Buying a SIM Card or eSIM in Albania

Albania isn’t the first country that comes to mind when thinking of popular European destinations. So why go there?

If you’re interested in exploring countries in eastern and southern Europe, it’s very central, being just north of Greece and east of Italy. Americans can stay for up to a year without a visa (many others get 90 days on arrival), and the US dollar stretches a long way.

I’ve been in Tirana, the capital and largest city in the country, for a few weeks and I’ve been impressed so far! It’s clean and safe, the people are fantastic, there’s good infrastructure, and it’s quite an affordable destination.

Prior to arriving, I did plenty of reading about the major mobile carriers in Albania.

• Vodafone is the largest, oldest, and generally most-expensive player in the market. It has 3G coverage throughout much of the country, with 4G in Tirana and most other cities.
• Telekom Albania (commonly called T-Mobile Albania), is the second-largest carrier in the country. It tends to be little cheaper than Vodafone, with similar coverage.
• ALBtelecom is the smaller, scrappy carrier that commonly has incredible specials to try and gain market share. It has 4G in Tirana and many other cities.

Some of the articles I read online were a little dated, so I did what I always do: ask locals what they use and why.

My cab driver (there’s no Uber here) used ALB because of the price. He had no complaints about the service, but he never leaves the big city. My Airbnb host used Vodafone because it’s the oldest, and had always been reliable for him in and out of Tirana.

Lastly, a guy I met in a coworking space recommended Vodafone over Telekom because he’s had better experiences using his phone as a hotspot with Vodafone whenever his wired internet flakes out.

Armed with this info the decision was clear. Unless I was hit with sticker shock, I was going with Vodafone.

If I’d only planned to be in the country for a few days or weeks, though, I’d likely have just picked up a travel eSIM from aloSIM instead. I’ve used them elsewhere: it avoids all the research and traipsing around from shop to shop, and is still pretty cheap.

aloSIM and Airalo typically have the best (and very similar) prices for Albania. I’ve used both and often see higher speeds with aloSIM, so that’s who I’m recommending. The reality is, though, that you’ll almost certainly be happy with either.

If you’re traveling elsewhere in Europe, Airalo is the only one with a regional bundle for Europe that includes both the EU and Albania.

Like most travel eSIMs, it’s data-only: you don’t get a local number. I use apps for everything from communication to transport these days, so the lack of a local number very rarely matters to me, but you might have different needs.

If you’re new to eSIMs, they offer big benefits to travelers in terms of how quickly, easily, and (often) cheaply you can get connected when you arrive in a new country. Most recent phones support them, and you can read all about them here.

Finding a Vodafone shop (or either of the competitor’s shops) isn’t hard. They are everywhere, including just outside of baggage claim at the airport.

Since I did my final research outside of the airport, however, I ended up buying my SIM card in town. A quick look on Google Maps showed almost two dozen shops in the city center, but there are loads more not on the map.

I walked into the store nearest to my Airbnb. Both people working there spoke broken English and had some signage that helped to seal the deal.

Vodafone

Vodafone offers daily, weekly, and monthly prepaid plans in several different flavors.

There’s a useful tourist SIM with two options: a two-week plan with 40GB of data for 2000 Lekë (~$22) or a three-week plan with 100GB of data for 2500 Lekë (~$27). Both have unlimited domestic minutes.

The Vodafone Next Advance plan offers a solid mix for those staying longer in the country, with 2000 domestic texts and calling minutes, and 10GB of data. It lasts for 30 days and costs 1400 Lekë (~15).

Several other weekly and monthly packs are also available, and may suit you better if you’re only in the country for a short time or expect to use more or less data.

Offerings change regularly in response to competition, but that said, plans from the previous month were still being shown in store, and the differences were negligible.

I’m also a happy customer of Google Fi (the company’s awesome cell service), but when I reviewed the prices at Vodafone, it was a no-brainer. I could get four times as much data at the same cost as Fi, plus a local Albanian number, and likely better LTE coverage. Decision made.

The setup and checkout process at the Vodafone store was painless. The SIM card was free, and I even got to pick my phone number. They handed me a stack of new, sealed SIM card packs, each with a sticker with the corresponding number attached, to choose between.

I needed my passport, as a US driver’s license or Global Entry ID card wouldn’t suffice. I also had to sign a piece of paper from the carrier, written in Albanian.

After asking the staff for help with translation, I learned it basically said I wouldn’t use the service in an illegal manner or attempt to resell it. I also had to pay cash, as credit cards weren’t accepted at the store I went to.

aloSIM

If I’d gone with aloSIM, packages start at $4.50 for 1GB of data for 7 days, and go up from there.

They usually work out a bit more expensive per gigabyte than buying a physical local SIM, but unless you expect to use all of the data you’re buying, there’s very little in it and it’ll be working before you get off the plane.

That’s not the only eSIM option, though: we’ve compared many of them in the past, and here’s how the best ones stack up price-wise in Albania.

Kiosks are available in each store for topping up, and you can also use them to add incremental voice/text/data if you run out before your package expires.

So far, I’ve not left Tirana (there’s a surprising number of things to do here) but I’ve wandered and jogged all over town. Whether I’m deep in downtown, or in the middle of the biggest park (which is large and very nice,) I’ve always had blazingly-fast LTE coverage with Vodafone.

The only exception to date has been when I’ve been in lower levels of shopping malls or business buildings, which I’d expect. I’m excited about exploring the rest of the country, and given I went with the company with arguably the best coverage, I’m confident I’ll fare well.

If you go with aloSIM, it also uses the Vodafone network, so you can expect exactly the same coverage with them as well.

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Check out our guides to SIM cards and eSIMs in 70+ other countries here.