I needed to get away for a few days before Meet&Deal vol3, slow down a bit and unwind, and above all, also recharge a little, because Meet&Deal vol3 was the biggest event and there was the most worry about it. But I love it! Cheap flights, itinerary from AI, rented car, and a few days of peace and quiet. Let’s go.

By the way, how did Meet&Deal vol3 turn out, you can read about it here.

Traveling with AI
We found the flights to Albania through Skyscanner for 1,500 CZK per person, which is quite decent. Through ChatGPT, we planned what we would do and had a complete itinerary prepared. This saved us a significant amount of time. But be careful, I advise you not to trust AI regarding travel times and distances. It calculated it to be about 10 hours of driving, but if we had done it the way the artificial intelligence planned it for us, I would have spent about 18 hours behind the wheel. 😀 So be sure to verify it through Google Maps or another app, but otherwise I can recommend this to you.

Do you want to see what our AI itinerary looked like? Take a look at the end of the article. It pretty much hit what we wanted to see. But the prices? Take those with a grain of salt. At least for us, they were completely off because with Terka we know how to travel low cost.

Transportation Punk Just Like in Sri Lanka
On Sunday, we arrived in Tirana, where we had pre-booked a car, which isn’t really necessary in Albania, because as soon as you come out of the airport you’ll see about 100 car rental places. Anyway, renting the car from Sunday at 4pm to Wednesday at 1pm cost us about 50 EUR.

We had a standard SIM card through Airalo, which is a really great invention. Want a 3 EUR discount? Just enter the code ANDRE5430 when ordering.

The transfer from the airport to the Airbnb accommodation we found, which cost us about 600 CZK, took about half an hour. But watch out for the traffic, I would almost compare it to traffic in Sri Lanka or Thailand in Tirana. Real madness, so if you’re afraid to drive in Prague, don’t rent a car in Albania. They don’t use turn signals, don’t look around, and generally drive like pigs.

Add to that the incredibly narrow streets in the center of Tirana and parking however they please, and you get a situation where you might wait 15 minutes for a guy to come and repark a car that’s parked in the middle of the street. Or you turn 20 times in a narrow street just so you don’t have to reverse 2 km…

Anyway, in Tirana we went to the great kebab Capitol Meat & Chicken, which we found on the way to Skanderbeg Square. It’s really beautiful and mixes several styles from the completely historical buildings to the achievements of the 21st century. It’s really worth it, including a walk through the center, where you’ll find lots of interesting things.

Route to Ksamil via Berat
The next day, we grabbed breakfast from a bakery just down the street from our accommodation, packed up and set off. The journey ended in Ksamil, but we went through the city of a thousand windows that is on the UNESCO list – Berat. We walked through the castle and enjoyed the views, and then went down to the water, to the city of a thousand windows. Wonderful. A really divine place, though quite touristy, but it’s worth a stop. The journey took us about 2 hours.

From Berat, we set off to Ksamil, which took us over 3 hours, almost 3.5. There was quite a problem with food on the way. So it was taken care of by a “baguette from the gas station”. 😀 Anyway, that journey was amazing. It led through mountains, hills, mountains and more hills – everywhere beautiful nature and, given that people in Albania can barely drive at all, they have quite comfortable roads. Some Czech towns and villages could really envy them. As for the gas, 1.7 EUR per liter seems quite high to me in Albania. But it’s true that food there was almost as expensive as here. Around 5pm we arrived in Ksamil, checked in, checked out the beach, walked around the area and headed for dinner.

Beach, Good Food and Chill
The next day, we wanted to explore a beach other than the one we were at. Terka found Plazhi Pema e Thatë, which was closed, but luckily someone local was just leaving and, although he wouldn’t let us in with the car, he said we could leave the car in front of the gate and walk to the beach. Well, at least there won’t be many people there. And it worked out. There was no one there at all! Well, until two local fishermen came when we were almost leaving. It was also the closest to Corfu, where I almost flew the drone. And the unsecured WiFi on the beach was a real plus.

Then we went for lunch. When I was looking for breakfast in the morning, I saw a restaurant that was full of locals, which we, of course, love. So we went there for lunch and it was really great. It was a tourist restaurant, but the prices and food were good!

Then we went back to our beach to chill a bit, do some reading and work, and of course take some photos. After the photo shoot, we went for dinner at Restaurant Pizza: Fish Place, I really recommend going there. Absolutely great and friendly service and the risotto and seafood they make there… Great!

Then just chill, work, social life on Instagram, and sleep.

Will We Return? Hopefully Yes
The next morning after breakfast at Memaj Bakery & Pastry, we headed to the airport. The 3.5-hour drive was great through the mountains again. Returning the car went smoothly, so I really don’t understand the bad reviews on Google, which scared me at the beginning. But it was fine.

I definitely want to go back to Albania. I never want to go to Ksamil or anywhere else on the beach in season, because it must be hell with people, but to the mountains and lakes I definitely want to go again. It was really worth it. Plus, the prices.

Trip to Albania for 2
– 1,800 CZK for accommodation
– 1,500 CZK for gas
– 1,500 CZK for the car
– about 2,000 CZK in expenses

So in total, even with the flights, we were around 9,000 CZK, which is on the edge of the budget that AI estimated, and they didn’t include the flights.