Hello all!

My family and I (husband and 5 kids ages 15-5) are traveling extensively in a few weeks. We will be ending our trip by flying out of Tirana. I am concerned I am over estimating our ability to see what we want of Albania while not running ourselves ragged doing it.

We will be heading towards Albania from Dubrovnik and I have loosely thought of a itinerary but am absolutely begging for tips and suggestions. We have a car hire that has confirmed we are able to take from Croatia and leave in Albania. We are used to driving 8 hours straight in America (we do this often and the kids are good car riders). Main requests to see in Albania are (unfortunately, as they are the farthest down) "the good beaches", Gjirokaster, and Apolonia Archeological Park. A bonus would be any mountain-ish areas we can squeeze in, but I don't think that is possible.

Our current itinerary is ...
Day 1 - Leave Dubrovnik towards Kotor. Explore Kotor and spend the night. Important: Hike Ladders of Kotor some, explore town
Day 2 - Leave Kotor, Maybe stop at Lovcen National Park, can be cut due to time. Drive across border to Albania. How far south can we get if it's a hard driving day?
Day 3 - Apolonia Archeological Park in morning. "Good beach" in afternoon. Spend night near the beach we choose.
Day 4 - Beach in morning. Head to Gjirokaster. Spend the day. Spend the night? Or Gjirokaster early and back to beach for late afternoon and evening?
Day 5 - Head to Tirana. Spend rest of day exploring right around the center. Have hotel near center.
Day 6 - Fly out in AM.

Am I really underestimating the time driving in Albania? I feel like I'm looking at Google maps and adding time, but maybe it's not enough?
(Trust me, I wish we had more time to slow this down.)

Could you substitute Berat for Gjirokaster? It's closer to Tirana.

you know these roads are not the best right? Narrow, serpentine etc in places. Watch out for tortoise!

You might also check the times here - https://www.viamichelin.com/ - I would be more inclined to trust them. Rome2Rio would give you another check, and maybe also how long it takes a bus. My problem with the buses in Albania was that they all seemed to leave very early in the morning.