After living abroad in Albania for a year now, I wanted to write about Albanian hospitality as a sort of tribute, since it is a huge part of why I’m still obsessed with this Balkan country, even after all this time.
If the stunning natural beauty of Albania doesn’t make you fall in love, the hospitality sure will.
I normally hate bringing up the number of countries I’ve visited because many travelers use their number as a way to brag.
If you know about me and my site Maptrekking, you know I’m all about promoting slow travel, but for the sake of my point, I need to bring it up.
I’ve now visited 28 countries. Out of all of these, Albania has been my all-around favorite. A large part of that is due to Albanian hospitality!
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1. No Ulterior Motives
One of the main things I noticed on my first trip to Albania in 2019, was that the hospitality was genuine, even pure.
What I mean by this is that there is a general feeling that something isn’t expected in return – which I find really beautiful.
Albanian hospitality is more than hospitality, it’s this level of trust. You can expect that 99% of the time a person does not wish you harm.
They don’t have an ulterior motive. Someone is doing something simply because it’s nice/the right thing.
Though I had traveled to a lot of places, even ones known for their hospitality, Albania had this raw, authentic attitude that I hadn’t encountered before.
2. Time Doesn’t Matter
Albanian hospitality isn’t something that takes years to cultivate either. I’m always impressed with how fast it works.
You could have just met an Albanian and it feels like you have gotten a friend for life.
Compared with other places I’ve lived, it can take years to develop a friendship. You might not ever be invited to someone’s house – or it can take years.
Sometimes relationships in the western world can feel almost transactional, whereas that’s not the case at all in Albania.
3. Albanian Hospitality Comes In Many Forms
Albanian hospitality could be many things, like when a taxi driver offered to hotspot me so I could use Whatsapp to text my friend who was meeting me, and no he didn’t expect anything in return.
I have asked people on the bus if they know if I’m going to the right place/getting off at the right stop, and they have literally gotten off and walked with me to make sure I get to the right place.
My Albanian friends never let me pay, even though I insist! If I go to their house, I won’t ever leave hungry.
They never make fun of me if I say an Albanian word wrong. They are always so patient to help me learn correctly – many times people will make you feel bad/laugh if you say something wrong in their language.
There is no hesitation on my part to message them if I need help.
Whether I need to find an apartment or help translating something, I know I can count on them.
4. Always Feeling Welcome
Generally, I have always felt so welcome in Albania – in other countries, both living and traveling, not so much.
They are eager to share their way of life with me. They are proud of their traditions, and rightly so.
I have never been made to feel like I’m not allowed in Albanian culture. In fact, I’ve been named an honorary Albanian a few times now!
Being American, we don’t always have strong traditions that have been preserved for my generation since it’s a country of immigrants.
Plus, I come from an abusive family that I don’t have much contact with. This means I have never had this strong sense of pride that Albanians do.
And I also don’t have family support, which is at the center of Albanian culture. These two things, along with many others, draw me to Albania.
5. Albania’s Hospitality Promotes A Sense Of Trust
Seeing how generous and relaxed Albanians are has made me want to embody that more in my own life.
It’s to the point where I let my guard down and trust people – something that can be difficult in the western world.
Through all the places I’ve traveled, I have never let my guard down like this.
The only issue is that I get used to it, then I need to remind myself when I travel abroad to put it back up since many people do not have your best intentions at heart.
6. TikTok To National TV To Being Adopted By An Albanian Family
Most of what I’ve written here are my opinions from having lived in Albania for the past year, but I wanted to share a specific story of an evening that really touched my heart.
It all started with some of my videos about Albania on TikTok going somewhat viral. If you aren’t following me, you should!
I make travel videos showing the beauty of Albania and also jokes about living in Albania. My username is @maptrekking.
Anyway, a journalist from Top Channel saw my videos and contacted me about doing a live interview with them on national television.
I used to be a very shy person – I’m getting better now, but there’s no way I could say no to such a cool opportunity.
The interview went well, you can watch it here.
Afterward, the journalist, Lorena, checked back in with me and told me to let her know if I’m ever in Tirana so we could meet. I thought that was sweet since she doesn’t even know me well.
A few weeks later, I come up to Tirana because I had a flight in a few days. I let her know and we set up a time to meet.
