Driving in Albania: licence, roads and tolls

One toll road, a great deal of assertive driving, and roads that vary from motorway to riverbed within a few kilometres.

• The Milot-Morine highway to Kosovo is the country's toll road, paid at a plaza; everything else is free.
• Local driving is fast and improvisational. Overtaking on blind bends, undertaking and ignored lane markings are normal, and the accident rate is among the highest in Europe.
• The alcohol limit is 0.1 g/l - effectively nothing, and the penalties got harsher on 7 August 2026, when an amended Road Code raised fines for dangerous driving to as much as 60,000 lek and made the licence loss permanent for a repeat offender caught over 0.5 g/l.
• The mountain roads to Theth and the Valbona valley need a high-clearance car; ordinary hire cars are often excluded from them by contract.
• A green card is required for a foreign-registered car, and one is sold at the border if you arrive without.
• Bring a 1968 International Driving Permit, not a 1949 one. The FCDO is explicit that the 1949 permit is no longer accepted here; the 1968 version alongside your own licence is what hire desks and police expect.