Durres, Albania

We rented an apartment in Durrës for 6 nights and enjoyed the second longer stay of our trip so far. With an apartment with a kitchen and living space, we were able to get into a good routine of exercise, work on some projects and beach time. Everything we’d been wanting at this stage.

Durres is a coastal town with a city centre set around the port and a long beach extending south. The entire beachfront was lined with large hotels and restaurants that gave the impression that in the peak season this would be a busy place. Similarly to our experience in Sicily, we arrived in the shoulder season and found most places completely closed down for the winter. The water was reasonably warm still so having the beach to ourselves was a treat. Amongst the large hotels along the beachfront, we found a small bar owned by a local guy who had a handful of umbrellas out and the cheapest beers by far. This became our regular afternoon session(sometimes morning 🤷‍♂️😂). The perfect place to stop by for a beer, some sun and the sunset, all while he tinkered away at minor improvements.

Of all the time we spent in Durres we only got up to the city centre once. Now realising that the bus system would benefit from a recce to confirm the correct terminal location for our next destination. The problem was that everything we found online about buses to the Riviera told us something different. Also was the issue that now being in the off-season we weren’t sure if some of the comments were even still relevant. We caught the local bus to the city bus terminal. And even there we were told different things. One opinion was that we would need to go back to Tirana (the opposite direction) and another suggestion was that buses heading south went from a different terminal outside of Durres.

After wandering around the centre which included an old ruins of a Roman-eta amphitheater, we set out to find this 2nd terminal. Fortunately, the local bus line consisted of one route that ran from the centre, down the coast past our apartment, and directly to the place we were told about. As we arrived, almost freakishly, we stepped off the bus and were greeted by a mini bus stopped on the kerb with a sign in its window saying “Vlorë”. Exactly where we were trying to get to! Except it was leaving literally at that moment. Being on our recce, it meant we didn’t plan on leaving till the next day. So now we needed to figure out if this chance encounter could be replicated the next day. We tried unsuccessfully to get some information from the driver who was keen to get us onboard right there to get an additional 2 fares. What we decided was it was likely that at least there would be a similar minibus at the same place/same time the next day. So with the plan to just pack up and bring our gear down early in the morning, we had enough information to at least sleep a bit easier that night.

The next day we caught the local bus down to the spot and instead of the shuttle was a taxi. The driver enthusiastically displayed a handwritten sign saying “Vlorë” and offered us a private shuttle for €10 each. Done! Funny how our lesson from Morocco of “trusting the system” seemed to be just as relevant here.Read more