Options to get to Saranda from Tirana
After spending two days in Tirana, we wanted to go to the beach. Albania is full of beautiful beach destinations, and compared to many other countries in Europe, the climate is mild in the winter. One of these beach destinations in Albania is Saranda. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of information online on how to get to Saranda from Tirana. There is also not that much information on how much it costs to get to Tirana from Saranda. As we have actually traveled from Tirana to Saranda, we wanted to let you know how to get to Saranda from Tirana.
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Getting to Saranda from Tirana by car
One of the options that people will probably use the most is to go by car. Many people who travel to Albania rent a car when they get here.
In general, renting a car in Albania doesn’t cost that much, so it is an easy option for most visitors to the country. How to get to Saranda from Tirana with the car is a different story. Lucky for you, it is not that difficult. When you are in Tirana, you can take the E853/SH4 highway that leads to Saranda. The drive is a little under four hours on a good day, and the distance is 164 miles.
Getting Saranda from Tirana by bus
If you are not planning on renting a car when you are in Albania, there are also options for getting to Saranda. Albania has quite a good transport network. Seven buses a day leave Tirana to go all the way to Saranda. This journey is a bit longer than the car as it stops in some other major cities in Albania along the way. If you take the bus from Tirana to Saranda, you can expect to be on the bus for about five to six hours. The bus ticket prices from Tirana to Saranda are between 13 and 20 euros (14 to 20 USD) per person.
Getting to Saranda from Tirana by taxi
If you don’t want to take the bus or have not rented a car in Albania, you can also take a taxi. You can quite easily order taxis using different taxi apps in Albania. This is the option that we took when we left our Marriott Hotel in Tirana, to spend November in Saranda. This is the most expensive option, however. If you get your taxi from one of the luxury hotels in Tirana, they will ask you what type of taxi you want. You can either get one from a normal taxi company or one with a private driver in a more high-end car. We decided to go for a normal taxi company and were very comfortable as it was a newer Tesla. The trip from Tirana to Saranda was not cheap, as we paid around $180. If you get a more luxurious vehicle to drive from one place to the other, you pay around $300.
Photo via Taxi Lux Albania. © All rights reserved.
How to get from Tirana to Saranda by ferry?
Although the popular ticketing platform Omio says otherwise, there are currently no options to go by ferry from Tirana to Saranda. Although there is a port in the nearby city of Durrës, the ferries here, don’t go to Saranda. You can go to a lot of other places from this port. But, I am sorry, water lovers there are no ferries going between Durrës and Saranda.
How to get from Tirana to Saranda by train
If you are from Western or Northern Europe, there is a high chance that you are used to taking the train to destinations that are further away. Albania does have some trains, and railway station but the trains and tracks are extremely slow and old. Besides that, there is only one passenger train connection in Albania, and it doesn’t take you from Tirana to Saranda. So if you are asking; “how to get Saranda from Tirana?,” the train is definitely not a good option.
