Is Albania Vegan-Friendly? A Complete Vegan Travel Guide

Can you actually travel around Albania as a vegan? The short anwers is: yes, but Albania isn’t a country where you can simply walk into every restaurant and expect to find a vegan menu.

We travelled through Albania as a fully plant-based couple, from the mountains in the north to the beaches of the Albanian Riviera, while trying to keep our trip affordable. Along the way we discovered that being vegan in Albania is never impossible, but it can sometimes require a little creativity.

In larger cities and popular tourist destinations like Tirana and Sarande, finding plant-based food can be surprisingly easy. In smaller towns, traditional restaurants and especially the mountains of northern Albania, you’ll need to be a little more prepared.

So, how vegan-friendly is Albania really?

Here’s everything we learned about finding vegan food, eating traditional Albanian cuisine, staying on a budget and travelling plant-based across the country.

If you are planning your own trip to Albania, check out our complete itinerary here!

General Location Rating

One of the biggest things we noticed is that how easy it is to eat vegan in Albania depends heavily on where you are.

Tirana is a completely different experience from a small mountain village in the Albanian Alps. Likewise, the increasingly touristy southern coast generally offers more choice than remote areas in the north.

Based on our experience, here’s how we’d rate the places we visited:

Destination	Vegan-friendly	Why
Tirana	⭐⭐⭐⭐	Lots of dedicated vegan/vegetarian options
Berat	⭐⭐⭐	Mostly just local food, stuffed peppers that are already vegan and simple pasta dishes that can be veganised
Shkodër	⭐⭐⭐	Good selection for a smaller city, could even find smoothie bowls, but Wanderer’s Hostel was disappointing
Sarandë	⭐⭐⭐⭐	Growing tourist/vegan scene. Home to the only fully vegan restaurant in the country
Vlorë	⭐⭐⭐	Mostly local dishes but also international food. Found a great local restaurant that turned a vegetarian pasta vegan on request
Gjirokastër	⭐⭐⭐	Traditional food that can be adapted, didn’t get to try a lot of food there
Theth	⭐⭐⭐	More difficult in mountain areas, but our homestay served a great dinner buffet with the most vegan options we have seen in the country
Valbonë	⭐⭐⭐	More difficult in mountain areas, but our homestay served a great dinner and had a perfect understanding of ‘vegan’

What Is Albanian Food Like for Vegans?

At first glance, Albania might not seem like an obvious destination for vegan travellers.

Traditional Albanian cuisine contains plenty of meat and dairy, with ingredients such as cheese, yoghurt, butter and meat featuring heavily in many dishes. But there’s another side to Albanian food.

The cuisine also makes extensive use of fresh vegetables, beans, peppers, aubergines, tomatoes, potatoes, rice, herbs, olives and olive oil. This means that there are actually quite a few dishes that are naturally plant-based or can easily be made vegan. The one we personally enjoyed the most were the stuffed peppers.

Traditional food isn’t necessarily vegan

This is probably the most important thing to understand when eating in Albania. A dish might appear completely plant-based but still contain an animal product. For example, vegetables might be cooked in butter, beans might contain meat or meat stock, and a vegetable-filled pastry might contain dairy or eggs. Even something as simple as a salad can sometimes come with cheese or a yoghurt-based dressing.

If you’re strictly vegan, it’s worth asking about the ingredients before ordering.

The good news

The basic ingredients used in Albanian cooking are often very vegan-friendly.

If you’re eating at a traditional restaurant and there isn’t a dedicated vegan option, you can often build a meal from things like:

• Beans
• Grilled vegetables
• Roasted peppers
• Aubergines
• Potatoes
• Rice
• Salads
• Tomatoes
• Olives
• Fresh bread
• Fruit

This became particularly useful for us outside of the larger cities. And luckily, the Albanians are very friendly and accommodating to tourists. So as long as they understand what ‘vegan’ is, they are more than happy to accommodate your needs.

The Best Vegan Foods to Try in Albania

One of our favourite parts of travelling vegan is discovering foods that don’t necessarily have anything to do with modern vegan cuisine.

Albania is a great example of this.

Some of the country’s traditional dishes are naturally plant-based, while others can be adapted relatively easily.

Fasule

Fasule is a traditional Albanian bean stew and one of the most useful dishes for vegan travellers.

Beans are a staple of Albanian cooking, and a simple bowl of fasule can make for a filling and inexpensive meal. It is also one of the few local foods that provide a great source of protein for vegans.

However, always check how it has been prepared. Some versions can contain meat or animal-based ingredients.

Vegan-friendly? Often, but always check.

Grilled Vegetables

When in doubt, grilled vegetables can be your friend.

Eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and other seasonal vegetables are commonly available, particularly around the coast.

They’re also a great side dish to combine with other plant-based options.

Just make sure they’re cooked in oil rather than butter.

Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed vegetables are another dish worth looking for, and it was one of our favorites!

Depending on the recipe, peppers can be filled with rice, vegetables and herbs. Although meat and cheese are also common ingredients in some versions. So this is also a dish where asking before ordering is particularly important.

Stuffed Aubergines

Aubergines are widely used in Albanian and wider Balkan cuisine.

They can be prepared in several different ways, including stuffed or baked with vegetables.

They’re a great option when you’re looking for something more substantial than a salad.

Japrak

Japrak consists of stuffed vine leaves and is another dish that can potentially be suitable for vegans.

However, recipes vary, and some versions contain meat.

If the filling consists of rice, herbs and vegetables, it can be a fantastic plant-based option.

Fresh Salads

Albania’s Mediterranean climate means fresh produce is everywhere.

A simple Albanian salad can contain tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, olives and herbs.

It’s not necessarily the most exciting meal on its own, but paired with beans, grilled vegetables, potatoes or bread, it can become part of a surprisingly good meal.

Byrek

If there’s one food you’ll see everywhere in Albania, it’s probably byrek.

These flaky pastries are sold in bakeries and restaurants throughout the country and come with a huge variety of fillings.

The problem? Most byrek isn’t vegan.

Cheese, yoghurt, butter and eggs can all make an appearance depending on the recipe.

Even a vegetable-filled byrek isn’t automatically vegan, so make sure you ask before buying one.

That said, if you find a bakery selling a genuinely vegan version, you’ve found yourself an excellent cheap travel snack or simple lunch!

The Best Cities in Albania for Vegan Food

While vegan food is possible throughout Albania, the experience varies dramatically depending on where you’re travelling.

Here’s what we’d expect from the main destinations on our route.

Tirana

⭐⭐⭐⭐

If you’re vegan and visiting Albania, Tirana is where you’ll have the easiest time.

As the country’s capital and largest city, it has a much more diverse restaurant scene than smaller destinations.

You’ll find dedicated vegan and vegetarian restaurants alongside international restaurants that offer plant-based choices. We went to a place calles ‘Veggies’, and managed to get some great meals there like this curry!

There are also supermarkets, cafés and takeaway options, meaning you don’t have to rely entirely on traditional Albanian cuisine.

Our advice: If you’re worried about finding vegan food in Albania, don’t be. Spend a few days in Tirana and you’ll quickly realise that the rest of the country will be manageable with a little preparation.

Shkodër

⭐⭐⭐

Shkodër is smaller than Tirana but still has a surprisingly good selection of food.

For us, it’s also an important destination for vegan travellers because it’s one of the last major stops before heading into the Albanian Alps.

If you’re heading towards Valbonë and Theth, Shkodër is a good place to stock up on snacks and eat a proper meal before heading into the mountains.

This is especially useful because your options become considerably more limited once you leave the city and head further north.

Theth & Valbonë

⭐⭐⭐

This is where vegan travel in Albania becomes considerably more challenging.

Theth and Valbonë are remote mountain destinations, and the food available to travellers is often centred around traditional guesthouse meals.

Don’t expect to find a selection of dedicated vegan restaurants here.

That doesn’t mean you can’t travel there as a vegan. You might just have to plan ahead a bit more.

If you’re staying at a guesthouse, contact them before arriving. Or immediately upon arrival, explain clearly that you’re vegan. We booked our whole trip through Valbone and Theth through Wanderer’s Hostel, and the guesthouses that we got to stay at were amazing. The location and houses themselves were beautiful, and the hosts were incredible friendly. One of them naturally served a huge dinner buffet for all the guests, which naturally had plenty of vegan options. At the other, the hosts were incredible accommodating and made sure that there were plenty of vegan options for dinner.

But still, we definitely recommend bringing some emergency food and snacks from Shkodër. Especially so you have all that you need during the hike.

Things like:

• Nuts
• Protein bars
• Fruit
• Bread
• Peanut butter
• Crackers
• Other compact snacks

These can make a huge difference when you’re hiking all day and suddenly discover that the restaurant menu isn’t particularly vegan-friendly.

For us, this was the destination where being prepared mattered most.

Berat

⭐⭐⭐

Berat is another destination where traditional Albanian food and an increasingly tourist-oriented restaurant scene give vegan travellers plenty to work with.

The historic centre is packed with restaurants and cafés, and vegetable-based dishes are relatively easy to find. You just have to communicate clearly that you want them to prepare it vegan.

