bus travel in albania

Hi there. I am looking to travel through albania next week, on my way from corfu to montenegro. What would be the best form of transport to use? Are the buses safe, cheap and reliable?

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i am going myself, but the opposite way, and from what i found the best way is mini buses or so-called furgons. from corfu get to sarande by boat, then take a minibus to tirana and there you might find something for podgorica. if you want to go to the coast, then you should take a minibus to shkoder and then one more to ulcinj which is a small town in montenegro. from there easy to catch a bus or minibus to podgorica, bar and so on. the later option is most reliable as they say it%26#39;s pretty hard to get straight from tirana to podgorica. you can%26#39;t rely on timetable but the prices are relatively cheap. there is some timetable for regular buses (not on internet), but no timetable for minibuses. so try your luck ;)

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We just got back from a trip that included a couple of days in Albania. There are hourly buses from Tirana to Shkodra that cost 3000 leke, but between Shokdra and Ulcinj, Montenegro we ended up taking a cab because we couldn%26#39;t find a furgon and the 2 buses that went that route had already departed. As we were splitting the cab between 3 people, it was only slightly more expensive than the bus - 10 euros each instead of the 8 euros that the bus was going to cost.

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A couple of years ago we (four blonde English women) arrived in Albania from Montenegro with no idea where we were going etc. We were dropped at a half built hotel just over the border and the nice lady that worked there (who spoke no English!!) managed to call one of her friends to take us to the centre of town (for a fee of course!) to take the bus to Durres. He even took us onto the bus to make sure we paid the right amount etc - I can%26#39;t remember how much it was, but it wasn%26#39;t noticeably cheap or expensive. It was very comfortable and we felt very safe for the whole journey!

I really loved Albania, it was such a friendly place - but beware English speakers are in short supply, if any of you speak any Italian, it will help loads!