Tirana Transportation Tips by antistar Top 5 Page for this destination

Airport

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 harassing (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 persistent, 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.

Mode: TO

Type: Airplane

Website: http://www.tirana-airport.com

Bus to Macedonia

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 Jewellers. You have to ring a bell. The bus leaves from the dusty square next to the train station. Just look for the Polet bus with Struga written on it.

I had to add this extra tip due to lack of text space...

Mode: TO

Type: Bus

Bus

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 squeaky 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.

Mode: TO

Type: Bus

Train

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, next door 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 also 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!

Mode: TO

Type: Train

Website: http://www.hsh.com.al/