This is also a good place to experiment with traditional Albanian food rather than immediately searching for a dedicated vegan restaurant.

Vlorë

⭐⭐⭐

Once you reach Vlorë and the coast, things start becoming easier again.

The city has a large tourist population and a much bigger international restaurant scene.

Alongside traditional Albanian food, you’ll find restaurants serving Mediterranean and international cuisine, which tends to mean more plant-based options. At the very least, you will find staff that speaks english and understands what ‘vegan’ means.

The coast also makes it easy to supplement restaurant meals with fresh fruit, vegetables and supermarket food.

Sarandë

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sarandë is one of the easiest places outside Tirana for vegan travellers.

It’s a major tourist destination, meaning plenty of restaurants that are accustomed to catering to international visitors with different dietary requirements. You’ll find a mixture of traditional Albanian restaurants, Mediterranean food and international cuisine, alongside increasingly dedicated plant-based options.

This is one of those places where using Google Maps and Happy Cow to check menus before you head out can make finding food very straightforward. We even managed to find vegan icecream at icecream shops along the harbor.

It is also home to the country’s only fully vegan restaurant, Green Life Market. And trust us when we say, this is a place you need to visit when you are in Albania. Not only are the owners super friendly, but they make all their food with freshly prepared ingredients. Anything that could be made fresh and by themselves, they do. Think of pita bread, burger breads and hummus. All homemade. They even make their own ‘ice tea’, among other drinks, in several different flavours. We ended up going there two nights in a row and tried both the available curries, as well as a vegan burger!

How to Find Vegan Food in Albania

Use HappyCow

HappyCow is particularly useful for vegan travellers because it specifically focuses on vegetarian and vegan food. It’s especially useful in larger cities where there are enough plant-based restaurants to appear in its database.

However, don’t make the mistake of assuming: “There are no restaurants on HappyCow, so there is no vegan food here.”

That’s particularly important in smaller Albanian towns and rural areas. Traditional restaurants may have perfectly suitable dishes without ever being listed as vegan-friendly. And from our experience, every place we went to had at least some local places already marked as ‘having vegan options’.

Use Google Maps

You don’t necessarily need to know every vegan restaurant in the country before you arrive.

In fact, one of the best skills you can develop as a vegan traveller is knowing how to find vegan food anywhere you go.

And after checking HappyCow when looking for food, our next option is usually Google Maps.

Search terms like:

“vegan”, “vegetarian”, “plant-based” or “smoothie bowl”

Then look beyond the first few results.

Check:

• Recent reviews, and filter on the keywork ‘vegan’
• Menu photos
• Restaurant photos
• Opening hours

A restaurant that says it has vegan options might only have one or two choices, while a restaurant that doesn’t advertise itself as vegan-friendly might have several naturally plant-based dishes.

Ask Your Accommodation

This is one of our favourite travel tricks. Hostel and guesthouse staff usually know their neighbourhood far better than Google does.

This becomes especially important in more remote places in the north and smaller towns in the south.

From our experience, it was not difficult to find local people that are willing to help. And simply asking any of the following questions can get very far:

“Do you know anywhere nearby that can prepare vegan food?”

Or ask whether they can prepare a vegan meal themselves.

And if you’re heading somewhere remote, tell your accommodation about your dietary requirements before you arrive.

Supermarkets Are Your Safety Net

One of our biggest pieces of advice for vegan backpackers is simple:

Don’t underestimate supermarkets.

Especially when travelling through rural areas, supermarkets can be the difference between having a great day and spending an evening desperately searching for something to eat.

Stock up on things like:

• Fresh fruit
• Bread
• Nuts
• Plant-based spreads, especially peanut butter
• Hummus
• Vegetables
• Snacks
• Plant milk where available

This is particularly useful to know before you leave Shköder to go hiking in the Albanian Alps. We definitely managed to stock up on a lot of vegan snacks there as you can see in the picture below.

What We Learned Travelling Vegan Around Albania

After travelling through Albania, one thing became clear to us:

Albania was easier than we expected

Before visiting, we weren’t sure how easy it would be to eat fully plant-based.

Albanian cuisine isn’t particularly known for being vegan, and meat and dairy feature heavily in traditional food. But once we actually travelled through the country, we realised that veganism wasn’t going to stop us from experiencing Albania. We just had to stay flexible in certain places, and overall we had no real trouble anywhere.

The north can be the biggest challenge

The biggest difference was between the cities and the mountains.

In Tirana, you can actively seek out vegan restaurants. In Theth, you might instead be sitting at a guesthouse in the middle of the mountains wondering what can be made without meat, cheese, eggs or butter. The further you get from Albania’s major tourist centres, the more important it becomes to communicate, plan ahead and carry some backup food.

