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Some of Albania's roads are so bad, and the buses so old and clapped out, that legend has it that they struggle to wash out the stench of the travel sick after each journey. It's worth considering that when you choose what you travel in and where you travel to. On the bus I took, it was an international journey on an air conditioned bus owned by a company in Macedonia. It was a bit old, it showed nothing but videos of Albanian folk dancing the entire six hour journey to Struga, it had no toilet, but it was perfectly comfortable. And the views were great.
As the crow flies, Struga is about 45 miles from Tirana. That means we travelled at an average of 7.5 miles per hour. That's even slower than the train. Anyone wondering how a bus could travel that slowly has never been to Albania. It's not that the bus was slow, in fact some times it seemed to be going dangerously fast for its squeeky wheels. No, the reason it took so long was the bizarre route it took, the care free attitude of the driver, and, of course, customs at the Macedonian border.
Instead of driving directly to Macedonia, we first went in the completely opposite direction. Soon we recognised that we were going towards Durres. Fearing I was on the wrong bus, I tried to ask another passenger. She smiled and showed me pictures of what must have been her husband and children, all dressed in traditional folk costumes. The driver pulled up for a while, we guessed he was asking directions.
After a while it stopped driving towards Durres, and turned around. It made sense now: he'd got lost, asked for directions, and was now going the right way. But no. He pulled up and got himself a spare tyre. Then he was back on the wrong road to Durres again. Which just happened to be one of the many stops on the way to Macedonia. I guess the only decent road out of Tirana goes to Durres, just like the train. Leave a Comment Theme: Bus
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Tirana's train station is a small, quiet and dusty affair. It stands out as an island of calm on the busy and dusty Tirana street, nextdoor to the chaos of activity at the bus station. There were no queues for the three ticket desks, and the one bored lady was pleased to see some strangers brighten her day with their struggles to explain that yes, they really did want to travel on an Albanian train.
There are only a few trains every day, and they only go to one place: Durres. That's where the hub of Albania's tiny railway network is, rather than the capital Tirana. The cost of tickets is incredibly low: less than a euro for a return trip to Durres. You will get what you pay for, though. The Czech diesels are slow, the Austrian carriages range in quality from dirty to dishevelled, and the track is bumpy and grassy.
In all, it's a slow but pleasant hour train journey to Durres, and you'll get to enjoy some of Albania's magnificent countryside from the windows of the carriage. You'll aslo get to see lots of trash, concrete bunkers, and half built houses, but it's all part of the experience.
Check out their website for timetables. Don't take any notice of the superfast train in the pictures they show. The only train on Albania's tracks these days is the old green monster in my photos! Leave a Comment
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 by DPando
the landscapes were amazing sometimes bleak, sometimes lush in vegetation and water
huge and steep mountain passes with 180ŗ bending roads head to Tirana.. i specially remember the most impressive just getting out from Elbasan, i was attonished with the view and the impressing fear that anybody could suffer running by albania mountain roads lol ...
finally i took Tirana ... the van stopped in the university area closer to the hostel fortunatelly...
other thing to do was try to get the hostel because it was difficult on a street where the traffic jams, dust and crowds made it harder Leave a Comment Theme: Car/Motor Home
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 by DPando
Just before getting in the city i saw a huge sewage pot hole just in the middle of the road... suddenly a heavy hammer noise comes from the front right side of the car ... the tyre and the rim were brokendown... and we couldnt go on... 5 minutes later i was in the middle of nowhere waitng for i didnt know, the taxi driver couldnt fixed it up ... jsut then a large van came along by the street and stopped ... the driver asked to the taxi driver about me (i guessed) i understood Tirana ..so that was nice ... i hopped in the van ..then the taxi driver asked me for the money ... i gave him 5 euros (half price).. it was 5 km from the border to the city ..the man was shouting and claiming for 10 but i tried to get hi through that 10 was for the full ride to the city and bus station ..not half way.. so i paid 10 euros more to the van driver and we got out to Tirana Leave a Comment Theme: Car/Motor Home
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 by DPando
Actually i took a street going up to the right from the main square where it ends and once there i go up again till the "main bus station" jjaj... well this was like a scrapyard side by side of the train tracks where leave the different buses.. i asked to the driver in italian.. dont waste your time with english, and i could know that this was the point to Shkodra ... Amazing !! jajjaa
On this pic you watch the first meters leaving Tirana just in the corner with the bus and train station Leave a Comment Theme: Car/Motor Home
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Don't get me started! If ever a city needed a bus station immediately, Tirana would be it! How anyone knows where buses and furgons leave from is anyone's guess...in fact, most people I asked hadn't got a clue. I wasted a morning trying to find out where the Shkoder-bound buses left from, and nobody seemed to know, which explains why I ended up on one of the slowest trains in Europe. If you're not in a hurry and are prepared to ask a hundred people, maybe you'll have better luck.
