Last Updated on June 3, 2023 by Ellen
The bus was old. It creaked somewhere from underneath as it moved on mountain roads. It had no curtains to block the blazing mid-September sun. The seat cushions were old and dingy. Dirt caked the windows. Twisted, thick wire held a partition in place. The bus driver smoked — inside the bus!
And yet, this was one of the best bus trips we’ve taken yet — exactly for all those reasons I’ve just listed.
I mean, really. How could I not not absolutely love the character of this kind of ride? We had seats. We had air conditioning (most of the way). The roadway was paved. I have zero complaints.
Bus from Montenegro to Albania
We left Kotor, Montenegro, at 8:00 a.m. The ride to Tirana, Albania, took about 6.5 hours. Tickets cost $27 each.
Buy tickets early.
We bought tickets a day in advance of the trip, and our bus was mostly full.
We stopped a few times on short breaks. The longest stretch on this ride without a bathroom break was 2.5 hours. It was mostly twisty in the beginning, over the mountains from Kotor to Podgorica. Four hours into the trip, the driver stopped for 15 minutes to eat.
The scenery was beautiful as the bus crested at 2,100 feet and we saw the sea. I shot these pictures through dirty windows, so they’re not the best, but you’ll get an idea of the experience.
Sometimes stone blockades made of the rock from Montenegro’s mountains were in place of guardrails. Every now and then, we had to slow down for goats.
Border crossing by bus from Montenegro to Albania
The border crossing was interesting. We never got off the bus. The driver collected all passports or identification cards, left the bus and had them stamped out of Montenegro.
He returned with the collection and drove to the Albanian entry point, and gave the pile of passports to immigration control on that side. Then he came back on the bus, gave a passenger the collection to pass around so everyone could claim their passport back.
Sadly, we didn’t have a stamp into Albania on our passport pages. (We like the old-fashioned stamps.)
Variations on this kind of lax border crossing has also happened between Bosnia and Croatia, and Croatia to Montenegro through Bosnia on the coast. Seems to be mostly friendly borders in this area of the Balkans.
The European Union flag and signs are at the Albanian border, even though it’s not a member yet. Albania is receiving pre-accession aid and it appears they’ve used some at this border crossing at Hani i Hotit, to the east of Lake Skadar.
Creative solutions by Earth Vagabonds…
The entire process to cross took just under an hour. During that time, the driver turned the bus off – along with the air conditioning! I started to swelter in the hot late summer sun.
So we made use of the clothes pins we carry, plus a small piece of cloth, and one of my husband Tedly’s shirts. He made a make-shift curtain to block the sun.
Another thing we always carry: carabiners. On this particular bus ride, we used it to secure stacked carry-on bags by my legs to keep them from falling over. (In the pic, notice the thick wire that secures the partition I mentioned earlier.)
Once in Albania, it was a pretty straight shot with no more mountain roads. The ride was pleasant and the scenery reminded me somewhat of Guatemala because there was trash along the road in most spots. Poor countries tend to have more litter.
And while Albania is a poor country compared to others — it also seems to be a hopeful country. From my perspective as a short-term visitor — people seem happy and hopeful. It’s such a refreshing change from other European countries where people have somewhat jaded views of the world.
Albania was a closed communist country for decades. It’s been opened up for about 30 years already – but it’s still in a transformative state to capitalism.
Right now, at this moment in history, capitalism is alive and well; people have modern comforts and can be individuals. Combine this relatively new capitalism with Albania’s promising effort to join the EU, and I sensed hope. Tedly felt it, too.
Anyway, don’t let the somewhat rundown looks of the bus fool you– the bus from Montenegro to Albania was one of the best rides of my life.
Related to Albania:
- Getting around Albania in furgons
- Tourism and capitalism in Tirana after communism
- Inside the madness of an atomic war bunker
Interesting! When I visited Albania in 1984, we had to walk across the border from our Yugoslav bus to an Albanian border post, and then onto an Albanian bus. Relations between Yugoslavia and Albania were very bad in those days.
Thanks for that journey! Travel safely! ?