This is not a travel blog post. There are no beautiful photos of us sipping coffee on a terrace while we tell you vaguely that “Albania is so affordable.”
You’ve read those posts. You’ve seen the headlines. “We live in Europe for $1,500 a month!” And you’ve thought: sure, but what does that actually mean? What are they not telling me?
We had the same thought. So we decided to be the people who actually answer that question.
We’re not twenty-somethings with a laptop and no obligations. We’re retired US citizens who looked at what life in the USA was costing us and decided there had to be a better way – but didn’t yet qualify for social security, so we sold 99% of what we owned to fund our life abroad. That meant liquidating almost everything — the house, the cars, the furniture — to fund the years ahead. If you’re interested in learning more about our story of leaving the USA our About page is a good place to start.
Albania was our twelfth country in two years. We chose it because the cost of living was rumored to be low, Americans can stay up to a year without a visa, and almost nobody we knew had heard of it. What we found exceeded what we hoped for — and we have the receipts to prove it.
What you’re holding is our honest accounting of that first year. Not a highlight reel. Not a “travel expenses” summary. Every. Single. Penny. We. Spent. Every expense tracked, categorized, and laid out exactly as it happened — because you deserve the full picture.
We lived in four cities over 365 days — Durrës, Pogradec, Sarandë, and Vlorë.
Durrës was our entry point — we ferried over from Italy, and it felt like the right place to start. From our research it looked less resort-y than Sarandë, which you can also reach by ferry, and more like an actual Albanian city.
Pogradec came next. It’s in the mountains, reportedly cooler in summer, and we initially booked just a month. One month became four.
We timed Sarandë deliberately — arriving in late October, after the tourist season ended and the prices dropped with it.
Vlorë was supposed to be a five-week stop before Tirana, then out of Albania before our visa-free year ended. But by the time we arrived we were already thinking differently. We met with an attorney, talked through the pros and cons of residency, and decided Vlorë was going to be our home base.
Before we walk you through each city, here’s the summary for those of you who scroll straight to the numbers — we see you.
The Bottom Line (For Those Who Skip Ahead)
Cost of living — 4 cities, 365 days (excludes relocation and residency costs):
Total spent: $30,904.37
Monthly average (2 people): $2,575.37
Daily average per couple: $84.68
Add relocation costs between cities:
Total spent: $32,607.61
Monthly average (2 people): $2,742.30
Daily average per couple: $91.31
The full picture — everything we spent including residency:
Total spent: $35,048.41
Monthly average (2 people): $2,920.70
Daily average per couple: $96.03
Relocation costs ($2,003.24) cover getting ourselves and our belongings between four cities plus Vlorë apartment setup (more details in the Vlore cost of living section)
Residency costs ($2,140.80) reflect applying for long-term Albanian residency — a one-time expense you’ll face if you decide to put down roots. Neither is a cost of daily life in Albania, but both are real, and you deserve the full picture.
If you’re an American couple wondering whether you can live comfortably in Albania for under $3,000/month — including the cost of moving between cities — the answer, based on our real experience, is yes.
How We Track Our Spending
Before we get into the deets, a word about methodology — because this shapes how useful these numbers are to you.
We track every expense in every category, every day. Not just rent and food. Everything.
Our categories are: Food Out · Groceries · Housing · Technology · Activities · Local Transport · Health · Clothing · Miscellaneous · Other Insurance · Residency
Here’s what each one means — and where our numbers may differ from yours:
Food Out: Meals and drinks at restaurants and cafes, including coffee stops. Does not include groceries.
Groceries: Food and household consumables purchased at markets and grocery stores — including toiletries, cleaning supplies, and anything else you’d buy at a supermarket.
Housing: For our airbnb-type rentals in Durrës, Pogradec, Sarandë and Vlore, utilities and WiFi were included in the rent we paid. When we signed our long-term lease in Vlorë, utilities became a separate expense — those costs are captured in our Vlorë numbers. If you’re budgeting for a long-term lease from the start, factor in utilities separately.
Technology: Our phones, internet, and everything it takes to keep this website, Facebook community, and YouTube channel running. We include it because we track and share every penny we spend — but a meaningful portion of it exists because we’re committed to helping you navigate this lifestyle. Your technology costs in Albania will likely be little less because all you’ll need is a phone plan and internet access.
Activities: Sightseeing, museum and entrance fees, and anything experiential — including the Albanian language lessons we took at the University in Durrës, which we’d recommend to anyone settling in for more than a few weeks.
Local Transport: Taxis, buses, and any other transport to get around within a city after we’ve arrived. Does not include intercity travel, which appears in relocation costs.
