Albania Currency: What the Lek Actually Buys
Albania uses the Albanian lek, written ALL or L. You will see prices as 250, 600, 1,400, and the number looks alarming until you work out that a coffee is 250 of them.
Every guide will tell you that much. What almost none of them tell you is how much money you actually need, so here is ours: we tracked every transaction across two weeks in July 2025, and 39% of everything we spent was cash. Not because Albania does not take cards, but because the places worth eating at and the people worth paying often do not.
Below is what the lek actually bought us, taken straight from the tracker rather than from a currency converter.
What the Albanian lek is
The lek has been Albania's currency since 1926 and it is not pegged to the euro, so the rate moves. Notes run from 200 up to 10,000 lek, and the ones you will handle constantly are the 500, 1,000 and 2,000.
Albania is not in the eurozone and the lek is not the euro. That trips people up because Albania sits between Greece, Montenegro and Kosovo, and two of those use euros.
For a rough sense of scale in July 2025, we were getting about 54 to 55 lek to the Australian dollar. Rates move, so check before you travel rather than trusting a number in a blog post, including this one. What does not move nearly as fast is what things cost in lek, and that is the useful part.
What the lek actually buys
This is our whole point. Everything below is something we paid for, in lek, with what it came to in Australian dollars at the time.
Scroll to see the full table →
| What | Local price | What we paid |
|---|---|---|
| Coffee | 250 lek | A$4.58 |
| Full lunch, Shkodër | 600 lek | A$11.02 |
| Dinner, Sarandë | 850 lek | A$15.58 |
| Beer at a beach club | 350 lek | A$6.30 |
| A week of groceries | 1,000 lek | A$18.34 |
| Lunch on the coast | 1,000 lek | A$18.37 |
| Cafe lunch, Sarandë | 1,075 lek | A$19.70 |
| Cocktail at a beach club | 600 lek | A$10.90 |
| Breakfast, Ksamil | 1,400 lek | A$25.72 |
| Meat lunch, Shkodër | 1,500 lek | A$27.30 |
| Sunbed for the day, Sarandë | 2,000 lek | about A$37 |
| Day bed, Sarandë | 3,000 lek | about A$55 |
| Cabana for the day, Sarandë | 6,000 lek | about A$110 |
Two things jump out of that list.
A thousand lek is the unit that matters. It is roughly A$18, and it is a good meal, a week of basic groceries, or two coffees and a beer. Once you start thinking in thousands rather than converting every price, Albania makes sense fast.
The gap between everyday Albania and beach Albania is enormous. A full lunch inland is 600 lek. A cabana on the sand is 6,000. Both are normal prices in the same country, ten times apart, and knowing that in advance is worth more than knowing the exchange rate.
Prices are what we paid in July 2025 and are not a promise about today. The beach club figures are from Sarandë specifically.
Do you need cash in Albania?
Yes, and more than you expect.
Cash was 39% of everything we spent, A$797.64 each across two weeks, from seven withdrawals in Sarandë, Himarë, Vlorë and Shkodër. That is by far the highest cash share of anywhere we have travelled recently, and it was not a preference. It was what the country required.
Where cards worked reliably: hotels, the bigger beach clubs, supermarkets, car hire, petrol.
Where we needed cash: small restaurants, family-run guesthouses, the boat operator, parking attendants, and anything at all in the mountains. Our whole Albanian Alps trip ran on cash once we left Shkodër.
The practical rule we settled on: carry more lek than feels necessary, and never let it run low before heading somewhere small. Getting caught without cash in Theth is a different problem to getting caught without cash in Sarandë.
ATMs in Albania
They are easy to find in the towns and non-existent where you actually need them, which is the usual arrangement.
We withdrew in chunks of 5,000 and 10,000 lek, which is roughly A$91 and A$183. Take out more per visit than you think you need, because it is the per-withdrawal fee that costs you, not the exchange rate. Seven withdrawals across two weeks was more than we needed and we would do four or five next time.
Two habits worth having:
- Withdraw before you leave a decent-sized town. Sarandë, Vlorë and Shkodër are fine. Valbonë and Theth are not.
- Carry two cards, kept separately. This is a general rule but Albania is a good place to follow it, because the fallback if a card fails is a long drive rather than a different machine on the next street.
Many machines offer to charge you in your own currency at the point of withdrawal. Decline it and let your own bank do the conversion. That prompt is almost never in your favour, in Albania or anywhere.
