Driving in Albania, Macedonia, and northern Greece

We will be driving from Munich to Trieste and taking a ferry to Durres, Albania. From there we will drive through Albania, Macedonia and northern Greece, take four or five days for a wedding party, and then back through Albania to Durres and the ferry back to Triest.

A little worried about the road conditions in Albania, and taking a brand new BMW through there. Should be an interesting trip, though.

Any experiences, tips, suggestions, etc. are welcome.

Just in case ... CAR RENTALS SERVICES IN GREECE

I would make sure you lock the doors and don't stop at any point in any of those countries with a brand new BMW.

In Macedonia I drove from skopje to tetovo and down to lake ohrid and the road conditions back in 2000 were rough. This means dirt roads, large stones, farm animals etc. Also there are a lot of crazy drivers on the road. I thought I was going to faint on some of the tight mountain passes near Ohrid. Anyway, I heard Albania's roads are rougher. Taking a brand new BMW is not the best idea. I wouldnt park the car on the street but see if you can into a garage or monitored/attended lot and pay the person to look after it. This can often be arranged through your hotel.

Check first that your BMW will even be insured in Macedonia and Albania. We checked recently and the Green card doesn't cover it under our policy. I've also heard their roads are awful and a car like yours would be a prime target for theft. We have a Mercedes and I was worried it would be stolen, Nick assured me that if the locals know you are friends of a local you will be OK otherwise you take the risk that your stuff may be stolen. We have good Albanian friends who own a hotel there and he even advised us to fly there rather than drive.

I'm still interested in going there this summer and would appreciate any comments you have. I think we'll fly into Tirana from Munich though.

I hope you are not serious Rick.

I toured 8 Balkan countries earlier this year. Don't believe a word about bad roads. Most of the main roads are quite ok. I've been on a lot worse roads in Africa or South America.
If you insurance green card doesn't cover these countries, you'll need to obtain insurance for a minimum of 14 days, prices per country range anywhere from 20 to 50 Euro. Naturally, they will sell you this expensive package at the border.

Gas/petrol is cheap, around 1 Euro per liter in most Balkan countries.

Well, that would kind of defeat the purpose of going there, wouldn't it?

Anyway, thanks for the responses so far. A few points--

Yes, I am serious. We're looking forward to the trip.

Yes, we checked and the insurance does cover the car.

We've been on some "interesting" roads in Africa and Central/South America (and Egypt & Tunisia, for that matter) and are quite experienced, so the roads shoudn't be too bad. Probably won't be driving at night, though.

It's a company car, so if it does get stolen, we get a new one.

Sunny, we plan to do that area as well. Any tips for nice places to stay?

I'll certainly provide some feedback.

As for tipps/suggestions, we were looking for more recommended places to see, things to do, etc. Thanks for the warnings, though. Nice to know you all care!

You have a good attitude - you will probably have a fun adventure!
Let me check in with my friends from Macedonia and get back to you with tips.
When I was in Macedonia and Kosovo I was working & sadly I got put up in all the sterile places with names like "continental" and "the grand"
more soon

Thanks sunny, any tips you could give us would be "grand."

Try to spend 1 night in Tirana. Nice surroundings, many interesting things to explore. Check the colorful houses in Tirana and other cities you pass through. It prompted me to go on a photo safari finding as many as I could. Courtesy of former artist, now corrupt politician Edi Rama.

Stayed at: Hotel Arber Tirana, Albania
Relatively new, in a quiet little street that looks horrible, but is ok and safe. Have guarded underground parking, free WLAN. 300 m from Skenderbeg Square.

Had a great dinner at the restaurant in "Prince Park", about 2-3 km from Skenderbeg Sq., follow the main road E852 South from the city center. It's on the right side going up a hill.

Macedonia:
Only spent 2 nights in Skopje, stayed at the Holiday Inn. Not really creative, but a good location with great views from the rooms on the upper floors. Found no really great restaurants. Hiking up Mt. Vodno may be a good thing when driving long distances. 500 vertical meters from the end of the road to the top.

Greece:
A wonderful city to stop or even spend a day is the town of Edessa (on the way from Macedonia to Thessaloniki). Not 1 but 2 waterfalls in the city. Somebody read the last rites to the Easter Lamb on Good Friday.

Thessaloniki: Too many places to recommend in here.

Happy trails

Forgot to mention: Albania and Macedonia did not exist in my 3 months old Garmin Navigation System.
Greece was quite well mapped.
The current 2008 ADAC Tour Planer shows all of these countries/cities in great detail, but also does not offer automatic routing based on street names.

Rick: here are some tips on Albania from a good friend. allbest, sunny

If you want to see seaside towns with history, I would recommend Sarande (in the south) and, less so, Durres (due west of Tirana), both on the Adriatic.

Durres loves that they've got this old amphitheatre, but it's also the smuggling capital. Sarande is also a good jumping off point for day trips to archaeological sites and mountain trails. Another
good mountainous town with history (and the requisite fortress) is Gjirokaster (near Sarande in the south). I also really liked Korca, which is in the southeast corner, nearish to Lake Ohrid. If he wants a taste of the wild west, definitely go north to Shkoder, he can also see Lake Shkodra (Skadar or Scutari, you know everything in the Balkans has like 3 official names) on the border with Montenegro. It's a fun drive up into Montenegro as well, with Ulcinj right across the border and loads of hiking in between.

Thanks so much for all your tips. We leave in about 4 hours! Time to catch some sleep.

Rick

No reason to worry ... according to an article in thisislondon.co.uk

Just a quick note. So far, having a wonderful time. Took the ferry from Trieste, which was looong (24 hours). Arrived in durres and immediately drove to Berat, since we will be coming back to Durres for the return journey. We found a fantastic B&B/hotel here in Berat Hotel Mangalemi. Berat is great! We liked it so much, we decided to spend two nights here. Great old town quarters, an impressive citidel complex with fascinating 18th century houses which are still lived in. Just a great little town. The food is tasty, people are friendly, and beer is 80 cents. Tomorrow, we head back north to Kurja and then on to Tirana, where we will spend one or two nights...

As for the car situation... it is as I feared, our new BMW sticks out like a sore thumb, since it is not a Mercedes or 5 series BMW. At elast 80% of all the cars here are Mercs. As for our car being conspicuous, not a chance. It only stics our because it is dirty at the moment...

Streets not that bad, but we've only experienced a small sample. Still, we aren't exactly on a main thoroufare, and I have definitely hasd much worse road experiences.

That's all for now!