As almost all flights to Tirana International Airport are from Europe, except for a handful like Dubai, Tel Aviv and Istanbul, it is likely that most travelers would be travelling through Albania as part of an extended Eastern Europe tour involving its neighboring countries. All neighbouring countries have their own attractions and sometimes making land border crossings to Albania more attractive than to deal with flying and budget airline rules, like baggage limits and potential flight delays. Certain sights in Albania are also closer to these neighbours than to Tirana. Check out the budget itinerary for a 6 to 7 day trip in Albania here.
Land Border Crossing from Albania to Greece
Ioannina
The bus via a tour company cost about EUR8 from the UNESCO world heritage site of Gjirokaster to Ioannina, and takes about 1.5 hours. In comparison, the bus from Tirana to Gjirokaster will take about 4 hours on a good day.
Land Border Crossing to Albania from Kosovo
Prizren
The bus stakes about 2.5 hours between Tirana and Prizren in Kosovo. This cost about EUR15. There are more international flights to Tirana than to Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, so this may come in handy.
Land Border Crossing from Albania to Montenegro
Ulcinj
Leaving for Ulcinj from Shkoder is straightforward and the bus cost EUR10. Limited seats are available though so it is good to get to the bus stop early to queue in summer. I was the second last to board the bus and the bus was full. I remember the trip was pretty quick early in the morning. The ride itself took just about an hour, rather than the published 1.5 hours.
Land Border Crossing to Albania from North Macedonia
Ohrid
The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Berat, also known as the city with a thousand windows, is 156km from Ohrid. By car, this takes about 3hours driving including time negotiating one of the land border crossings to Albania. My experience using the public bus system took more than 9 hours door to door.
I had awakened up at 0545hrs to catch the scheduled bus at 0645hrs from Ohrid for Tiranë. However, the bus never came, even as another passenger and I had purchased tickets from the booth. In 2026, this would cost around MKD925. At 0715hrs, a car came to take us to Struga to get onto the bus to Tiranë. Getting to Struga took about 15mins, but we had to wait till 0930hrs before the bus finally came.
Border Crossing into Albania to reach Berat
The bus trod on to the border where it was another wait for border checks. There was no need to get off the bus, as border control personnel had come on board. All our passports were collected in bulk prior. At midday, we finally crossed into Albania. Keeping watch on our location off the maps on my smartphone, I was anxious to get off soon at Elbasan for a change of bus to Berat. The bus driver did not stop at Elbasan per request. While I frantically show him on Google translate to Albanian my intention. I had thought that he had totally forgotten about my request. I had not wanted to head north to Tirana, and then spend another 2.5 hours south to Berat.
What turned out, was brilliant: The driver stopped and dropped me a few minutes later at a roundabout where the roads intersected at a T-junction. It was near a petrol kiosk and he signaled to me to cross the road. There would then be another service headed to Berat. I followed his cue, still skeptical. At the petrol kiosk, I checked with the kiosk attendant, who then confirmed that there would indeed be buses headed straight to Berat, and the next one should arrive in about ten minutes. The attendant was even concerned when the bus failed to turn up in ten minutes, calling the bus station in Tiranë to help me check. This was really empathetic of him and it is this kind of experience one really remembers.
The bus came shortly and I was enroute to Berat. The bus did not stop however, right at Berat but at the bus terminal at the Lagja Kombinat bus terminal about3km away from Berat close to 1500hrs in the afternoon.
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