Sorry but TikTok made me do it…
So if you’re anything like me and your FYP keeps offering suggestions of where to go in Europe this summer, you will have seen at least one video of the clear blue waters of Albania’s Adriatic coast. It seems to be the place in Europe on social media. If a beach holiday in Albania is on your list of trips to book this summer, I’ve found a deal in a 5 star beachfront hotel for under £700pp in June including flights.
And what’s not love? It shares a coastline with Greece but for a significantly lower price tag. This means you can stay in some seriously gorgeous places for a lot less than you’d pay elsewhere. It also makes it a good option for those looking to travel in peak summer season as the price uplift is still a lot cheaper than the likes of Spain and Greece during those times. So I’ve had a scour of the internet to see when, where and how I would book a trip to Albania this summer.
For this trip, I’ve kept it very loyal to the eurosummer trend and planned a beach holiday, as one of the big selling points of Albania is you can truly get this on a much smaller budget. However that’s not to say this is all Albania has to offer and perhaps think about splitting your trip across multiple hotels to get a taste of everything Albania has to offer.
But before we get into the nitty gritty of where I would stay and how I would book it, let’s give a bit of context.
Where is Albania?
As you can see, Albania shares its southwestern coastline along the Ionian sea with Greece to the south and Montenegro to the north. It also shares the Ionian sea with the east coast of southern Italy near Puglia. Meaning it’s sandwiched between three popular eurosummer holiday destinations. You can imagine the weather doesn’t disappoint in the peak and shoulder season.
Currency
It’s hard to visualise how much you’re spending when you’re dealing in a foreign currency. Albania uses Albanian Lek (ALL). £1 is roughly 110 ALL (at time of posting). Bare this in mind as we get into this deal.
How to live the high life on a budget
Okay let’s get into it.
The hotel that I thinks looks like it has an excellent beach luxury offering giving you the 5 star resort experience for significantly less than similar resorts in neighbouring Greece is Melia Durrës Albania.
I will be very honest – this is a beach holiday. If you plan to spend most your time on cultural activities, this is not the hotel for you. Not to say that if you spent a week here, you’ll be so remote you can’t get out the hotel.
This 5* hotel newly opened in 2024 and has an average of 4.5 stars of TripAdvisor with over 800 reviews – not too shabby!
It boast multiple swimming pools (with one rooftop pool), direct beach access to a private beach and 10 restaurants and bars. So safe to say, there’s a lot going on. The real star of the show is the beach. White sands and turquoise seas that appear to go on forever. Completely dreamy and with very comfortable swimming temperatures (18-21ºC) in May/June, it looks like the ideal place catch a tan or read a book.
The city centre of Durrës, where you’ll find the Durrës Amphitheatre and historic city centre, is a 40 minute drive away. The Duka vineyard is also a 15 minute drive away. From what I can see, taxis are available and so is car hire (although apparently driving through Durrës is not for the faint hearted) so a day out to see the historical sites or nearby valleys with a glass of wine, is not off the cards and definitely encouraged by me!
Let’s talk about the food, as this is something I always take very seriously as my partner and I are big foodies. There appears to be a lot of choice – three a la carte options including mediterranean and Italian. A buffet, sports bar and grill bar. Overall people seem to think the food is decent, but nothing to write home about.
Also looking at the menus (top tip – for Melia hotels, the easiest way to find this is on the app and then under ‘search hotels’), the price of the food seems reasonable depending on what you order. With some mains priced 1200 ALL/~£10.50 and the highest being a Waygu steak at 8000ALL/~£65 if that floats your boat (personally for me I would give it a miss!).
This leads in nicely to how I would actually book this.
How to book this dreamy beach holiday in Albania
What board type should I book?
Melia Durres can be booked as all-inclusive, half board and B&B. There is also the option to upgrade to an adults only tier called the Level. This gives you a better room, access to the rooftop pool and exclusive restaurant and bar. Jury’s out on whether it’s worth it for an extra £250pp for the week on a B&B basis. The rooftop pool does look very peaceful so this would tempt me. It also depends on how much there potentially being children around bothers you, personally I’m not that fussed. If you’re travelling outside the school holidays, this is also likely to be minimal anyway. For me, I don’t think it’s worth it for the cost.
The ‘Deluxe Room Garden View’ is the cheapest option and I think it offers everything you could want apart from a sea view. Every room comes with a balcony and all the other things you would expect such as coffee and tea etc.
The next question is the board type. I love an all inclusive, however I don’t think it’s the best option for this hotel. It adds an extra £700 for the week. In Durres, I don’t think you would spend that on lunch, dinner and drinks in a week. Along the beachfront, within walking distance (20 minutes down the beach), there are multiple very highly reviewed restaurants and bars which are cheaper than the hotel restaurants. In fact all the beachfront restaurants and bars have >4.5 stars on Google which is quite impressive. If you don’t fancy a walk, you’ve always got the restaurants in the hotel.
In terms of poolside drinks, it’s not expensive either with a glass of prosecco costing 500 Lek/~£3.50. So unless you’re planning on drinking a lot, all inclusive is unlikely to be the best option.
To book as a package or not?
In this case, you could do either as there’s not a huge price difference. However I think you’re actually better off booking the room directly through the hotel and flights separately. As often there are perks for booking directly through the hotel and gives you more control of the flights you book. Also the flight times are quite different so it depends if you would rather depart early or arrive back in the UK late in the evening. Let’s break it down.
At the moment (Feb 2026), Melia is currently running a sale for MeliaRewards members (free to join) that offers 19% off the room price. If you have NHS discount, they’ll add another 12% on top to give you a 31% discount (post coming soon on the best NHS travel deals). Melia often have the best rates if you book direct and also flexible cancellation policies (so if you do find a better price later elsewhere, you can always cancel and rebook.). At the moment (Feb 2026), the price per night with MeliaRewards is £181 whereas the same room through Booking.com is £229. That’s also not accounting for any MeliaReward points (find out more here).
Flights
In terms of flights, you have a lot of options with RyanAir, WizzAir and BA operating to Tirana airport. The RyanAir route from Stansted seem to offer the best prices and times (no-one wants to be at the airport before 6am!) with prices from £70 at time of writing.
Although as you can imagine with Ryan Air this doesn’t include baggage. If you travel light, you can get reasonably timed flights (8am departure and 10am return) and the hotel for a week for £101.50 per person per night. Not bad! Or if you don’t live near Stansted, you can opt for a £90pp flight option with departing flight at 15:40 and return flight landing at 12:25. This might save you a bit of money on airport transfers, so is worth considering.
Package options
A very decent looking package option for £1376 total or £688pp for the same dates is on Expedia. Their website makes it confusing to see the board type you’ve selected and makes it look like all-inclusive. It’s not, this is for breakfast only. The flights are also with Ryan Air so the same baggage allowance, they are just in the evening with the most notable thing to consider is the evening flight, which lands at 23:20 in Stansted.
Depending on where you live, a late landing means expensive taxis or overnight stays in an airport hotel which adds more expense. Making the saving of £39.50pp might be worth it if you are local to the airport. I know that for me, to get a taxi home from Stansted is likely to be more than the saving made and I’ll be exhausted when I get home. Not ideal if you have work the next day!
In summary – what would I book?
So I would book the following…
7 nights in 1-8th June 2026 in Melia Durres Albania Deluxe Garden View room with B&B board via Melia.com. I would book these £90 flights. I might consider hiring a car but likely use taxis for a day to visit the historic city of Durres centre.
If you book it – let me know!