I thought we might get a coffee and chat for an hour or two so I was a little surprised at what unfolded.
We go for a drink and immediately she is so friendly and open with me, and this is when she tells me I’m her first foreign friend – I felt so special.
And she also tells me she’d love to take me to her house after to meet her family.
Now I know some people in the western world might find this weird or unsafe, but it’s not that unusual for me since I used to live in more rural areas of the US where this isn’t weird.
And of course, I’m pretty used to Albanian culture so I know this isn’t out of the ordinary either.
As we’re walking to her place, she mentions that her family has never had any foreigners in their home.
She told me that her parents were super excited to meet me and her mom had prepared a bunch of food.
It was 10 PM so I wasn’t expecting that at all, but I didn’t have dinner that day so it worked out well.
I felt so special to be invited into their home, especially as the first foreigner and because her mom had made such an effort to welcome me – food is their love language!
As we’re getting close, Lorena mentions that since it is already late, her brother can drive me home or I can always sleep at their house.
I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want to be rude, but I had been thinking, “wow, it is already so late, will I need to walk home alone after this?”.
I’m not that familiar with Tirana either, so these thoughts had crossed my mind.
But of course, when you are with Albanian friends, they always take such good care of you – I should’ve known!
We get to her family’s apartment and her parents come to meet me at the door. Immediately, I felt so welcome.
As I turn the corner to the living room, I see how much food her mom has set out and it is essentially a feast.
I tell Lorena that she didn’t need to go to all this trouble for me, and she said that this is the bare minimum in Albania. This made me inwardly chuckle a little bit.
So we sit and chat, while her mom keeps telling me how hungry I look and that I need to eat more.
And of course, whenever I look away to speak with someone, her mom sneaks more food onto my plate and more juice in my glass.
You might be wondering what Lorena’s dad was doing during this…
Well, he took on the role of always trying to refill my glass with their homemade raki or wine, plus making sure I tried their honey as well.
Everything was so delicious – I wouldn’t expect anything else though. Albanian food is amazing.
We talked about many things. They had plenty of questions for me, especially her parents.
They wanted to know why I like Albania, where I had visited, how it compares with the US, and even if I had heard traditional Albanian music and learned the traditional dancing called valle.
He played some videos for me, and I jokingly told him he should sing some of the songs. Low and behold, he starts and the whole family joins in.
It was at that moment I felt so happy – to be immersed in Albanian culture, something they were so obviously proud of.
It was also witnessing such a beautiful family coming together to sing and see the joy it brought them. It felt nice to be a part of this intimate moment.
Plus, it wasn’t just normal singing, you could tell it’s something they do all the time together because it sounded great and all the voices worked in harmony.
Maybe it is very normal for them, but for me, seeing a family be like that together is very special.
Also, it reminded me of indigenous singing in North America called throat singing. I thought that was cool to see similarities.
Time passed so quickly and before I knew it, it was 2 AM!
I had been there for 4 hours. They insisted that I should stay the night but I had a flight the next day so I knew it would be best to go back home.
As we were driving to my place, I had this wonderful feeling of happiness (maybe it was all the raki) and also sadness because I had to leave the next day even though I had just met such a wonderful family.
All of this happened the night before leaving Albania for three months to reset my visa.
It was the perfect ending to my first year of living in Albania. Thinking about it now as I write this still leaves a smile on my face.
7. There’s No Such Thing As Perfection
Of course, Albanian hospitality doesn’t erase other issues that Albania has.
Nor does it mean that every interaction will be life-changing. Like any place, there are still bad people.
Yes, sometimes I have gotten overcharged for things because I’m a foreigner. It isn’t always perfect.
But the majority of people are very nice and will help you if you think you might be getting overcharged on rent or something like that.
Albania is all about connections – as long as you know people you can always ask for their advice or help.
Final Thoughts
Experiencing Albanian hospitality has not only made my time in Albania amazing but it’s also taught me to be a better person.
I find myself shedding more of my ‘western’ tendencies and adopting a more relaxed, generous attitude.
I hope this has given you a good peek into Albanian hospitality, at least from my point of view!
Let me know in the comments if you’ve visited Albania before.
Check out Explore Albania By Slow Traveling (7 Great Reasons Why It Just Makes Sense)!
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