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nyffi91
Traveller
1 comments

Posted 11 years ago

Hey guys,

on my summer vacation i'm doing a tour round the balcan, starting and ending in ljubljana.
I nearly have oragnized the route, only one part is missing. I want to leave Tirana at 18th of July and in the evening of 21th i have to be back in Ljubljana.
I want wo visit Sarajevo and maybe stay on the wy there one day in Montenegro.
Now my question: Which is a good way for it?
I heard that you nearly ever have to drive by bus to albanian border, cross it and the continue by taxi.
Also someone told me that Podgorica is not so worth visiting.
Is it the best to drive dircetly to sarjaevo or is there a town worth visiting with good bus connection so that i can go easily to Sarajevo from there?

Thanks a lot!
Fynn

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Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

replied 11 years ago

Hej Fynn!

Sadly I havent been to Albania yet but have read some reports, especially on getting in and out via Montenegro. Lately it seems to be no problem to get a taxi across the border. I can quote fares of 30€ for Shkoder - Bar and 60€ for Podgorica - Shkoder. Another option would be to split the trip at the border which might be cheaper - ~25€ from Podgorica to the border in a taxi plus 10€ in a minibus onwards to Shkoder.
You can also try your luck and hitchhike or wait until you are offered a lift to/from the border which can be cheaper than getting a taxi. Another convenient route seems to be by bus Shkoder - Ulcinj (5€) and Ulcinj - Podgorica (6€).

Podgorica indeed is not that interesting from what I've heard (and can check out myself in August) but you could stay somewhere at the Adria coast itstead and then continue to Sarajevo the following day.
For connections to Sarajevo maybe look here: [u]https://rail.cc/en/bosnia-and-herzegovina-up-to-date-bus-schedules/f9679[/u]

It'd be great if you could share your experiences with us after your trip! :)


Flo 8)

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nltrainer
Traveller
1405 comments

replied 11 years ago

The ONLY bus northbound out of ALB is the 2x daily minibus-red Mercedes, from Shkoder to ULCINJ. There are freqeunt buses and furgons from TIR to Shk-cost 3 or 5 eur, and ample onward buses from Ulc-to Bar and further into Cerna Gora=the local official name of Montenegro (=black mountains). For the die-hard train fanatics also 1 train north from TIr-but then you have to overnight in dreadful Shk.
It should come as no surprise that not all capital cities are worth looking at, cetainly not those that never were intended to be so.
There are 2-3 x daily-mostly seasonal, buses along Adrija coast toward Dubrovnik, (google for libertas-dubrovnik for possible info-and have amap at hand to check places), from where you can connect to SJ.
I highly doubt the trip is do-able in 2,5 days if you also want to make some stops-this time will be eaten by waits and infrequent and very slow links. If money is no object then use taxi.