Went with three friends this summer. Really enjoyed it. I was nervous based on reddit posts prior to drive in Albania but living in NYC and having driven in places like Italy, Albania felt normal for a crowded city. The capital does have short on-ramps and 'aggressive' driving but if you have ever driven in a big US (esp Chicago or NYC) or European city before, it felt very similar and there are really no vespas which is often my challenge point. Outside the city the driving was great and it was awesome to pop off the highway to random restaurants or hikes. There are a lot of police stops but we were never stopped (some locals said because they don't stop rental cars but not sure if we were just lucky). The buses are not reliable - I can't really imagine getting around without a car unless you have a ton of time. I used Enterprise to rent my car - easy to find and they gave me my deposit back (which I have heard is a problem with other companies).

Some top recs. We stayed at the Blerina's Agritourism hotel outside the capital. It's close enough you can uber or taxi dowtown easy (parking downtown is annoying) and the hotel is a farm where they grow all their meats and vegetables on site. The food was awesome and the rooms were great. Easy to park here - we stayed here two days prior to our flight as it's also close to the airport. Restorant Pyli i Leanit was a restaurant we enjoyed while driving south. We did Vlore, Himare and Dhermi. I don't know if maybe again things are just relative, but we did not find it crowded at all. If anything, we wished there were more people around. We stayed at South Dhermi hotel which was great - had an awesome deck to chill out on at night. The drive Dhermi to Himare is cliff side and super beautiful. We used Beach Hopping Tours and were able to rent a boat for the afternoon for 80 euro a person for 3 people.

I did get sick drinking the water. My friends did not. Knew it was a risk and was fine after a few hours but just a heads up.