Kosovo’s inter-city and urban public transportation left me impressed, and that is putting it lightly. Kosovo being so small was, to a certain degree, the reason for this. If you cannot travel at any direction for more than two hours, you will not necessarily find the time to be annoyed by the bus that you are on. However, I also adored just how punctual Kosovar drivers were, how often regular inter-city buses took off even to smaller cities, and how comfortable most vehicles were. The following is a short guide to make the best of your time in Kosovo if you want to see the most of what it has to offer!
Let us start with basics. As is the case with most cities in the world, Pristina has a main bus terminal. It is the building you can see above, and you can find it on the maps HERE. It has a toilet, some facilities to eat in, and a few burek sellers. Other than that, and perhaps most importantly, it has buses that await you to get on them!
You can find two sets of buses waiting around in this bus terminal. On its left side, we have the local buses. These go to destinations like Peja, Mitrovica, Prizren, and so on. Almost all the buses you will need to take you around Kosovo will be found here. They will almost always cost 5 Euros one way (at least that was the case in July 2024), and most leaves at twenty- or thirty-minute intervals from this location, starting early on in the wee hours of the day. You can check the exact schedules using THIS website. You do not need to buy any tickets prior to boarding these buses. You just go there, sit down, and as the bus leaves the city, you will be asked to pay for your voyage by an often not so eager conductor of sorts. You can pay the fare in cash or with a credit card, at least in most cases. If you wish to take one of the longer journeys, such as those towards Skopje or Tirana, then you will have to go to the other side of the terminal. For these, you will need a ticket you bought prior to boarding the bus. You can buy one easily inside the bus terminal, as most workers there seem to speak some English. Once again, the fares are reasonable, buses are big, and they are almost always comfortable.
While I did say that most buses depart from the actual bus terminal, there is an exception to the rule, hence me writing most and not all. When I was there, the buses and minibuses to Mitrovica were leaving from a nearby roadside rather than the terminal itself. I was told that this had to do with their desire not to pay some sort of tax for using the bus terminal itself. I am not sure why they are the only ones who wish to avoid this tax, or why the others do not seem to care for it. I can, however, provide you a visual clue as to where you can find these vehicles. Basically, when you are already at the entrance of the bus terminal, turn back. You will see a very short tunnel of sorts for cars and some occasional pedestrians. Go through it and follow along the road. You will arrive at this location.
Well, I do hope that this was somewhat useful for planning your trip to Kosovo. Though I do think that the best trip to the region needs a car to make sure that you can visit all that you want to, the way you want to, Kosovo nevertheless has a much better public transportation system than most of its neighbours that I visited to this day. It is cheap, fast, and efficient. My only criticism is that, for some reason, return trips from most cities back to Pristina end early, often even before 6pm. This makes it rather hard to see all some of these cities (like Peja and Prizren) offer in a single day trip. If you want to do a very thorough tour of this part of the world, you better come with some ample time in your hands and spend a night or two in all towns you want to visit. With that being said, you can certainly do what I did, and stay in a single apartment near the bus station in Pristina for a week and see the whole region through day trips. You will just have to sacrifice a few places you may have visited otherwise, which is hardly a dealbreaker as you will still end up seeing a whole new part of Kosovo practically every day.