Health: For much of this year this category reflects international health insurance premiums rather than actual medical care. We record expenses as they happen, so premiums appear in whichever city we were living in when the bill was paid — not because healthcare in that city cost that much. We dropped our international insurance later in the year – we’ll cover that decision in detail in a separate post — but the short version is that we felt confident enough in the local system to self-insure for routine care.
Clothing: Exactly what it sounds like. We traveled with carry-on luggage for two years, so occasional clothing purchases were necessary.
Miscellaneous and Other Insurance: Personal obligations that some readers won’t carry — life insurance, disability insurance, vehicle insurance for a truck we left with family in the US. We include them because we track everything, but they don’t reflect the cost of living in Albania. We include them here because we promised you every penny — but mentally subtract them if your situation is different.
Residency: Once we decided to make Vlorë our home-base, we applied for Albanian residency. It isn’t free, and we include it because you’ll face it too if you stay long term. It appears as its own line item in the Vlorë section. yes we can stay for a year visa-free but other factors were in play and we’ll cover those in another blog post
We share every penny we spend – not just what others consider travel expenses – These are actual figures pulled directly from our expense tracking system.
City #1: Durrës
April 11 – June 10, 2025 | 61 Days
Category
Total
Food Out
$1,006.16
Groceries
$765.47
Housing
$1,458.12
Technology
$403.73
Activities
$463.87
Local Transport
$24.68
Health
$463.00
Clothing
—
Miscellaneous
$188.89
Other Insurance
$291.10
Residency
—
Total
$5,065.02
Daily Average
$83.03
Relocation Cost to Get Here (From Italy)
$327.63
About Durrës
At $83.03/day for two people, Durrës came in as our least expensive city on a daily basis — and it was a reasonable introduction to what Albanian costs actually look like in practice.
After 61 days we were sad to leave — but ready to see more of Albania. Next stop: the mountains – we boarded a bus and headed northeast.
At $80.58/day, Pogradec was our lowest daily average — but one line item needs context before you use these numbers for your own planning.
Housing ($5,199.16 over 140 days, roughly $1,114/month) was nearly double what we paid in Durrës and almost twice what we paid in Sarandë – and that surprised most of the people who have asked about our stay there. But we had no fixed plan for how long we’d stay — that would depend on whether we liked it, and we knew going in that we were heading into peak tourist season. That meant accepting that short-term rental prices would be higher, and that availability could force our hand if we needed to pivot. It’s a tradeoff that comes with the flexibility of not being locked into a lease before you know if a place suits you. If you arrive knowing you want to stay long-term, negotiating a lease before the summer season starts will get you a significantly better rate.
Groceries ($2,066.56) reflect 140 days of full-time cooking, including the one-time cost of properly stocking a kitchen for the first time since arriving in Albania. At roughly $14.75/day for two people it’s a reasonable figure for anyone planning to cook at home regularly.
Local transport was zero. We walked everywhere – it’s a tiny town.
In hindsight we should have left sooner. The weather turned cold earlier than we expected and we stayed past the point of comfort. Beautiful place — but know when to move on. After four months in the mountains, we were ready for the coast.
City #3: Sarandë
October 29, 2025 – January 9, 2026 | 72 Days
Category
Total
Food Out
$602.22
Groceries
$1,154.47
Housing
$1,457.33
Technology
$924.69
Activities
$720.73
Local Transport
$9.62
Health
$246.93
Clothing
$0
Miscellaneous
$371.78
Other Insurance
$558.40
Total
$6,046.17
Daily Average
$83.97
Relocation Cost to Get Here (from Pogradec)
$240.73
About Sarandë
At $83.97/day, Sarandë came in just above Pogradec — but two line items inflate that figure in ways worth understanding before you use it for planning.
Technology ($924.69) was our highest of the year, but not because Sarandë is expensive. Our website hosting renewal, Sandra’s cell phone plan, and Jeff’s Airalo data plan all came due during our 72 days there. Those are timing costs, not location costs — and the methodology note above explains why our technology spend won’t reflect yours anyway.
Activities ($720.73) looks high and it is — but it includes a three-day trip to Corfu, which is sitting right across the water and hard to resist. That’s a discretionary travel cost, not a cost of living in Sarandë.
Housing ($1,457.33 over 72 days, roughly $607/month) was our lowest of the year — a direct result of arriving in late October. If you have schedule flexibility, off-season coastal Albania is a genuine bargain.
The tradeoff: most of the restaurants in our neighborhood closed for the season the same weekend we arrived. Almost overnight. So we cooked at home far more than anywhere else — which is why our “food out” number ($602.22) is dramatically lower than any other city. That’s not a complaint. It’s just reality, and it’s useful intelligence if you’re planning a winter stay on the southern coast.
