How to Cross the Albania / Greece Border by Public Transport
If you are anything like Us, you are backpacking Europe and want to cross into Albania from Greece and you can see the internet has little to no information to help you on your journey. Luckily for you, I have a wonderful article helping you cross the border into Albania (or Greece if you follow this backwards)
The main problem with the land border crossing
So normally the easiest way to cross a border from one country to another is via a land border as there are roads, trains and or buses to help you do this. The big problem with Greece / Albania is the fact the land borders are so far away from any built-up town or city on both sides.
This isn’t a massive problem if you own a car, you can drive through with a couple of checks of your passport and away you go. But you’re not reading this if you own a car. You are reading this because you are struggling with the little information you can find from getting over using public transport.
Albania isn’t doesn’t have a massive amount of information on the Internet because they don’t always use it, it is very old school with the use of cash and very little use of cards let alone e-tickets from mobile phones.
You can take a bus but don’t look at being able to book ahead of time for the Albanian side… luckily I have a better idea, one that we used when we backpacked Europe.
Crossing the border using ferries.
If you’re planning on seeing Greece, why not spend some time on the wonderful island of Corfu! This might seem an extremely weird way to cross a border but using Corfu to island hop into Albania is perfect. (You don’t have to even go to Corfu, you can just go from Igoumenitsa to Saranda but why do that?)
Doing this is super simple! I will explain now.
You can get a bus to Ignominies from any city in Greece and a lot of these buses will drop you off directly at the port. You can get a boat directly to Saranda or to Corfu. (Finkas Lines, is the name of the ferries we used)
If you chose Corfu you will again be dropped off at the port via the ferry. (to really explore Corfu you will want to hire a car, but if you want just to spend a day, then you are not a far walk into the old city of Corfu which is lovely.)
You will need to pick up tickets from the ticket office just outside the port before you go to Saranda (E-Tickets are fine to Corfu) Then make your way to the international port.
The International port is on the far left of the port from there you can go to Saranda. They check your passport as you board the boat, and then again when you arrive in Saranda. It’s that simple.
Don’t believe me, here is our video of us crossing this border.
Now you are in Saranda how do you get to Tirana?
Well, luckily we did this journey too. Good luck, click the link below to find out how to travel around Albania.
How To Get From Sarandë To Tirana Using Public Transport
And ill see you soon.