Tirana

Tirana is modern, walkable and seems to have good nightlife while feeling safe (lot of kids, families and women walking around at night). But it is also very crowded of people and cars, there is a lot of garbage and inpleasant smells. I would defenitly prefer the coastal area for a longer stay

Tirana was a pleasant surprise for me! It wasn’t on my initial list for places I’d planned to go this year, but after researching countries in Europe that allows U.S. citizens to enter with COVID, it piqued my interest. I stayed in the Blloku area and would definitely recommend it. It’s littered with bars and cafes you can work from (Mon Cheri and Mulliri Vjeter became fast favorites because of consistency!). I was also genuinely grateful to get the chance to learn about the very recent communist history in more detail while I was there. There’s not a ton to do culturally, but in general, Tirana is a very comfortable, vibrant, and livable (albeit small) city if you’re looking to settle in somewhere for a month or two.

Big no from me. After being around all the balkans, this place felt off.
Locals are friendly IF they know you're a tourist, otherwise, they're loud and rude to each other.
The way they converse, drive, or behave is a intimidating to say the least.
Electricity outages as seen in India or Nepal (sometimes daily occurrence!)
Everything seems to be of low quality,
Locals seem disinterested in learning from other cultures.
Locals prefer to sit in cafes all day, they DRIVE to that cafe even though its a 2 minute walk.
They drive instead of walking, so the whole street will see their BMW.
Perhaps this is the influence left by Enver Hoxha.
Avoid this place if you can,
Macedonia , Bulgaria, Serbia or Montenegro next door are just as affordable.

Beautiful, joyful and surprisingly modern city. People are extremely friendly. There are nice cafes and restaurants throughout the city, serving a unique combination of Turkish, Greek and Italian cuisine. Spectacular modern architecture and urban planning. Amazing value for money.

Forget about Tirana, go to the coast! Sarandë and Ksamil are the best places in Albania, if you’re in doubt just google it :)

I really like this city. Great place for food, a lot of cafe's and relatively easy to reach. Growing startup ecosystem, a few nice coworking spaces, you can walk everywhere and housing is still very affordable compared to western europe

Very costly.
The salaries are ridiculous.
The air is terrible.
People are really friendly.
Corruption is a high level.
Political situation is unrest all the time.

Brilliant, vibrant city in a beautiful country.

I've lived in the balkans for a few years, and I'm not sure I've ever met friendlier people.