If you want to travel from Tirana airport to Teth valley in the Albanian Alps, it can be quite difficult to find reliable information online. I want to give you a quick guide on how to get to your destination as fast as possible.

To get to Teth 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 to Skodra from Tirana bus station are much cheaper than that, 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. Buses to Shkodra are clearly signed, 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. 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 the 1,5 hours across the main road connecting the North to Central Albania, you will arrive in Shkodra. 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. In our case, we chose a guesthouse, which was just 100m away from the starting point, which we can highly recommend:

https://www.booking.com/hotel/al/rooms-for-rent-shkoder.de.html?msockid=2a989a29f22266bf20c28eb4f38a67c2

At first we were really vary that maybe the bus is full 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 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€. 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. Here is the link to the travel agency:

Home

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 the evening beforehand. 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 mountains pass into Teth valley. Views out the window are fantastic and the road was paved right up to the entrance of Teth village. If you want to do the hike to Valbona the same day, that is not a problem as you will be let off the bus near the starting point of the hike. For more information about the hike to Valbona, take a look at my other post: