A trip with friends should give you stories you’ll still be talking about years later. Albania is particularly good at creating exactly those kinds of stories.
You can start the evening with cocktails in Tirana, spend the next few days driving along one of the most spectacular coastlines in the Balkans, rent a boat to discover hidden beaches, stop for lunch in small seaside towns and finish the trip swimming in the turquoise waters of the Ionian Sea.
At Bee Taxi Tirana, we meet groups of friends from all over the world every summer. Some arrive with every hour of their holiday planned. Others land at Tirana Airport with little more than a hotel reservation and a list of places saved on Instagram. From our experience, both can have an incredible time—but the best group trips usually leave enough room for spontaneous stops, long dinners and plans that change along the way.
So, if Albania is next on your group chat, here’s how we’d experience it.
Why Albania Is Perfect for a Trip with Friends
Albania gives groups something that’s becoming increasingly difficult to find in Europe’s most popular summer destinations: variety without needing several different holidays.
You can spend a couple of nights enjoying Tirana’s restaurants and nightlife, travel south for beaches and boat trips, explore historic towns, try local wines and still find time for a little adventure along the way.
It can also work surprisingly well financially when you’re travelling as a group. Accommodation, private tours and transportation can often be shared between four or more people, making experiences that might seem expensive for a solo traveller much more reasonable per person.
But there is one mistake we regularly see visitors make: trying to see too much.
Tirana, Berat, Durrës, Vlora, Dhërmi, Himarë, Saranda and Ksamil may look relatively close together on a map, but changing accommodation every night quickly turns a holiday into a luggage-moving exercise.
Our advice is simple: choose two or three bases and explore from there.
And start the trip the easy way. If several of you are arriving together, arranging a taxi from tirana airport before you land means you can travel directly to your accommodation without splitting the group, figuring out public transport with luggage or starting the holiday with unnecessary logistics.
Save the complicated decisions for deciding where to have dinner.
Start in Tirana: Food, Rooftops, Blloku and a Night Out
Don’t treat Tirana as somewhere you simply land before heading to the coast.
Give it at least one proper day and, more importantly when you’re travelling with friends, one proper night.
During the day, start around Skanderbeg Square and explore central Tirana on foot. If your group wants something different, take the Dajti Ekspres cable car into the mountains for panoramic views over the city before heading back for the evening.
Then there’s Blloku.
Once a restricted residential area reserved for Albania’s communist elite, today it is one of the liveliest parts of Tirana. The neighbourhood is packed with restaurants, cafés, cocktail bars and places where a quick drink can very easily turn into the rest of your evening.
One thing first-time visitors quickly notice is how seriously Tirana takes café culture. Don’t rush it. Sitting outside with coffee or drinks and watching the city go by is part of the experience.
For dinner, we’d recommend ordering Albanian dishes for the table rather than everyone choosing individually. Try several things, share everything and let somebody in the group order something nobody recognises. That’s usually where the good stories start.
Later, move on to cocktails, a rooftop or one of the bars around Blloku. Tirana stays lively late into the evening, particularly during summer and at weekends.
And this is one night when nobody in the group needs to volunteer as the designated driver. Using taxi services in Tirana means everyone can enjoy the evening and get back to the hotel comfortably when the group finally decides it’s time to call it a night.
The next morning, have a strong Albanian coffee. You’ll probably need it.
Make Himarë Your Base for the Ultimate Albanian Riviera Adventure
Here’s one piece of advice we’d give almost any group travelling south: don’t change hotels every single night.
Instead, make Himarë your base for a few days.
Himarë puts you in an excellent position for exploring some of the best parts of the Albanian Riviera while still giving you somewhere lively to return to in the evening. Around the area you’ll find beaches, small bays, restaurants, boat excursions and plenty of opportunities for spontaneous stops.
And getting there is part of the experience.
If you’re travelling south from Tirana, Vlora marks the point where the journey begins to feel very different. Many travellers using a taxi from tirana to Vlore continue their Riviera adventure from here, where the landscape gradually changes as you head towards the mountains and Ionian coast.
The road through Llogara Pass is one journey you shouldn’t sleep through.