Buses to Durres and a couple of other northern destinations are easy to find...they leave from outside Tirana's train station. It takes under an hour to reach Durres, and buses leave fairly freqently...no need to worry about tickets, just get on board and a conductor will come round to collect your fare once the bus is on its way.
International buses...well, on Bulevard Zogu i Pare there are several travel agencies advertising buses to cities in Greece, Macedonia and Kosovo. I didn't see any cities in Montenegro offered though. Prishtina- and Prizren-bound buses are fairly easy to find...a number of touts shout "Prishtina, Prishtina!" at any likely-looking candidates walking around the Tirana International Hotel at the bottom end of Bulevard Zogu i Pare, close to the square...and if you're coming from Kosovo, that's where you'll be dumped at 6am. Leave a Comment Theme: Bus
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If you want to buy a ticket to Macedonia, it costs 10 euros one way, and you can buy it from the Pollogu Tourist office at the top of Zogu boulevard, near the train station. Just as described in the LP guide, it's on the left as you walk towards the station, in between a kids clothes store and a Jewelers. You have to ring a bell. The bus leaves from the dusty square next to the train station. Just look for the bus with Polet bus with Struga written on it.
I had to add this extra tip due to lack of text space... Leave a Comment Theme: Bus
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Trains in Albania are slow. Very slow. But if you're going to Durres, I would recommend taking the train at least in one direction...they are an experience not to be missed. The train stations in both Durres and Tirana are vast old-fashioned halls with few passengers...the immaculately-uniformed staff far outnumbered passengers both in the stations and on the trains.
There are about five trains a day between Tirana and Durres, a journey which takes about an hour and a half. Buses are much faster, but there's something about train travel which appeals more. The broken windows on board are easily explained...when travelling through Tirana's outskirts, expect local kids to throw rocks at the train...don't sit too close to the windows!
One train per day crawls up to Lezha and Shkoder, taking five or six hours. Again, buses are much faster, assuming you can find one. However, if you want to meet some interesting characters, take the train...not many go all the way to Shkoder, so you'll end up talking to lots of locals taking the train between various small villages, and all the ones who shared my compartment were surprised and pleased to find a foreign tourist. Take an Albanian phrasebook... Leave a Comment Theme: Train
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Forget all you've read about Tirana's chaotic and dirty airport: it's all new. There was no scramble of people trying to get visas, there was an ATM waiting for me to grab currency from, and a nice, bright, clean (albeit small) airport to greet visitors.
The taxi drivers at Tirana airport have a bad reputation for harrassing (in a friendly smiling way) newly arrived passengers. The new airport hasn't changed this. If you walk out of the doors to the left, you will immediately see the line of official yellow taxis just past the cafe on your left. Go here and you are guaranteed a fair rate of 25 euros.
You can get less with the unofficial guys who pounce on you as you exit, but there's always a risk with such people. They are persistant, and they will follow you all the way to the taxi rank. I found a good strategy was to sit down at the cafe and drink a slow coffee. They soon lost interest and I was free to take whatever cab I chose.
Apart from taxis, there is allegedly a 24 hour bus that runs every hour between the airport and the National History Museum. It costs 200 lek (about 1.6 euros), according to the official web site. The LP guide said it was for airport staff only, but it didn't prove the most reliable guide I've ever used. Leave a Comment
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Public transportation is not a proper one. However you can travel around the town by bus, while as for the airport you have to get a taxi (around 30 usd up to Tirana center) Leave a Comment Theme: Bus
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