Day: September 5, 2025

• Albania drew 11.7 million tourists in 2024, including 306,000 from the Americas.
• Though most Americans just visit, some loved Albania enough to relocate there.
• Three Americans who moved to Albania told BI about the pros and cons of living there.

Alicia Walter and her husband, Nathan Stark, have traveled around the world. But of all the places they’ve been, Albania was the one that stole their hearts — so much so that they moved there from San Diego in 2023.

“Albania is absolutely gorgeous and still feels untouched by mass tourism, especially compared to other European destinations like Barcelona, Paris, London, Rome, and even Prague,” Walter, 28, told Business Insider. “The food is some of our favorite anywhere, and the locals are incredibly welcoming and have treated us like family.”

It’s not perfect — the country is still developing after decades of isolation under communism, and infrastructure in the capital of Tirana was damaged in a 2019 earthquake — but for Walter and two other Americans who spoke to Business Insider, the benefits of living in Albania outweigh the costs.

Their experiences highlight Albania’s rebrand as a modern, worldly nation. The small Mediterranean country, which is bordered by Greece and Montenegro and sits across the Adriatic sea from Italy, has a population of fewer than 3 million, or less than half that of New York City.

With stunning beaches along its southern coast, the Alps to the north, and hospitality and dining far cheaper than in neighboring countries, Albania has become an increasingly attractive tourist destination. And when the travelers come to visit, some are opting to stay full-time.

Tourists are coming to Albania — and so are expats

Government data shows that Albania welcomed 11.7 million foreign visitors in 2024, up 15.2% from the year before. Of those, 306,000 were from the Americas.

“Albania was under communism for so long, where people really couldn’t leave or go into the country,” said Kelsey Linnell, an American-born Albanian and travel planner at Carlisle Travel Management. “Now it’s on the map because, one, it is safer. And even though it’s a very small country, it’s very diverse.”

“It’s also very inexpensive to travel to Albania, so I think that’s a big highlight for a lot of people,” she added.

While far more Americans visit Albania than settle there, three who moved to Tirana, the country’s capital, told Business Insider about their first impressions, what convinced them to relocate, and the benefits and challenges of living there.

For Americans, Albania is cheap and accessible

One of the biggest factors in Walter’s decision to move to Albania was its visa policy.

US citizens can enter Albania without a visa and stay for up to a year. When paired with Europe’s Schengen visa, a short-term travel permit covering 29 countries, Americans can freely exit Albania and re-enter the country, resetting and extending their stay.

“There are a lot of advantages to living here,” Walter said. “For example, we can take a $100 flight to Rome for the weekend, and when we return, we can start fresh with more time in the EU.”

The cheap cost of living relative to the United States is also a major benefit.

“Housing in Albania is way more affordable than in the States,” Walter said. “In 2019, we lived in San Diego and rented a 630-square-foot, one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit about an hour from the city center for $1,250 a month — the cheapest rent we could find.”

Now, they’re paying about $520 for a 740-square-foot, one-bedroom unit near downtown Tirana.

For Cheryl Orlov, who moved from Los Angeles to Tirana in 2023, moving to Albania was about more than finding cheap rent, though paying under $500 a month for a two-bedroom apartment certainly sweetened the deal.

“While I was happy living in Los Angeles, I still had an aching wanderlust,” Orlov, 55, told Business Insider. She decided to dissolve her business, sell almost all her belongings, and get on a flight across the world.

Beyond Albania’s affordable housing, Orlov loves the country’s unique blend of influences: skyscrapers stand alongside communist-era buildings and the few remaining Ottoman-style mosques and historic homes.

“Albania’s culture and history are so rich — it’s mind-blowing,” she said.

In many ways, the country is still developing, which makes for a fascinating if imperfect experience. “You’ll still see bunkers scattered across cities,” Walter said. “A major earthquake near Tirana in 2019 also destroyed many homes, apartment buildings, and businesses, so there’s still a lot of ongoing construction.”

Albania isn’t perfect, but it’s a launching pad to the rest of the world

Digital nomad Greyson Ferguson initially moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2022 before moving to Tirana in April. Though he was in search of a cheaper lifestyle that would allow him to pay off his student loans, Albania’s natural beauty didn’t hurt.

“As someone who enjoys staying on top of travel trends, Albania piqued my interest,” Ferguson said. “The coastal photographs looked so nice that I thought they were AI-generated.”

For now, things are going well in Albania, though he’s well aware of the challenges of starting a new life in a different country. “The digital nomad experience is fluid, and your experiences aren’t always positive,” he said.

Orlov can relate. While she quickly adjusted to her new life, she admitted there are challenges, namely, learning the language and building lasting friendships.

“Learning Albanian is tough, but one of the biggest challenges to living here is how often expats come and go,” she said. “I’ve noticed that people usually stay for a year or two, then move on. The impermanence is difficult for me — it’s just hard to keep saying goodbye.”

