Everything You Need to Know

If you’re planning a trip to Albania, your biggest decision is going to be whether to travel by bus or hire a car.

Unfortunately, both options come with considerable downsides.

Renting a car gives you the freedom to stop wherever you like, exploring the country in depth while not being at the mercy of a complex bus system. But on the other hand, local drivers are aggressive, parking is so sparse you may not be able to find a space anywhere near your accommodation, and mountain roads can involve steep gradients, sheer drops, and tight hairpin turns.

Taking the bus offers an inexpensive way to get around the country, where you don’t have to worry about dealing with scary drivers, scarier roads, or spend hours looking for a parking spot. And yet, bus stations can be located on random stretches of highway in the middle of nowhere, with no indication you’re in the right place. The inability to reserve a seat in advance can make for stressful travel days, while the lack of air conditioning can be uncomfortable in summer.

Dave and I decided to navigate Albania by bus, primarily because neither of us have much experience driving on the right-hand side of the road, and we didn’t want to learn while being surrounded by impatient, honking drivers.

Having said that, I was definitely concerned we were making a big mistake. In fact, I arrived in Tirana with visions of Dave and I stranded on the side of a motorway with no idea how we’d get to our next destination, but good news! That only happened to us once.

It’s true: I had a couple of terrible bus-related experiences in and around Albania, but I learned a lot from my disasters. Had I known what I know now, in fact, I fully believe I would have had a smooth trip overall, which is exactly why I’m publishing this article.

And you know what? If Dave and I were planning a return trip to Albania, we would absolutely make the same decision again. I do believe that travelling the country by bus is a better option than by car.

And so, if you’re heading to Albania and considering using public transport, I’m hear to tell you that it’s absolutely doable. And as long as you keep a few key things in mind, you’ll be able to have a trouble-free trip, too.

In this article, I’m going to cover absolutely everything you need to know about how the bus system works in this country. I’ll share all of my transportation disasters, along with why they happened and how I could have prevented them. And I’ll share my exact itinerary, too, so that you can copy it and know that the buses I recommend do exist, are comfortable, and run on time.

Let’s get started.

Gjirafa is Going to Be Your Big Travel Essential

I couldn’t imagine travelling around Albania without access to Gjirafa Travel! While this website certainly has its flaws, it’s still the most reliable way to find out which buses are running between two destinations.

Gjirafa is best-used for its timetables. While it doesn’t list every bus company that’s operating on a specific route, it does show most of them, and the times listed are accurate. What is less accurate is the location of the stations, and this ended up being the main cause of my many misadventures.

I can tell you that the departure bus station locations listed on Gjirafa Travel were correct for Tirana, Berat, Gjirokaster, Sarande, Ksamil, and Himare. In terms of where the buses arrived, that was a little more vague. Sometimes drivers would just drop us off in town on a random street that wasn’t actually the bus station, but it was usually close enough.

In both Fier and Prizren (which yes, is in Kosovo, but I’m including it here, as it still involves Gjirafa Travel) the departure point of the bus station was actually 10 kilometres (6 miles) from where it was marked on Gjirafa. And that… was a huge problem.

In both of those cities, I ended up missing my original bus, having to troubleshoot on the fly, and arriving in my next location hours after I was supposed to. It was stressful, confusing, expensive, and wasted so much time.

Fortunately, after I complained to Gjirafa, they have since updated the location of the Prizren bus to be correct, but the Fier departure point is still wrong. (I can’t even tell you where the correct Fier departure point is, because it’s on the side of the highway, not marked on Google Maps, and with no visible sign so you know where to stand.)

How can you prevent this from happening?

If you’re going to be travelling to/from anywhere that I haven’t confirmed is marked in the correct location, you’ll want to double-check everything with the locals. Ask your guesthouse owner if the departure point for your bus is correct. When you arrive at a bus station, ask a staff member or another driver if you’re in the right place. If you can find the contact details of the bus company, you can send them a WhatsApp message in advance to double-check the departure location.

It’s a headache, but not the end of the world, and if you’re only venturing to the places I mentioned above, this isn’t something you’ll need to worry about.

You Can Sort-of-But-Not-Really Book in Advance

Once you’ve finalised your itinerary, you’ll probably think your next step is going to be booking everything. And the good news is that, unlike in the past, you can buy bus tickets online, through Gjirafa — I had zero issues doing so for the two bus journeys I booked — and you can pay by foreign bankcard.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is that bus drivers do not accept digital versions of tickets. They all require you to hand over a paper copy, as they’ll need to keep it as proof that you travelled on board. Given that it’s unlikely you’ll have access to a printer as you travel around the country, you’ll therefore need to make sure you’ve booked and printed all of your tickets before you leave home.

But is there any real benefit to booking in advance?

In Albania, the main one is being able to pay by card. This is a country that is very cash-focused (we even had to pay for all of our accommodation in cash!) and that means making sure you always have plenty on your person. And yes, bus drivers in Albania also only accept cash as payment.

