Is there Train Service Between Dubrovnik, Croatia and Tirana, Albania?

Unfortunately I don't believe there is any train service. In fact, in most of the Balkans, i believe buses and furgons are the way to go. I did this route a long time ago with an overnight stops in Kotor and Ulcinj, Montenegro - so don't know if there are any direct services or even if there are decent connection flights which are relatively cheap.

Check out Balkanology.com for more info (caveat: I found this a very valuable source of info a long time ago - not sure how upto date the website is today?)

china,

Dubrovnik does not have rail service, so your only options are air or bus & train combination. Some of the possibilities you could consider....

• a LONG Bus ride from Dubrovnik to Tirana (this route appears to involve three changes)
• Ferry or Flight to a city that has flights to Tirana, such as Bari, Rome or Milan (or even Vienna), and then flight to Tirana. NOTE that some flights are seasonal. For example, you could fly Dubrovnik to Rome or Bari and then from there to Tirana (there are many other possibilities). You may have to spend one night in the transit city, depending on flight times.

I'd have to spend some time looking at the different options, but this will give you an idea.

There is no train service. The closest railroad station from Dubrovnik is in Split. It will be very likely bus. I don't know if direct or not. There are many bus companies and not all of them appear if you try to google them. Your best bet is to inquire in Visitor Center and bus station once you are in Dubrovnik. I do it that way when I travel and it always worked (so far). I don't know about direct flights between Dubrovnik and Tirana. You can try to google them. I am sure you could find some if you change planes somewhere. But they could be expensive and long. I would stick with bus unless there is a direct reasonably priced flight.

Not only is there no rail service to Dubrovnik, there is no international rail service of any kind linking Albania to other countries.

We traveled from Dubrovnik to Tirana a few years ago, with assistance from the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree forum. You need to be a little adventurous to try this, and have a couple of days to make the trip, but you will get to see the scenic coast of Montenegro and a little bit of Albania as well.

The usual overland route from Dubrovnik to Tirana requires taking a bus through Montenegro to Ulcinj, then catching a furgon (small bus) the next day to Shkodra, Albania, and from there by train into Tirana.

On Thorn Tree I learned about a day-trip tour from Budva, Montenegro into Tirana. Specifically, we were told to go to the beach resort area south of Budva called Becici, and look for a travel agency along the beach that offers these day trips.

So we took the bus from Dubrovnik to Budva, and a taxi to our hotel in Becici, arriving late afternoon. We immediately went to the beach, and happened to find the travel agency, and they had a tour going to Tirana the next morning. He said it was OK for us to bring our suitcases (just two carry-on size) and get off in Tirana and stay there. So we got on the bus early the next day with mainly Russian tourists, and headed for Albania.

Since this was a tour, it was a really interesting trip. We stopped in Shkodra where the guide showed us several churches and mosques. The dictator Hoxha had tried to eliminate religion in Albania, so he had closed or destroyed all the churches and mosques between 1967 and 1986. So everything we saw was new. He also built more than 700,000 concrete bunkers around the countryside. Supposedly the person who designed/engineered the bunkers had to stand inside the first one built while it was bombed, to see if it would withstand the explosions! We stopped and were able to explore one of these bunkers. So it was a very entertaining trip, and we were in Tirana by early afternoon.

If you would like to try this, I would ask on the Thorn Tree message board if anyone knows if the tour is still available. Or if anyone has any other ideas. I could look back at my journal for the name of the travel agency but I had tried contacting them in advance and never did get a reply. If you want to try it, let me know and I'll give you details (and also the name of our hotel, which was right down the road from the agency).

Becici, by the way, is a large, popular beach resort. If you need a beach day in your vacation, this could be a good place to stay.

You can find more details on the route we took many years ago in this old thread which covers the same route you are interested in.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/bus-from-tirana-to-dubrovnik

I would definitely check out the lonely planet - 'Western Balkans' guidebook.

• I did a quick search and I think this may no longer be in print. It seems like the replacement book is now called 'Southeastern Europe'.

Since you are in the Denver area, note that the Highlands Ranch library has the Western Balkans book (2009) and a quick check shows that Denver public has the Southeastern Europe one.