Stop at one of the viewpoints, take the inevitable group photo and enjoy the panorama before descending towards the Riviera. On a clear day, the contrast between the mountains and the intensely blue Ionian Sea is spectacular.
From Himarë, you can explore Dhërmi without moving your luggage again, spend time around Jalë, visit beaches along the coast or dedicate an entire day to discovering places accessible from the sea.
Gjipe is another place worth having on your list. Surrounded by dramatic cliffs and away from the larger resort areas, it provides exactly the kind of scenery many groups imagine when they first start planning an Albanian road trip.
But don’t schedule every hour.
Some of our favourite feedback from travellers isn’t about a famous attraction. It’s about the beach they hadn’t planned to visit, the restaurant where lunch lasted three hours or the viewpoint where everyone decided to stop because the sunset looked too good to drive past.
When you’re travelling through the Albanian Riviera with friends, those unplanned moments are often the best part of the trip.
Boat Trips, Hidden Beaches and Adventures You’ll Talk About for Years
If you’re travelling through Albania with friends, don’t spend the entire holiday lying on a sunbed. Some of the best memories you’ll take home are likely to come from the days when you actually do something together.
A boat trip along the Albanian Riviera should be near the top of that list.
Himarë is a great starting point. From here, boat trips can take you towards secluded bays, caves and beaches that are much easier to reach from the sea. Depending on the route you choose, you can stop for swimming, snorkelling and a few hours away from the busier beaches along the coast.
If your budget allows, renting a private boat as a group can be worth it. Split between several friends, the cost becomes much more manageable, and you gain the freedom to enjoy the day at your own pace.
A sunset boat trip is another experience we’d recommend. After several hours at the beach, heading back onto the water in the late afternoon and watching the sun disappear behind the coastline is a very different way to end the day.
Further south, Ksamil offers another opportunity to get onto the water. Its small islands sit just offshore, making kayaking, swimming and short boat trips easy additions to a beach day. From Saranda, you can also find excursions along the coast to beaches and bays that aren’t as straightforward to reach by road.
But Albania isn’t only about the sea.
If your group enjoys something more adventurous, consider adding Osumi Canyon to the itinerary. When water conditions are suitable, rafting through the canyon offers a completely different experience from anything you’ll find on the Riviera. Outside the main rafting period, canyon excursions and other outdoor activities may still be available depending on conditions.
Our advice is to choose one or two experiences that everyone in the group genuinely wants to do rather than filling every day with activities.
You don’t need twenty attractions to make a trip memorable.
Sometimes you just need a boat, a few friends, somewhere beautiful and absolutely no reason to check the time.
Take a Break from the Beach: Berat, Albanian Food and Wine
After several days of beaches, boats and late nights, Berat offers a welcome change of pace.
The UNESCO-listed historic centre is one of Albania’s most distinctive destinations, famous for the white Ottoman-era houses climbing the hillside and earning Berat its nickname, the “City of a Thousand Windows.”
Start by exploring the old neighbourhoods before making your way towards Berat Castle. Unlike many European castles that exist primarily as tourist attractions, the fortified area remains part of the living city, with homes, small businesses and historic buildings within its walls.
Then make lunch part of the experience.
Albanian food works particularly well when you’re travelling with friends because many traditional dishes are perfect for sharing. Order several plates for the table and try local specialities rather than everyone sticking to something familiar.
And don’t leave the area immediately after lunch.
The region surrounding Berat has a growing wine scene, with wineries producing both international varieties and wines made from Albanian grapes. A tasting can turn an ordinary day trip into one of the more unexpected experiences of the holiday.
There’s also a practical advantage to visiting this way. If you’re planning to spend the afternoon tasting Albanian wine, travelling by taxi from Tirana to Berat means nobody in your group has to volunteer to be the designated driver.
From our experience, these are often the days that surprise visitors most. People arrive in Albania thinking almost entirely about beaches and discover that some of their favourite memories come from sitting around a table, trying local food and drinking wine somewhere they hadn’t even heard of before planning the trip.
The Perfect 7-Day Albania Itinerary with Friends
One week is enough to experience several sides of Albania, but only if you resist the temptation to move somewhere new every day.
