Albania Shopping Tips by AlbaniaLover Top 5 Page for this destination

stalls: Fancy a snack?

You will find many stalls near the coast selling things like figs and olives if you want a snack on a long journey. Also in the summer nearly everywhere there will be stalls in towns or on the side of the road selling cooked corn on the cob.

What to buy: olives, figs, dried figs and sweetcorn

What to pay: cheap!

Theme: Food and Drink

Local gifts for friends and family

I have come across a couple of shops, one in the Sheraton that sells nice little gifts to take home and one in Tirana near to the cinema, on the other side of the road is a currency exchange and ice cream shop. This was the best one with a friendly owner.

What to buy: He had lots of different gifts from jewelry to wooden hand made boxes to copper tea sets.

What to pay: Different amounts depending what you buy.

Theme: Local Craft

Stalls on side of the road: Honey

You will find many stalls on the side of the road selling good quality honey, you will also see the bee hives are there too.

What to buy: Honey

What to pay: I think it was about £5 for a huge jar

Address: We bought ours from his friend near Gjirokaster

Theme: Food and Drink

Qendra Tregtare Univers(QTU): Shopping centre

This is a new shopping centre just outside of Tirana with a few big names in there. There are bars, restaurants and a Euromax supermarket and electronics store. Also there are about 30 other shops there including Albtours, Mango, Vodafone and Union (money transfer). The centre is open 09:00 til 21:00. A free shuttle bus runs from the National Museum in Tirana central square to the centre every 20/30 minutes between the times of 08:00 and 22:00.

What to buy: All sorts of things to buy!

What to pay: depends

Address: Durres Highway

Directions: 6 km from Tirana.

Theme: Other

Tirana shopping

In Tirana you will find some little shops dotted around that sell good quality shoe's....look out for them.

What to buy: shoe's shoe's shoe's

What to pay: about £35/40 for a good quality pair of italian leather shoe's

Directions: Tirana

Theme: Shoes

Stalls: Olive oil

You can buy bottles of olive oil from locals for a very good price. You will mainly find these near the coast of Saranda and Himare and Vlore from what i have seen.

What to buy: Olive oil

What to pay: not sure but cheap

Theme: Food and Drink

Smart shopping: Brand names

This shopping centre was opened in 2003 and was one of the first with brand names and designers. It has about 20 or so shops.
Opening hours from 09:00 - 20:00

What to buy: Makes include Nike, Lancome, Samsonite, Levis, Diesel and Illy caffe.

What to pay: Depends what you buy

Address: Rr Dëshmorët e 4 Shkurtit

Directions: In the building of the sky tower

Phone: 24 65 09

Theme: Other

music stand: Traditional music

In Tepelene next to the hotel and Ali Pasha monument there is a stall normally playing some music so you can't miss it! From here you can get tapes and cd's of traditional music from the south of Albania.

What to buy: music

What to pay: not sure how much to pay as i didn't buy anything from here

Directions: next to Ali Pasha monument and hotel. You will see it if you get off the bus to visit Teplene.

Theme: Music