You might think the other benefit would be having peace of mind that you’ve got a seat on your chosen bus. The reality, however, is the exact opposite.

Having a Bus Ticket Does Not Guarantee You a Seat on the Bus!

Bus travel in Albania is more than a little casual.

You may have bought a bus ticket in advance, but you shouldn’t expect the driver to know about it, wait around for you, or prevent other passengers from taking your seat. Yes, seriously.

Here’s how it usually works: buses arrive at their stop, passengers get on, the driver waits until the vehicle is full, then leaves. What that means is that if the bus arrives 10 minutes early and there’s enough people waiting around to fill the vehicle, the driver will take payment from everyone and set off. Yep, it’ll leave when it’s full, whether you have a ticket or not, or whether you’re on board or not.

(This also means that on quiet routes, you might find yourself waiting around for enough passengers to fill the bus.)

For this reason, there really isn’t much point in buying a bus ticket in advance, as if you miss the bus you’re meant to be on, you’ll have to pay for another one. While we were travelling in Albania, I don’t recall seeing any other passengers with booked bus tickets — everyone just turned up half an hour before the departure time and paid the driver in cash.

The Buses are Extremely Inexpensive

One huge advantage of travelling Albania by bus is getting to save so much money! This country has a seriously inexpensive bus network, and I couldn’t believe how little money I was paying for each journey. Here’s exactly what I paid for every bus ride I took within the country:

• Tirana to Berat: €5
• Berat to Gjirokaster: €10
• Gjirokaster to Sarande: €4.50
• Sarande to Butrint: €2
• Butrint to Ksamil: €1
• Ksamil to Sarande: €1.50
• Sarande to Himare: €8
• Himare to Tirana: €12
• Tirana to Ohrid: €18

When you consider that renting a car in Albania is likely to cost €30 a day at a minimum, you can see just how much you’ll save by utilising public transport.

And They’re Surprisingly Comfortable

I’m making this statement with a huge disclaimer because Dave and I visited Albania in early-September, when daily temperatures were around 26°C (79°F). Because of this, the lack of air conditioning in the vast majority of buses wasn’t a problem for us.

In July and August, the temperatures in Albania average out at 30-31°C (86-88°F) and can reach as high as 38°C (100°F) — a lot of travellers complain about hot buses at this time of year. In these temperatures, windows will often be opened on the bus to help cool things down, which does help, but it also might be worth bringing a fan with you to help stay cool.

Aside from potential temperature issues, we found the buses overall to be pretty comfortable. All of the ones we took were clean, the seats were soft and supportive, and (with the exception of one bumpy ride to the North Macedonian border), the suspension worked well. Bus drivers generally drove safely around the country and Dave and I never felt in danger on any of our rides.

Given the prices you’re paying for the buses, they could easily be a lot worse.

The Bus Stations are Often in the Middle of Nowhere

In Albania, bus drivers are allergic to town centres and it makes for some irritating travel days.

It’s kind of a long story, but basically, private car ownership was banned in Albania while it was under communist rule, and so a lot of towns and cities aren’t well set-up for cars. Traffic can be terrible, streets are narrow, and parking spots are sparse. Driving through a city, then, makes for quite the lengthy journey — one that most bus drivers don’t want to have to deal with.

And so, instead of driving into the town centre, the drivers will instead stop on the side of the motorway, on the turn-off to the destination, leaving you to find your own way into town.

In both Berat and Gjirokaster, for example, the long-distance buses drop you a ten-minute drive from the main tourist areas, which means you’ll then need to hop in a taxi or catch another local bus to get into town. This wasn’t an issue for us: every time we got off the bus, there were numerous taxis waiting to pick people up — we paid €2.50 each time to get to our accommodation in Berat and Gjirokaster.

Tirana is no better: the city has three separate bus stations: the north-south terminal, the east terminal, and the airport bus terminal. The north-south and east terminals are all inconveniently located on the outskirts of the city, so reach either of them, you’ll need to take a local bus or Patoko (Tirana’s taxi app). Likewise, when you arrive in Tirana by bus, you’ll be dropped off on the outskirts of the city and will need to call a Patoko to get to your accommodation.

Elsewhere, things can get even more baffling.

In Fier, we were dropped off in the middle of a market, a ten minute walk from the main station; our connecting bus, however, departed from a spot beside the motorway six miles away from both the main station and the market we were standing at. When we arrived in Sarande and Himare, the bus simply pulled over at a random spot to let us off.

All that to say, don’t be surprised if the bus station you think you’re going to arrive at is not where you actually do.

Take the Direct Route if Possible

Allow me to expand a little on the aforementioned confusion we faced in Fier.

When Dave and I decided to travel from Berat to Gjirokaster, we were frustrated by the options for direct buses: we could either depart at 8 a.m. or 2 p.m. The former of these was too early and the latter was too late. We thought we’d found a solution when we hopped on Gjirafa and discovered there were dozens of indirect buses running between the two towns.

