Help with Albania / Kosovo / Ohrid

That’s a hard one. You actually only have 3 days. And yes, you will be missing things (both in Tirana and outside of Tirana, as well as in the other locations) so just pick where you want to go and don’t worry about it. But if it were me, and would be arriving with no jet lag and renting a car, I might choose Tirana and one of the others. With no jet lag and a car and a decent enough arrival time, you could even head out as soon as you arrive to not waste time.

WITH jet lag (say a U.S. flight arrival), definitely sleep in Tirana first. I have done the “2 day trips in 3 days from one central city” thing. It wasn’t an awful idea since one day tour was somewhere I just wanted a glimpse of and the other day (plus my overnight city) was somewhere I DO plan to return to. So you may just have to choose.

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. Jet lag wont be a factor, so we could possibly pick up a car from Tirana airport and drive straight to Prizen for example. Our flight arrives at 16:00, and google says it is about 2.5-3 hour drive. so we would get there by 8pm which is not too bad I guess and we would have the entire next day to explore Prizen.

20 JUL - Arrive at 16:00 Tirana Airport, pick up car hire and drive to Prizen. (overnight)
21 JUL - Day in Prizen (overnight)
22 JUL - Depart early morning to Ohrid and overnight
23 JUL - Depart to Tirana and spend half day.
24 JUL - Depart Tirana (mid-morning flight)

I guess the main question is still, do we do both Prizen and Ohrid or just choose one?

And I have been to neither Prizren nor Ohrid, so I am no help for THAT question. I think you may have to decide what your goal is or what your minimum sightseeing plan is - and then decide whether you can accomplish that in your timeframe.

I've only been to Ohrid, so I can't help on the Ohrid-vs-Prizren choice. I liked Ohrid a lot and would be inclined just to go there.

I do have some thoughts on Tirana. It's the only European capital I've been to (and I've seen nearly all of them) where I overestimated the time I'd need to see the sights. The biggest issue was that at the time of my trip (May 2024), the country's largest archaeological, historical and art museums were all closed. The first is in nearby Durres; the other two are in Tirana. There are other sights to see in Tirana, but I think folks who don't happen to be nuts for Cold War history may be somewhat underwhelmed. It's not that Tirana isn't worth visiting (and Albania has many interesting cities and towns, don't get me wrong), but in my view there are more-exciting destinations in that part of the Balkans. I wouldn't plan to spend all my time in Tirana.

I didn't rent a car, but I've read car-rental rates are reasonable. I ended up using taxis a lot to get from town to town, because the bus situation is really tenuous. Where's the bus station? There are several departure points, and it to\urns out it's not easy to get an answer to that question. What time does the bus leave? Good luck finding out before you (finally) get to the right departure point. Every inter-city trip is a possible disaster awaiting a visitor with an inflexible schedule, so I would only do day trips to distant destinations with my own car. Durres (skippable unless the archaeological museum has reopened, as far as I'm concerned) and Kruje (at altitude, so it will be cooler) are close enough to Tirana that one might dare to plan bus trips to them. Or a taxi won't be terribly expensive.

ATMs in Albania tend to have confiscatory fees, and it's still a rather cash-based economy. However, quite a lot of places will take euros, and often at a very, very good rate (close to the official exchange rate). The cheapest way to get local currency is to have some euros (best) or dollars with you and go to a well-priced currency exchange. I used an Iliria booth in Tirana. Research the official exchange rate ahead of time and ask the money-changer how many lek you will receive for the amount you want to exchange. I only paid about 1% off the official rate, which is an outstanding deal.

You mentioned this is part of a European holiday, so I want to certain you aren't planning to visit Serbia later. There are apparently still issues with entering Kosovo, exiting Kosovo to a country other than Serbia, and then later entering Serbia. The problem is that the Serbs consider Kosovo part of their country. Therefore, you need to be very cautious about visiting Prizren and returning to Albania or Macedonia.

Thank you so much for your helpful replies!

In regard to Serbia, we have no plans to go there on this trip or any time soon.

So I guess we will have to decide whether to hire a car and do a loop tour of both places or just pic one (leaning towards Ohrid) ..

With 3 1/2 days, I think picking one place with Tirana, is probably wise. Tirana feels small for a capital city, but it is interesting. Still, a day and a half would give you time to see a good amount.

acraven is right about cash. And while driving in Albania, keep an eye out for some of Enver Hoxha’s bunkers.

Lane was recently on a tour that stopped in Ohrid. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/greece-albania-and-north-macedonia-with-oat
You could DM him with questions.

Thanks guys for your advice. I am leaning to just doing the one day trip to Ohrid - either self drive or on a tour. And spend the rest of the time in the city.

Is there anywhere nice nearby to Tirana that we must check out that is interesting or should we explore the city itself?

It’s a bit of n awkward amount of time - a little too much to just stay in Tirana but not enough to actually do justice elsewhere. Maybe take a look at Krujë or Shkoder or Berat for a day trip. Durres is on the coast but I haven’t been. Albania is fascinating and you could spend a couple of weeks there easily.

Edit to say do allow time for Tirana. It easily has a day and a half of things to see. And the restaurant scene was intriguing. I also took a “free walking tour” that was quite educational.

Kruje, Shkoder and Berat are worth visiting. I'm a lot less sure about Durres unless you just want to go to the beach and/or the archaeological museum has reopened and that's important to you; it's supposedly the best archaeological museum in the country. You can visit the ruins of the Roman theatre, but I'd either stay in Tirana or go to one of the other three, myself. (But then, I've been to--and been disappointed by--Durres.)

Kruje is at altitude, which is a good thing in the middle of the summer, but probably not in early spring. Someone in the tourist business discouraged me from going, and I didn't even set foot in Albania until May 15. After I had sweltered for a while, I decided Kruje seemed like a fine destination for a day trip, and it was very pleasant. It's possible the concern was the condition of the curvy approach road, which might not be safe too early in the year. Berat and Shkoder have more to keep you occupied than Kruje, I think, but you'd probably spend considerably more time getting to one of them. Do check me on that, though, via ViaMichelin or Google Maps.

We had 2 1/2 days in Tirana last summer, one day which was a day trip to Kruja that also included a wine tasting. We had 1 ½ days in Tirana itself and did not get to do everything on our list. We also did a free walking tour, a food tour and visited one of the Bunk Art museums. I will say we had the best food here on our trip which included Split and Kotor. It is a fascinating city with some stunning architecture. We found the people very welcoming and excited to share their city.