Traveling from Gjirokaster to Tirana by public transport in Albania as a family was a simple straightforward process that I would like to share with you here. With no Albanian language skills, we were still able to travel with little difficulty. Public transport is also extremely cheap compared to our experience in neighboring Greece.
My only word of caution is to learn the names of the towns in Albanian, as there may be several spellings that are used between different languages on signs. Gjirokaster is English for Gjirokastra. Tirana is English for Tiranë.
Albania does not yet have a railroad system, so buses or minivans are the way to travel between cities within Albania, as well as between cities of neighboring countries. See our experience of traveling by public transport from Greece to Albania here.
We spent a total of 5 days in Gjirokaster, exploring the stone city by foot from top to bottom. Our family highly recommends a visit to Gjirokaster if you can manage it. The people were lovely and taught us so much about their history of their beautiful country. Here is our post about what we recommend you do in Gjirokaster with kids!
Finding the Bus Stations
The old town part of Gjirokaster is located up the mountain near the Gjirokaster Castle. This is where many of the tourist sites and accommodations are located. We stayed here in a guesthouse. In order to get to the bus station, you need to walk all the way down the hill. You will go from cobblestone street to paved cement. We walked down the main town boulevard called Bulevardi 18 Shtatori until we reached the valley road called the SH4 E853. They meet at a roundabout.
At the roundabout you will see several gas stations. Cross the road and turn to your left and you will see several options for tickets to Tirana. There are also options for tickets to other towns in Albania including Sarande, Ksamil, and Durres.
As there are several companies that have minivans to Tirana, you can walk and look at the signs to find the time that you would like to leave. All tickets should cost the same amount regardless of the station you book with.
Buying Tickets
Tickets were purchased at a window counter at the bus station. In the summer of 2023, we paid 1200 lek for one full price ticket from Gjirokaster to Tirana. Our family of 6 paid 4800 lek total with four children ages 12, 10, 7, and 5.
Show tickets to the bus driver as you get on the bus. I say bus, but in fact, it was a minivan. Each child did have their own seat on this trip, which was not true of all our travels through Eastern Europe. Sometimes the children were asked to share a seat to make room for other travelers.
As the station is very small, the minivan pulls up to the front by the ticket counter and people get on from there.
Bus Trip
We left right on time from the bus station. The trip took a total of almost 4 hours. We had one stop in the middle for a bathroom break, so it would be beneficial to make sure everyone has sufficiently gone to the restroom before departing.
The view through the valley was beautiful! We followed a glacial-blue river along the mountains! The scenery was gorgeous!
Arrival at Tirana Bus Station
We arrived at the South and North Albania Bus Terminal in Tirana. This is an extremely busy domestic bus station with both minivans and buses taking you to towns around Albania.
As the bus terminal was on the edge of the city, we decided not to walk, but instead take a public bus. Our first stop before visiting Tirana was to get our international bus tickets to Pristina. So, we walked out of the South and North Albania Bus Terminal and crossed two streets to the local bus stop. We hopped on a local public bus that would take us down the road to the international bus terminal. We just asked which way to go along the way. Everyone was friendly and helpful. We paid with cash on the bus.
This minibus trip was convenient and straightforward. We highly recommend using public transport around Albania and Eastern Europe even as a family of 6.