Still, Orlov says the move has paid off. From Albania’s location in southern Europe, she can travel affordably across the continent, and the low cost of living means less worrying about bills.

“I’ve been experiencing so many different cultures, and while that’s not for everyone, I feel like a more complete person,” she said.

“I don’t know if Albania will be my forever place, but still, I’m really happy here,” she added. “I didn’t realize how stressed I was in America until I moved to Tirana.”

After a tumultuous few months marked by conflict with Cambodia and political maneuvering, Thailand has a new Prime Minister. Bhumjaithai Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul, who served as interior minister until June under the Pheu Thai-led coalition and as health minister in the previous military-led government, was twice a deputy prime minister before finally securing the top job on Friday.

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Anutin, 58, was elected to the premiership by 311 of 490 present House of Representatives lawmakers, a week after the Constitutional Court officially ordered the removal of Pheu Thai’s second Prime Minister in two years, Paetongtarn Shinawatra.

Following more than two hours of debate before the roll call vote, Anutin defeated Pheu Thai’s last eligible candidate Chaikasem Nitisiri largely due to the backing of the progressive opposition People’s Party, which reached a deal that included Anutin’s commitment to dissolve the parliament within four months, which would force an early new general election.

The People’s Party—the reincarnation of the dissolved Move Forward Party that won the most votes in Thailand’s 2023 election on a pro-democracy platform but was blocked from forming a government by populist, second-placed Pheu Thai, which partnered with conservative allies including Bhumjaithai at the time—controls nearly a third of the lower chamber and has insisted on remaining in the opposition, leaving Anutin with a minority ruling government that may find policymaking challenging.

Anutin will be “constrained severely,” Mark S. Cogan, an associate professor of peace and conflict studies at Japan’s Kansai Gaidai University, tells TIME.

Still, the election of a new premier, for now, may end a period of instability for Thailand and gives Anutin the chance to prove his leadership.

Here’s what to know.

What are Anutin’s policies?

When they were coalition partners, Bhumjaithai and Pheu Thai butted heads on several occasions, including on policy about cannabis, casinos, and coups. Ultimately, Bhumjaithai left the coalition in June amid disagreement over whether Anutin would get to continue as interior minister.

While Bhumjaithai is generally seen as conservative, pro-military, and pro-monarchy, Anutin likely won the support of the People’s Party, says Cogan, because he seemed “more stable” than Pheu Thai, which had two premiers ousted in two years over ethics violations and had grown unpopular over its failures to deliver on economic campaign promises.

Thailand under Anutin will try to depart from Pheu Thai’s failings as much as possible, says Cogan. This could involve a focus on infrastructure reforms and regional partnerships. Cogan said an Anutin government may also retract populist policies like Pheu Thai’s much-touted digital wallet scheme in lieu of a more pragmatic agenda.

One policy area that may be a priority under Anutin, says Napon Jatusripitak, a visiting fellow and acting coordinator of the Thailand Studies Programme at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, is cannabis regulation. Anutin as health minister in the pre-2023 government pushed to decriminalize cannabis, while the Pheu Thai government tried to reverse that.

One area that is unlikely to see any reform is Thailand’s controversial royal defamation law, given Anutin’s royalist leanings. 

Overall, says Napon, Anutin’s government may lean into decentralization, potentially granting more authority or more funding to local governments to start building support for future elections. 

For Bhumjaithai, Napon says, “it is always about, first and foremost, about local power brokers greasing the wheels of patronage.”

What’s next for Thai politics?

If Anutin keeps his word on dissolving the House of Representatives within four months, it will be a short-lived premiership. But he may choose not to acknowledge the deal.

The People’s Party can try to boot Anutin with a no-confidence vote if they feel he is reneging on their deal, but they would need the support of Pheu Thai or other opposition parties to do so, and Cogan says the next few weeks could allow Anutin to “whip” a new majority coalition together, including parties that may have backed Pheu Thai in Friday’s vote. 

“If he is truly the establishment pick, and the establishment sees that it’s not in its interest to hold a new election now,” says Napon, “then, of course, why go against it?” 

Pheu Thai’s future could also impact Anutin’s: the party’s patriarch Thaksin Shinawatra, Paetongtarn’s father and a former Prime Minister who self-exiled for years before returning in 2023 and was widely viewed as protected from prosecution while his party was in power, abruptly fled to Dubai before Friday’s vote. He claims he’ll be back in time to appear in court for the verdict of a case that may land him in jail.

“If next week the court rules against [Thaksin], that would make things a lot easier for Bhumjaithai and Anutin to buy more MPs from Pheu Thai,” says Titipol Phakdeewanich, a political scientist at Thailand’s Ubon Ratchathani University, who notes to TIME that Anutin is likely to try to see out the demise of his former coalition partner that tried to stall his assumption to the top post.

Titipol adds: “Four months might not be helpful to Bhumjaithai to work on certain policy, but it’s long enough to take revenge on Pheu Thai.”