Explore the Albanian Riviera

While many tourists stick to Corfu, the sun kissed shores of the Albanian Riviera just across the eponymous Straight are teeming with beaches

Albanian riviera itinerary - across from corfu

The Riviera stretches about a hundred kilometers from north of Dhermi down to Ksamil (a little past Sarandë)

Albanian riviera map — Map of Albanian Riviera @wikipedia.org

Some of the towns on the map are little more than a few buildings on the beach, while others, like Himarë, Ksamil, and, of course, Sarandë are attractions in their own right and make great bases for exploration. Though we stayed with a friend, Booking.com has many great options along the whole Riviera.

Unlike Sarandë city beaches, where rocks are sharp and ungainly, many of the other Riviera beaches offer smooth and often quite small pebbles — leave your water shoes at home. If you are in Albania, you owe it to yourself to check them out.

One of the closest beautiful beaches to Sarandë (where we were staying) is Kroreza, with turquoise water and cream colored “sand,”

it is unfortunately inaccessible by car, so you have to take a boat tour there like we did during our stay in Sarandë.

Then, inspired by Luda’s post on the Albanian Riviera, I decided to see the most stunning beaches I could get to. So, having rented the last automatic car in Sarandë, I drove north. This is my story, and I hope it inspires you to do the same.

Driving down the Riviera

I started with Dhermi beach, the farthest notable beach from Sarandë, and then worked my way back down. From what I saw, there are not a lot of public facilities on these beaches (though Dhermi had showers), so for bathrooms, umbrellas and lounge chairs you get day passes at bars and restaurants on the beach. I stopped at Salinas beach bar because their umbrellas were $10 for the day instead of $20 next door(!). But in mid October, on a gorgeous sunny 85f degree day, they were already in active deconstruct mode, which visibly put their few remaining patrons on edge.

Unlike Sarandë area, all the other beaches I visited on the Riviera had small surf, just at the very shore, and a quite steep drop-off — a few steps and you’re swimming.

Moving down south, Jale beach is about half an hour’s drive south, with half of that time going back to and down from the main road — most of the beaches are about five minutes down from the “highway”

At Jale beach the pebbles are the finest yet, though not quite sand

But unlike Dhermi, everything at Jale beach was shuttered, and it did not seem to have showers at all. It was a good bit smaller too — just a cute bay and a few restaurants — and active construction above.

For my final beach stop, I went to Livadi beach

It is similarly pebbly to Jale, but much larger and not as cute in person. At this time of the year almost completely abandoned, with every single restaurant boarded up and beach chairs and umbrellas packed up, it wasn’t particularly inviting. Given that there were no operable showers or bathrooms in sight, I quickly moved on to Himarë

Albanian Riviera itinerary tour - Himarë

Although it is home to several pretty beaches, it was unfortunately too late in the day to visit them (though the distances are small, the journey to this point had taken most of the day). But if you have a chance, these are definitely worth a visit —

Sfagelo beach - best beaches in albania — **Sfageio Beach** @sandee.com

Incidentally, on the way from Himarë to Sarandë, you pass Porto Palermo Castle, which served as a former Soviet submarine base, and if you have time, it’s definitely worth a stop

porto palermo castle tour — @wikipedia.org

Roads in Albania

I had read mixed reviews of roads in Albania, but this drive is generally fine. On most of this stretch you will be travelling 40-60kph with good pavement quality, but be ready for trucks that seem to struggle to go 20 kph. You will have to pass them on curvy roads which can be unnerving.

The unexpected and fun element of the drive is all the local fauna that you get to meet