For a group of friends visiting for the first time, we’d divide the trip between three main bases: Tirana, Himarë and Saranda.
Days 1–2: Tirana
Use your first day to explore central Tirana, eat well and experience Blloku after dark.
On your second day, you have two options. Spend more time discovering the capital and Dajti, or escape to the coast for a few hours. Durrës is close enough to work as a day trip, giving you your first beach day without having to pack your bags again. Booking a taxi from tirana to Durres is particularly convenient for groups that want the flexibility to decide when they leave and when they return rather than planning the day around transport schedules.
Days 3–5: Himarë and the Albanian Riviera
Leave Tirana and head south through Vlora and Llogara Pass towards Himarë.
This is where we’d slow the trip down.
Give yourselves three days to enjoy the Riviera instead of racing through it. Spend one day exploring Dhërmi, Jalë or nearby beaches. Dedicate another to a boat trip, swimming and hidden bays. Keep part of the third day deliberately unplanned.
If everyone wakes up late after the night before, that’s fine.
You’re on holiday.
Days 6–7: Saranda and Ksamil
Continue south towards Saranda and use it as your final base.
Spend time in Ksamil, get onto the water if you haven’t had enough boat trips yet and consider visiting Butrint if the group wants to add some history to the final part of the holiday.
Your last evening deserves no complicated itinerary. Find somewhere good for dinner, order a few bottles for the table and enjoy the fact that nobody has to pack up and change hotels again the following morning.
What About the Budget?
Group travel has one major financial advantage: many costs can be divided.
An apartment or villa can become very reasonable when split between four or six people. The same applies to private boat trips and transfers between destinations.
This is why we’d recommend calculating the trip based on the cost per person, rather than looking only at the total price of each activity.
A €200 experience sounds expensive when you see the number on its own. Split between five friends, it’s €40 each.
The same principle applies to transportation. Compare the total cost of renting a vehicle, fuel, parking and additional-driver fees with the cost of travelling together—and remember that having somebody drive the group also means that person spends part of the holiday being responsible for the car.
Most importantly, don’t spend your entire budget trying to fit more destinations into the itinerary.
Spend it on the experiences you’ll actually remember.
Ready for Albania? Let Bee Taxi Tirana Handle the Driving
One of the best things about travelling with friends is sharing the experience. Nobody should have to spend the entire holiday worrying about directions, parking, traffic or being the designated driver.
That’s especially true in Albania, where some of the best trips involve moving between cities, stopping at viewpoints, discovering beaches along the coast and changing plans because somebody in the group has just found another place you absolutely have to see.
At Bee Taxi Tirana, we regularly travel with groups exploring Albania together. We know the routes, we know where a worthwhile stop can be made along the way, and we understand that travelling with six friends and six suitcases is very different from travelling alone.
Whether you’re arriving at Tirana Airport, spending your first nights in the capital, heading towards the Albanian Riviera or planning a day trip to Berat or Durrës, private transportation gives your group something particularly valuable: flexibility.
Want to stop for coffee? You can.
See a viewpoint that deserves a group photo? Stop.
Need an extra break after the previous night’s adventures? That’s fine too.
And perhaps most importantly, everyone gets to enjoy the trip. Nobody has to stay sober because they’re driving later, nobody has to navigate unfamiliar roads and the group doesn’t have to split between several vehicles.
Albania is the kind of country where the journey between destinations can become part of the holiday itself.
Bring your friends. Make the plans.
We’ll handle the road.
Frequently Asked Questions About Visiting Albania with Friends
Is Albania a good destination for a group of friends?
Yes. Albania works particularly well for groups because you can combine nightlife, beaches, boat trips, outdoor adventures, historic towns and food experiences within the same holiday.
Travelling together can also make accommodation, private transportation and activities more affordable when costs are divided between several people.
How many days do you need for a group trip to Albania?
For a first visit, we’d recommend at least seven days.
A week gives you enough time to experience Tirana and part of the Albanian Riviera without spending every day travelling. If you have 10 to 14 days, you can slow the pace considerably and add more destinations.
Is seven days enough for Tirana and the Albanian Riviera?