The south should be much easier

Once we reached the coast, the variety increased again.

Vlorë and Sarandë have a much more international restaurant scene, and the large number of tourists means restaurants are accustomed to different dietary requirements.

This doesn’t mean every restaurant suddenly has a vegan menu.

But finding something suitable becomes much less of a challenge.

Vegan doesn’t have to mean expensive

One thing we particularly liked about Albania was that eating vegan doesn’t have to destroy your travel budget.

You don’t need to eat at dedicated vegan restaurants for every meal. It might not even be possible in certain places. In fact, some of the cheapest options can be the most naturally vegan:

• Beans
• Vegetables
• Fruit
• Bread
• Rice
• Potatoes
• Salads
• Supermarket food

And when you’re staying in apartments with a kitchen, buying ingredients from a supermarket and preparing some of your own meals can reduce your food costs even further.

For us, this is an important part of vegan budget travel: Eating plant-based doesn’t have to mean spending more.

Preparation makes all the difference

If there’s one thing we’d tell another vegan traveller heading to Albania, it’s this: Don’t expect every destination to be vegan-friendly, and stay flexible.

Research a few restaurants before arriving, use HappyCow and Google Maps, utilize the variety of grocery stores, ask your accommodation, learn a few phrases, carry some snacks, and don’t be afraid to eat simple local food. Once you approach Albania this way, being vegan becomes much less of a limitation.

FAQ: Vegan Travel in Albania

Is Albania vegan-friendly?

Yes, but it depends on where you go. Tirana and larger tourist destinations have considerably more vegan options, while remote areas such as Theth and Valbonë require more preparation.

Is it easy to find vegan food in Albania?

In larger cities, yes. In smaller towns and rural areas, it can be more difficult. Traditional restaurants often don’t have dedicated vegan menus, but vegetable, bean, rice and salad dishes can provide good options.

What traditional Albanian food is vegan?

Dishes such as certain versions of fasule, fasule pllaqi, grilled vegetables, stuffed vegetables and japrak can be vegan. However, recipes vary, so always check the ingredients.

Are there vegan restaurants in Albania?

Yes. Tirana has the largest selection of dedicated vegan and vegetarian restaurants, while tourist destinations such as Sarandë also have an increasing number of plant-based options.

Is Tirana vegan-friendly?

Very much so. Tirana is probably the easiest destination in Albania for vegan travellers, thanks to its larger selection of dedicated vegan, vegetarian and international restaurants.

Is Sarandë vegan-friendly?

Sarandë is relatively vegan-friendly, particularly compared with smaller destinations. Its large international tourist population means there are plenty of restaurants and increasingly more plant-based choices.

Can you eat vegan in Theth and Valbonë?

Yes, but you’ll need to plan ahead. Dedicated vegan restaurants are not what you should expect in these remote mountain areas. Contact your accommodation beforehand and consider bringing snacks from Shkodër.

Is Albanian byrek vegan?

Usually not. Byrek can contain cheese, yoghurt, butter or eggs depending on the recipe. Even vegetable-filled byrek should be checked before eating.

Is vegan food expensive in Albania?

It doesn’t have to be. Supermarkets, fresh produce, beans, bread and simple traditional dishes can be very affordable. Dedicated vegan and international restaurants can cost more, particularly in popular tourist destinations.

Should I bring vegan food with me to Albania?

You don’t need to bring your entire food supply, but carrying a few emergency snacks is a good idea, particularly if you’re travelling into remote mountain areas such as Theth and Valbonë.

Final Verdict: Should Vegans Travel to Albania?

Absolutely.

Albania isn’t going to give you the same effortless vegan experience as some of Europe’s biggest cities or famous plant-based destinations. You won’t find a vegan menu in every restaurant, and there will be moments when you have to ask questions, search a little harder or simply make do with a simpler meal.

But that’s not a reason to skip Albania.

If anything, our experience showed us the opposite.

From hiking through the mountains around Theth and Valbonë to swimming along the Albanian Riviera, we were able to experience the country fully while staying completely plant-based.

And perhaps most importantly, we didn’t need a huge food budget to do it.

You just need to be a little prepared, stay flexible and remember that vegan travel isn’t about finding a vegan restaurant in every destination. It’s about figuring out how to experience the destination without compromising the way you want to travel.

And that’s something we hope to keep proving here at Peaks & Polders: you don’t need a huge budget, or a destination famous for vegan food, to explore the world on your own terms.

If this got your interest, check out our other Europe posts to get inspired for your next trip to Europe!

And check out our Travel Guides, like our Backpacking Essentials Guide to help you prepare for your trip.