Albania by campervan: food and supermarkets
Where to buy food in Albania, which supermarkets to use, opening hours and practical tips for eating on the road. What to know before you go.
Published 18 September 2026Last checked 19 September 2026
Currency
Lek
ALL, not the euro. 92.27 lek to €1 in September 2026
Language
Albanian
Italian and English are common in tourist towns
Driving
Right
Motorway 130 km/h, towns 40 km/h
Insurance
Green card required
Carry it. Albania is not in the EU arrangement
Tap water
Do not drink it
The Foreign Office says bottled water only
Emergency
112
Ambulance 127
Food and shops
Food and shops
In Albania, eating out beats cooking on the arithmetic. Eurostat puts Albanian restaurants and hotels at 52 percent of the EU average price level and Albanian shop food at 100 percent. That is an unusual combination, and it inverts the normal van rule. A plate of grilled meat and a salad in a small town restaurant costs less than the ingredients would in a supermarket in Italy, and about the same as they do in the shop next door.
Where to shop
- Best value: Big Market for routine groceries.
- Full range: SPAR or Conad for a broader range.
- Camper access: Use large Big Market, SPAR or Conad branches outside town centres.
What eating out costs, reported
- Cheap restaurant meal
- 800 lek
- Draught beer, 0.5 l
- 235 lek
About 8.67 euros at 92.27 lek to the euro, the rate for September 2026. Reported range 450 to 2,000, Numbeo September 2026
About 2.55 euros at the same rate. Reported range 150 to 400, Numbeo September 2026
Stocking the campervan
- Buy bottled water in bulk, not by the small bottle. It is the one thing you will run out of.
- Spar, Conad and Big Market are the supermarket names, and they cluster around Tirana, Durrës and the bigger coastal towns.
Eating out without getting it wrong
- Eating out is the cheap option here, which is not true in most of Europe. Use it.
- Byrek is sold by weight from a counter and is the standard cheap breakfast or lunch.
The arithmetic to keep in your head: Albanian restaurants sit at 52 on the Eurostat price level index against the EU's 100, while Albanian shop food sits at 100.1 and soft drinks at 119. Both are 2024 figures. A country where the restaurant is half price and the supermarket is full price rewards a different daily routine than Spain or Portugal does.