Little did we know, we should have absolutely not have taken an indirect bus route in Albania.

As I mentioned in the section above, we were dropped on the side of the road in Fier a 10-minute walk from the bus station. That was fine. When we got to said bus station — which is where Gjirafa said the bus to Gjirokaster would leave from — we were the only people there.

Having learned from my bus-related disaster in Prizren (an incident so dramatic I had to write an entire blog post about it!) I approached a local driver to double-check we were in the right place. In shocking news to nobody, we were not, in fact, in the right place.

So it turned out the buses left from a completely different location to where they arrived, and because the drivers don’t like to enter cities, we’d need to head out to the motorway and wait for the bus to swing by and pick us up — if it even did. The bus driver helpfully dropped a pin on Google Maps so we’d know exactly where to wait, but Google Streetview showed there was nothing around. It was just the side of a motorway with no shelter, sign, or anything to indicate it was a bus station.

Had we not asked that bus driver for help, we would have been waiting at Fier bus station for a bus that was never going to arrive.

Had we just chosen a direct bus route, we would have completely eliminated the problem.

Given the lack of clarity over where buses actually depart from and arrive at — and that they’re often not the same place — I would strongly recommend steering clear of the indirect routes. If you do decide you want to take an indirect journey, make sure you’re willing to ask plenty of locals if you’re in the right place, as you might need to take a taxi to a random stretch of road to catch the connecting bus.

How to Successfully Take the Bus in Albania

Now that I’ve told you absolutely everything I know about the bus network in Albania, let’s put it all together so that you can ensure you have a safe, smooth, and enjoyable trip.

Step One: Decide where you want to visit in Albania and much time you want to spend in each place.

Step Two: Head to Gjirafa Travel to check that there are direct buses between your destinations and that they’re all running at logical times. If not, see if you can rework your itinerary to make things easier on yourself.

Step Three: If you want to pay by card, book your bus tickets in advance and print them out. If not, make a note of each journey you want to take.

Step Four: Arrive in Albania with blind faith that everything is going to be fine.

Step Five: On the night before your bus ride, have a chat with your guesthouse owner to double-check that the bus you’ll be taking exists and is leaving from the exact place you think it will.

Step Six: On the morning of that first bus ride, ensure you have the correct change to pay the driver and aim to get to the station half an hour before your departure.

(If you’re going to be departing Tirana and will be using Patoko to get to the station, give yourself even more of a buffer because it can take as much as half an hour to get a driver and traffic can be maddening. If you’ll be outside of Tirana (where Patoko doesn’t operate), ensure you’ve booked a taxi or driver to the bus station, if needed, as they’re not easy to find on the streets.)

Step Six: Once you get to the station, double-check with a member of staff, bus driver, or friendly local that the station you’re at is the correct one. I found the most success by asking other bus drivers, as staff members often didn’t know the routes of other bus companies.

Step Seven: Get on board, arrive at your destination, and find yourself wondering what all the fuss was about.

My Albanian Itinerary and Recommended Buses

If this all sounds like far too much hard work, here’s the route that I took in Albania, with the exact buses I used (or recommend taking, in the case of my Berat-to-Fier-to-Gjirokaster disaster.)

Tirana to Berat: 8:45 a.m. bus from Tirana to Berat, leaving from Tirana’s South and North Bus Station and arriving at Berat Station at 10:45 a.m. After arriving in Berat, catch a taxi (there’s several at the station) to your accommodation.

Berat to Gjirokaster: 2:00 p.m. bus from Berat to Gjirokaster, leaving from Berat Station and arriving at Gjirokaster Station at 5:00 p.m. Both Berat and Gjirokaster Station are located outside of town, so you’ll need to take a taxi (or local bus) to each of them.

Gjirokaster to Sarande: 9 a.m. bus from Gjirokaster to Sarande, leaving from Gjirokaster Station and arriving in Sarande at 10 a.m. You’ll need to take a taxi to Gjirokaster Station, as it’s located outside of town.

Sarande to Himare: 11 a.m. bus from Sarande to Himare, leaving from Saranda bus station and arriving in Himare at 12:30 p.m.

Himare to Tirana: 6 p.m. bus from Himare to Tirana, leaving from outside Riviera Tours (where we bought our ticket from the day before) and arriving in Tirana at 10 p.m. We arrived at Tirana’s East Bus Terminal.

And That Was Albania by Bus!

Albania was a particularly complex country to navigate by public transport, but had I known what I now know, I think I’d be telling you the exact opposite.

The main thing to keep in mind is that bus station locations are a hand-wavey concept, but as long as you double-check departure locations with guesthouse owners in advance, and bus drivers when you get there, you should manage to side-step the incidents that befell me.

Make sure you get to the bus station with plenty of time to spare, ensure you’re carrying enough cash to pay, triple-check you’re in the right place, and avoid all indirect buses: by doing all of this, you should have nothing but smooth travel days.

I hope you have a wonderful adventure in Albania!