Ferries from Italy to Albania

Six direct crossings link Italy with Albania. Three Italian ports feed the corridor, and two of them land at Durrës, the country's main gateway for cars and coaches. Two questions settle the booking: which Italian port you can reach without losing a day to the motorway, and whether the crossing should take a night or a day.

Bari, the working axis

Bari to Durrës carries the corridor, and three operators share it. Adria Ferries sails every day of the year, quotes about eight hours and leaves Bari at 22:00 or 23:00 for an 08:00 arrival. Ventouris Ferries keeps the same overnight pattern, out at 22:00 and in at 08:00. GNV is the slower ship on the same water, 9 hours 45 minutes to 10 hours 45 minutes, near daily and year round. Between 15 July and 14 September Adria Ferries adds a midday departure at 12:00 or 13:00 that berths at 21:00 or 22:00, the one dependable way to cross this corridor in daylight.

Ancona, when the Italian drive is the problem

Ancona to Durrës exists to save the long run down the Adriatic coast to Puglia. Adria Ferries has it to itself: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in the low season, daily from about 10 July to the end of August, leaving at 19:00 on weekdays and 17:00 on Saturdays. The crossing takes 16 to 18 hours, so it costs a night and half a day. Coming over the Alps or down the A14, Ancona is the sensible port; from Rome southwards, Bari is.

Vlora, and only in summer

Brindisi to Vlora is the exception twice over: the only route that does not land at Durrës, and the only one that closes for the winter. Starlines runs it out of Brindisi from 1 May to 31 October, four days a week, in five and a half to seven and a half hours. It is the shortest sea leg in the corridor and it lands in the south, which saves a couple of hours of Albanian road if Vlora, Himara or Saranda is the destination. Outside the season the answer is Durrës and a longer drive.

Check-in and papers

Adria Ferries closes check-in one hour before departure and asks summer passengers to be at the port three hours ahead. GNV applies the same hour at Durrës and asks passengers to report for embarkation four hours before departure, with or without a vehicle. Everyone aboard needs a valid travel document, infants included, and the vehicle registration and any pet paperwork are checked with it. Durrës runs border and customs control inside the ferry terminal, so allow for the queue at both ends.