Sarandë in winter is quiet, affordable, and beautiful. Just know that you’re not getting the full summer version of the city — and that’s okay.
Here too we stayed longer than we should have. The people were wonderful but the town — particularly our neighborhood — just didn’t match our vibe. Sometimes a place looks perfect on paper and doesn’t quite feel right in person – so we headed to Vlore.
City #4: Vlorë
January 9, 2026 – April 11, 2026 | 92 days
Category
Total
Food Out
$1,113.66
Groceries
$1,693.62
Housing
$2,773.76
Technology
$886.77
Activities
$62.02
Local Transport
$24.23
Health
$856.40
Clothing
$239.04
Miscellaneous
$520.61
Other Insurance
$341.58
Subtotal
$8,511.69
Daily Average
$92.52
Residency
$2,140.80
Total (including Residency)
$11,072.00
Relocation Costs (see explanation below)
$1,409.61
About Vlorë
As the table shows, our day-to-day cost of living in Vlorë was $92.52/day — consistent with every other city in this report.
The $2,140.80 in residency costs reflects everything involved in applying for Albanian residency for both of us — legal fees, document preparation, and application fees. It’s a real cost and we include it because anyone planning a long-term stay will face it too, but it belongs in a different mental bucket than monthly living expenses.
Even the $97.07 reflects a transitional period. We had a slight bump in accommodation expenses because the decision to stay was sudden. We had booked an AirBnB through February 10th and we started the lease on our long-term rental on February 1st so we had 10 nights where we were paying for both apartments. Note: Changing our reservation dates for the short-term rental – even if the host would have approved it, which is doubtful – would have increased the cost due to the stay being less than 28 nights (see more about the Power of longer stays here)
Worth noting for anyone making a similar move: We also paid a two-month security deposit when we signed our lease — a real cash outlay that doesn’t appear in the table. We’ve excluded it because it’s a deposit we expect to recover, not a cost. But budget for it: you’ll need cash on hand.
Health ($856.40) includes new glasses for both of us — just over $600 total, which gives you a sense of what healthcare costs look like in Albania compared to the US. For context, the last time Sandra priced new frames in the US, she was quoted over $400 — just for her pair. Once both residencies are finalized, health insurance is included in our package, which improves our ongoing cost picture meaningfully.
The ‘Relocation costs‘ include getting to Vlore from Saranda ($146.16 – we hired a taxi) plus the expenses incurred setting up our Vlorë apartment as a genuine home-base rather than temporary housing. We have traveled with just carry-on luggage for the past two years, and the apartment needed some things for our comfort and convenience. Softer sheets, a better duvet, kitchen stuff, a couple throw rugs… Things we wouldn’t have purchased for a short stay. We include all of it here because it’s part of the true cost of building a life abroad, not a footnote to hide.
City by City Cost of Living Comparison
City
Days
Total Spent
Daily Avg
Durrës
61
$5,065.02
$83.03
Pogradec
140
$11,281.39
$80.58
Sarandë
72
$6,046.17
$83.97
Vlorë
92
$8,511.69
$92.52
Total/Avg
365
$30,904.37
$84.68
*Vlorë totals reflect day-to-day living costs only. We applied for Albanian residency during our time in Vlorë at a cost of $2,140.80 — bringing the full Vlorë total to $11,072.00. Residency costs are a one-time expense; see the Vlorë section for full details.
Thaat’s a wrap!
When we left the USA in 2023, we were looking for a way to live fully without waiting for Social Security. Now, finishing our second year of travel and our first full year in Albania, the numbers tell a clear story.
We spent $35,467.82 this year—every penny accounted for, from residency fees to our morning coffees. In the United States, that amount won’t cover basic survival in many cities; here, it bought us a life of abundance. And we didn’t just “get by” – we lived in coastal apartments, took language lessons at a university, explored the mountains, and enjoyed fresh Mediterranean meals daily. We traded the high-stress overhead of our old life for a higher quality of life that we actually have the time to enjoy.
Our Next Chapter: The Traveling Home-Base
While we’ve decided to put down roots in Vlorë, our journey isn’t ending—it’s just evolving. We’ve spent the last few months setting up a genuine home-base, investing in the comforts that make a long-term rental feel like home.
Vlorë is now our “anchor,” but we remain senior nomads at heart. Having a permanent residence in Albania doesn’t mean we’ve stopped exploring; it means we now have a beautiful, affordable place to return to between our travels to the next country.
Would We Do It Again?
Without hesitation. Albania has been more than a budget-friendly destination; it has been the place where we proved that a “better way” exists. We’re not done with this country, and we’re certainly not done with this lifestyle.
One country at a time—and now, one home-base to return to.