Yes, as long as you don’t try to visit every destination.
We’d choose approximately two days in Tirana, three around Himarë and two around Saranda and Ksamil. Using a few bases rather than changing accommodation every night makes the trip considerably more enjoyable.
Where is the best nightlife in Albania?
Tirana has the country’s largest and most varied nightlife scene, particularly around Blloku.
During summer, coastal destinations such as Dhërmi and Saranda also become much livelier, with beach bars, clubs and seasonal events attracting both Albanians and international visitors.
Is Himarë good for a group of friends?
We think it’s one of the best bases on the Albanian Riviera.
You have beaches, restaurants and boat trips nearby while remaining well positioned for exploring places such as Dhërmi, Jalë and Gjipe. Staying several nights also means you don’t need to constantly pack and change accommodation.
Can you rent a private boat in Albania?
Yes. Private and shared boat trips are available from several destinations along the Riviera, including Himarë and Saranda.
For groups, a private boat can be particularly attractive because the total price is divided between several people while giving you more freedom over the experience.
Always check exactly what is included, the planned route and the weather conditions before departure.
Should a group rent a car or use private transfers in Albania?
Both options can work.
A rental car gives you independence, particularly if you’re planning to explore remote areas. However, you also need to consider fuel, parking, driving conditions and who will be responsible for driving.
For groups that mainly want to travel between established destinations, private transfers remove that responsibility. This can be particularly useful when the itinerary includes nightlife, wineries or long journeys between cities.
Is Albania expensive for a group holiday?
Compared with many established Mediterranean destinations, Albania can still offer good value, although costs vary significantly according to destination and season.
July and August are generally more expensive along the Riviera, while travelling outside the busiest weeks can reduce accommodation costs.
Groups also have the advantage of sharing expenses such as apartments, villas, boats and private transportation.
What’s the best time to visit Albania with friends?
For a beach-focused trip, June through September is the main period to consider.
July and August offer the liveliest atmosphere but also bring the largest crowds and higher prices. June and September can be excellent alternatives if your group wants warm weather and a more relaxed experience.
For hiking, rafting and other outdoor activities, the ideal period can vary according to weather and local conditions.
Should we stay in Ksamil or Saranda?
It depends on the type of trip you want.
Ksamil puts you close to its famous beaches and islands, while Saranda offers a larger selection of restaurants, bars, accommodation and nightlife.
For a group that wants to combine beach days with evenings out, we’d generally consider Saranda as a base and visit Ksamil during the day.
How much cash should we carry in Albania?
Don’t rely exclusively on cards.
Card acceptance has improved significantly, particularly at hotels, larger restaurants and supermarkets, but smaller establishments, beach businesses and local services may still prefer or require cash.
Albania uses the lek (ALL), and we’d recommend keeping some local currency available throughout the trip.
Is Albania safe for groups of friends?
Albania is generally considered a safe destination for international visitors, but the same common-sense precautions you’d use elsewhere still apply.
Keep an eye on personal belongings in busy areas, use reputable transportation, avoid drinking and driving, and take extra care around unfamiliar beaches, mountain areas and outdoor activities.
Can we travel around Albania without renting a car?
Yes.
Buses and minibuses connect many destinations, while taxis and private transfers provide more flexibility. The best option depends on your budget, group size and itinerary.
For a group of friends, we’d compare the cost per person rather than simply comparing the headline price of a bus ticket, rental car or private vehicle.
What should we book in advance?
During peak summer, we’d book your main accommodation, airport transportation and any experience your group definitely doesn’t want to miss.
Private boats and popular activities can also become busy during July and August.
At the same time, don’t book every hour of every day. Albania is a destination where leaving some room for spontaneous plans can make the trip much better.
What is the biggest mistake groups make when visiting Albania?
Trying to see too much.
We’ve seen plenty of travellers create itineraries that look fantastic on a map but involve packing every morning and spending hours travelling every day.
Pick fewer bases. Stay longer. Take a boat somewhere. Have a three-hour lunch. Stop when the view is worth stopping for.
You’ll probably remember those moments much longer than the number of destinations you managed to tick off your list.
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