For our trip between Greece and Albania, we chose to go over the land crossing instead of via Corfu as most of the internet recommended. However, finding information about a land crossing using public transportation was missing in all my searches. So here I will show you how we were able to cross the border using a public bus from Ioannina, Greece to Gjirokastër, Albania.
We arrived on a KTEL bus at the Ioannina bus station from Pyrgos in the Peloponnese around 4:30 in the afternoon. I had found a campground down the road if we needed to spend the night as I had no expectation about how frequently the bus ran.
We went up to the counter and asked about the bus options and found out that there is only one bus a day direct to Gjirokaster and it left at 6 pm.
We contacted our lodging in Gjirokaster to check if we could change our reservation and add one more night. Then we bought our bus tickets and grabbed a quick dinner down the road of gyros and sausages. Our bus tickets cost 4 euros for the under 12 kids and 8 euros for the adults and the child over 12. When the bus arrived a few minutes after 6 pm, we hopped on and found seats.
As it was June when we were traveling, it stayed light the whole way to Albania.
The drive begins in the northern hills of Greece with olive orchards and vineyards as far as the eye can see. Then suddenly we went up and up and into a mountain pass. And we crossed the border into Albania.
We stopped at the border crossing. As Americans, we had to get off the bus at both the Greece border and Albania border. At each border, we got off, waited in the immigration line for our passport to be stamped and then we would walk to our bus which had already crossed the border and climb back on.
Once we crossed into Albania, we drove down into the valley and then alongside the river until we reached Gjirokaster. The river was crystal blue and the mountains rose up on both sides of the river. The contrast between cultivated Greece and wild Albania was evident right away.
With the border stops, the bus took a little over two hours to get to Gjirokaster. We stayed on until they finished the few stops at the bottom of town and got off when they told all the people left to get off. We found ourselves on the Main Street of town with a steep climb of cobblestone ahead of us.
All in all, the bus was very easy. The views were incredible and the border crossing was simple and straight forward.