I use the Wise card for travel money as one of the two, mostly for the rate on the withdrawals themselves, but the two-card habit matters more than the specific card.
Can you use euros in Albania?
Sometimes, and the pattern is consistent enough to plan around.
Euros worked for the bigger, tourist-facing things. Our bus out of Shkodër to Montenegro was 15 euros. Day beds at Shala River were quoted at 20 to 30 euros. Tour operators, transfers and some hotels will happily take them.
Everything local was in lek. Restaurants, cafes, groceries, parking, small shops. Nobody in a village is pricing in euros.
The catch is the rate. When somewhere accepts euros it sets its own conversion, and it is rarely generous. Paying in euros is a convenience charge, not a shortcut.
Carrying a small amount of euros as a backup is sensible, especially if you are crossing into Montenegro, Kosovo or Greece afterwards. Doing the whole trip on them is not.
Do you tip in Albania?
We did not tip anywhere in Albania across two weeks, and it was never expected or awkward. Not in restaurants, not in bars, not with drivers.
That is our experience rather than a rule, and rounding up a bill is always welcome anywhere. But if you are coming from somewhere with a strong tipping culture and budgeting an extra 10 or 15% on top of every meal, you do not need to. The 600 lek lunch is 600 lek.
How much money should you take to Albania?
Our day-to-day spending, which is food, drinks, activities, groceries, fuel and cash, came to A$127 per person per day across sixteen days. Our median day was A$84.70, because a few beach club and boat days pulled the average up.
Translated into what to carry:
- A quiet day of coffee, a cooked breakfast, a beach and dinner out runs comfortably under 2,000 lek per person, about A$37.
- A beach club day with a bed and a few drinks will take 5,000 to 8,000 lek per person, about A$90 to A$150.
- For a two week trip, budget on withdrawing something in the region of 40,000 to 50,000 lek each in cash across the whole trip and putting the rest on card.
That is our travel style, which is apartments with kitchens, eating out most days and saying yes to the big experiences. The full picture is in what two weeks in Albania cost us.
Leave the country with your lek spent. It is a soft currency and you will get a poor rate converting it back, so buy the airport coffee with it.
What to know before you go
- The lek is not the euro and Albania is not in the eurozone.
- A thousand lek is about A$18. Learn that one number and stop converting.
- Cash was 39% of our spending. Carry more than you think.
- Withdraw in larger amounts, less often. It is the per-withdrawal fee that gets you.
- Decline the ATM's own conversion rate. Always.
- Carry two cards, separately.
- Euros work for tours, transfers and buses. Not for lunch.
- Spend your lek before you leave.
Frequently asked questions
What currency does Albania use?
The Albanian lek, written ALL or L. Albania is not in the eurozone. In July 2025 we were getting roughly 54 to 55 lek to the Australian dollar, but rates move, so check before travelling.
Do you need cash in Albania?
Yes, more than in most of Europe. Cash was 39% of everything we spent across two weeks. Hotels, supermarkets and larger beach clubs took cards, but small restaurants, guesthouses, boat operators and everything in the mountains wanted cash.
Can you use euros in Albania?
For bigger tourist-facing things, yes. Our bus to Montenegro was 15 euros and day beds at Shala River were quoted in euros. Everyday spending is in lek, and anywhere accepting euros sets its own rate, which is rarely in your favour.
How much is a meal in Albania?
A full lunch inland cost us 600 lek, about A$11. Dinner in Sarandë was 850 lek. In Ksamil, the most expensive place we ate, meals ran 1,000 to 1,425 lek, roughly A$18 to A$26. Coffee was 250 lek almost everywhere.
How much cash should you take to Albania?
We withdrew about A$797 each across two weeks. A quiet day runs under 2,000 lek per person and a beach club day can take 5,000 to 8,000. Withdraw in larger amounts less often, because the per-withdrawal fee costs more than the exchange rate.
Are there ATMs in Albania?
Plenty in towns like Sarandë, Vlorë and Shkodër, and effectively none in the mountain villages. Withdraw before you head into Valbonë or Theth, and decline the machine's offer to convert into your home currency.
Is Albania cheap?
Everyday Albania is very cheap and the coast in summer is not. A 600 lek lunch and a 6,000 lek beach cabana are both normal prices in the same country. We have the full two-week breakdown in our Albania cost guide.
Should you exchange money before travelling to Albania?
We did not, and would not. Withdrawing lek from an ATM on arrival gave a better rate than exchanging in advance. Carry a small amount of euros as a backup rather than pre-bought lek.
