Albania on a Plate: How Olive Oil, Wine, and Authentic Cuisine Fuel Both Tourism and Investment

I’ve always believed that you can’t really understand Albania until you sit at a table here. Not in a hotel dining room or some polished tourist spot, but at a long wooden table by the sea, with the salt air clinging to your skin, a plate of fresh olives and warm bread in front of you, and someone’s grandmother bringing out more food than you thought possible.

Food here isn’t just about eating. It’s about hospitality, identity, and in many ways, it’s the secret ingredient behind why more people are falling in love with Albania — not only as a destination, but as a place to live, to invest, to build something lasting.

Olive Oil, Wine, and the Flavor of the Land

Albania’s olive trees are older than some of our villages. In Borsh, just a short drive from Saranda, there’s a stretch of hillside covered in silver-green leaves where the olive groves roll almost to the sea. On a quiet afternoon, I once stopped with clients on the way to view a villa, and instead of rushing, we wandered into a small roadside shop. The owner poured us thick golden oil straight from a tin, served with homemade bread. My clients told me later that this moment — not the villa itself — was when they decided they wanted a piece of life here.

Wine has a similar pull. The southern vineyards around Përmet and Berat are producing bottles that, ten years ago, nobody outside Albania would have known. Now, more visitors ask me about local reds and whites than imported labels. It’s part of the charm: Albania is authentic, not mass-produced. The same is true for real estate. There’s still that sense of discovery here, whether you’re tasting a young Kallmet or walking into a brand-new seaview apartment in Ksamil.

Tourism Grows From the Table

Tourists don’t just come for the beaches — though Saranda’s coastline still takes my breath away after all these years. They come for the whole experience. The small tavernas in Ksamil where grilled fish is served still sizzling. The farmers’ markets in Gjirokastër where the tomatoes are so ripe you smell them before you see them. The slow lunches that turn into evenings by the sea.

It all builds a picture of lifestyle, and lifestyle is what drives investment. When someone spends a week here, enjoying freshly pressed olive oil and sipping wine by the Ionian, they start to imagine what life could look like if it wasn’t just a vacation. And that’s where real estate comes in.

Real Estate With a Taste of the Riviera

I’ve shown many properties where the real selling point wasn’t square meters or number of bedrooms. It was the olive tree in the yard, the smell of grilled sardines drifting over from a neighbor’s balcony, the knowledge that within ten minutes you could be sitting by the sea with a glass of wine.

Saranda apartments for sale are still some of the most affordable properties on the entire Mediterranean. I truly believe Saranda offers the best value on the coast. Where else can you find brand-new construction, with full sea views, at prices half of what you’d pay across the water in Corfu?

For those looking at Ksamil, there are beachfront properties and seaview apartments that combine modern luxury with that same authentic lifestyle. One of the projects I often mention casually to clients is White Residence in Ksamil . It’s a brand-new development, just completed in 2025, with private pools for residents, in a quiet neighborhood only seven minutes from the beach. I don’t say this to sell — I just find it interesting how it perfectly blends Albania’s “quiet luxury” with the simple pleasures of seaside living.

A Tangent on Hospitality

Sometimes I think about how deeply hospitality runs here. In Albanian culture, when a guest enters your home, you don’t ask if they’re hungry. You assume they are. You bring food, wine, rakia, coffee — everything. I remember once visiting a family in the hills above Lukova to talk about selling part of their land. Within ten minutes, the table was covered in figs, cheese, and homemade wine. We didn’t talk business until an hour later, but the deal still happened. That’s Albania. Deals are made at the table.

Borsh: Olives, Sea, and Villas

If you drive down the coast from Saranda, Borsh feels like a world of its own. The beach stretches on for kilometers, but what always strikes me are the olive groves behind it. This is where you feel the connection between land and sea most clearly.

Borsh is also where investment opportunities are starting to shine. The demand for private villas with sea views is growing — not only from tourists but from Albanians abroad who want a second home. One project I keep an eye on is the White Residence Villas in Borsh . Four villas, Mediterranean style, each with its own pool, gated for privacy. It’s not flashy, but it feels right for the landscape. And that matters here.

Why Food Matters to Real Estate

It might sound strange to connect olive oil and wine with apartments and villas. But in Albania, they’re inseparable. The same authenticity that makes our cuisine unforgettable is what makes property ownership here appealing. It’s not just bricks and walls. It’s the lifestyle around it.

When I walk a client through a seaview apartment in Saranda, I don’t only talk about the floor plan. I talk about the fish market down the road, where you can buy the day’s catch for a few euros. I talk about the bakery in Ksamil that still makes bread in a wood oven. I mention the little café in the old part of town where the owner will remember your name after two visits.

These details matter. They’re the reasons people choose to invest here instead of somewhere else.

The Bigger Picture

The Albanian Riviera is changing fast. Tourism numbers climb every summer. Roads improve, flights increase, new restaurants open. But what doesn’t change is the culture around food, wine, and hospitality. And that culture is the anchor. It ensures Albania doesn’t lose its soul as it grows.

I often say to clients: Investing here isn’t just about ROI. It’s about quality of life. Of course, the numbers make sense — high rental demand, growing property values, strong potential for Airbnb income. But it’s the mornings with fresh fruit at the market, the long afternoons by the sea, and the evenings with a bottle of local wine that make people stay.

A Final Thought

Albania is not perfect. Sometimes the roads are rough, sometimes the service is slow, sometimes you have to ask twice for things. But maybe that’s part of its charm. You don’t come here for perfection. You come for authenticity, for flavors that feel real, for investments that still have space to grow.

And if you ever sit at a table in Saranda, with olive oil dripping from fresh bread and the sun setting over the Ionian, you’ll understand what I mean. Food here isn’t just food. It’s the reason people fall in love, the reason they invest, the reason I never get tired of showing properties in this corner of the Mediterranean.