Travelling from Tirana Airport to Teth in the Albanian Aps can be quite challenging and reliable information online in scarce. In this guide I will show you everything you will need, so that you can plan your next adventure to Albania with ease.

Cost overview

How do you reach Shkodra from Tirana Airport?

To reach Teth from Tirana, you want to first get to Shkodra, as it is the starting point for the busses up into the mountains. If you arrive at the airport in Tirana, you can get a bus for 1000 LEK or 10€ directly to Shkodra. Although tickets from Tirana bus station are much cheaper, the extra hastle and the price for the airport bus to the main bus station are not worth taking a cheaper connection, as overall you will pay a similar price if not even more plus all the extra time it will take. Buses to Shkodra are clearly signed at the airport, but be aware that the posted departure times can vary, as the driver in our case was waiting for more passengers to get on the bus before departing. If you want to reach the „bus station“ at the airport, there are no actual official signes. There is a small space at the end of the parking lot, where all the busses park and have the sign of their next destination in the window. You will find them by walking out of the Terminal and go straight past the rental car companies until you see the busses. It is even without signage pretty easy to find, I would say. Generally there will be buses between cities in Albania throughout the day. But be aware that the buses don’t go all night long. Arriving after 8pm will mean that you’ll have to spend a night in Tirana!

After around 1,5 hours across the main road connecting North and Central Albania, you will arrive in Shkodra at the „Sheshi Demokracia“, the big roundabout in the middle of town. Preferably get a hostel or guest house in the city centre, as the buses for the mountains depart from there. As they leave very early in the morning, you dont want to have to walk several kilometers just to get to the departure point. Furthermore staying outside the city center means staying in some very run down and delapidated areas. I am in no position whether they are actually safe but we did not feel very well stepping into these areas after dark. In our case, we chose this guesthouse, which was just 100m away from the starting point, which we can highly recommend.

How do you reach Teth from Shkodra?

At first we were really nervous, that the bus may be fully booked out or that the office was closed (We arrived at 8pm), but to our surprise, everything went smoothly. We told our host our plan and he directly took us to the ticket office, which was still open. There we were able to get seats for the bus on the following morning and having a look at the order book the busses for the following days were never fully booked. Note that we went at the end of May which is not peak season. The ticket costs 12€ and the ticket shop is here. If you want to travel back from Valbona as we did, I’d recommend already buying all the necessary tickets for the return trip as well. Of course booking the other way around is also possible. If you want to book the tickets in advance, you can do the on the website of Northalbaniaalps. You can also do the hike the other way around and go from Tirana to Valbona first and then come back via Teth and Shkodra.

The next morning we departed for Teth at 7am at the ticket office. There is no bus stop or anything, you’ll be told where to be when booking in the evening before. The ride takes you up into the mountains and takes about 3 hours. This is quite long for the small distance covered, but we made frequent stops to pick up supplies from supermarkets and small hardware stores as well as a half hour rest stop at the mountain pass into Teth valley. Views out the window are fantastic and the road was paved right up to the entrance of Teth village where you will be let out. If you want to do the hike to Valbona the same day, that is not a problem as you will arrive in Teth around 10am, though I would recommend staying in Teth for at least 2 days, as there are many interesting destinations such as the „Blue Eye“ reachable via hikes throughout the valley.

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