Bunk’Art museums, housed inside two of the thousands of concrete bunkers the previous regime built, are unexpectedly gripping. The main square is huge and easy to walk, the pedestrianised centre has good restaurants, and the city now has a café and cycling culture that would have been unthinkable twenty years ago.

The Coast and the Outdoor Bit

The Albanian Riviera is the piece that draws the Instagram crowd, and it earns the attention. The stretch from Vlora down to Saranda runs about 120 km of coastline, alternating between long sandy bays and tiny pebble coves you reach by scrambling down from the road. Ksamil, right at the southern end, has the famous turquoise-water photos but also gets the busiest. Further north, Himarë and Dhermi are quieter and often cheaper.

Then there’s the Blue Eye (Syri i Kaltër), a natural spring that really is the colour the name suggests, with a wooden viewing platform children find surprisingly absorbing. Butrint, just south of Saranda, is an archaeological site that sits half in the water. It has Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Venetian ruins in the same park, which makes for a great “guess which civilisation built this” afternoon with older kids.

For anyone in your family who hikes, the Accursed Mountains in the north are extraordinary, though the Theth-to-Valbona trail is probably one to save for teenagers who won’t grumble at eight hours of walking.

How It Actually Compares to the Usual Suspects

The honest comparison most families want is: Albania versus Greece versus Italy versus Croatia.

Against Greece, the coastal beauty and ancient history are comparable, but Albania is noticeably cheaper for similar quality and a lot less crowded. Greece has the islands; Albania has the mainland.

Against Italy, Italy still wins on food variety and cultural depth, but Albania has stronger value and far less tourist saturation. A week in Tuscany now costs what a fortnight in Albania would.

Against Croatia, Croatia is more polished (better marinas, smoother roads), but the Croatian coast has been properly discovered. Albania today sits roughly where Croatia was a decade or so ago.

For families with older kids who want a proper travel experience rather than a theme-park beach holiday, Albania hits a sweet spot that’s getting hard to find in Europe. It’s substantial enough to feel like a real trip, unusual enough to have stories to take home, and accessible enough that no one is melting down over train connections.

Why I’d Book This One as a Package, Not Piece It Together

Normally I’m a DIY holiday planner. I enjoy the research and I like the control. Albania is the trip where I’d break that habit. The country rewards moving around (you really do want to see the coast, the cities, and at least one mountain spot), and stitching that together from the UK is a lot more involved than your average European trip. Internal transport can be slow, there aren’t many trains, and the good coastal hotels fill up quickly in summer.

A proper package takes the friction out. Flights sorted, hotels in the right places for the right nights, transfers between towns already arranged, any local tours you actually want included in the itinerary. For a family of five, the time saved alone is worth a lot, and honestly, even after hours of planning, I’d still be nervous about a couple of the bookings.

What a package gets you is the permission to just turn up and enjoy the country. For a destination new to us, and given how quickly Albania is moving from “emerging” to “mainstream,” this feels like the right year, and the right way, to finally tick it off the list.

See some of my other family travel posts here!

Becky

Meet the award-nominated UK lifestyle blogger behind Spirited Puddle Jumper – a mum of three living in South East London! Becky shares the real ups and downs of family life, parenting tips, and lifestyle inspiration, proving that being a mum doesn’t mean you stop being fun or having other interests! Follow along for honest insights into UK family life and opinions on a whole range of topics, from travel and food, to beauty reviews, home and DIY, business and health and wellness.