Albanian Riviera

I’ve read a lot about the Albanian Riviera in the last couple of years and was curious to see if this area is really as great as everyone claims it to be.

As I concluded in my last post, the roads in Albania are not nearly as good as they were in Greece or Turkey. They are a lot narrower and there is no parking anywhere. So, people just park anywhere – in the middle of the road, on the sidewalks, etc. This means that in order to drive around, you are constantly weaving around cars and trying not to scratch your car down the sides by scraping against other cars parked there or also trying to squeeze by at the same time. Add to this the fact that Albians don’t seem to adhere to any road rules – we regularly saw people driving well over the speed limit (by 20+ kms or more), going the wrong way down one-way streets and passing (very fast) on blind corners on windy roads, and random animals in the road (horses, donkeys, goats, sheep)! To say the least, driving in Albania is nerve wracking!!

Sarandë

Pronounced and sometimes spelled Saranda, we spent a week here. In addition to the above-mentioned driving issues, Sarandë is also hilly. The town is basically built into the hillside and there is only a very narrow one-block section by the beach where it’s flat. Our rental apartment was up the hill and had a very steep driveway – so steep in fact that our tires burnt out as we tried to get up it. But, the view from the balcony was incredible! And the apartment itself was recently built and very nice. We could see the nearest supermarket from our balcony just below us, be the way the roads were laid out, it meant a 20 minute walk up and down the hill to get groceries.

The city itself had a few shops (nothing to write home about) and the beachfront was nice.

Ksamil

I had read so much about Ksamil that I was excited to visit it. It’s only a short drive from Sarandë, so we made a day trip. Ksamil had lots of hidden beaches and nooks. It is a party town with tons of bars, music and restaurants. Also, Happy Hour at pretty much every bar offered 5 euro cocktails! So of course we had to try one… All in all, I really prefered this town over Sarandë and would recommend it if given the choice.

Himarë

We attended the Wander & Wonder hub for 3 weeks in Himare. It was fantastic – we all agreed it was our favourite hub so far! The families we met at the hub were amazing and I really hope that we see many of them again 🤞

We stayed just off the beach in the center of town. The town is sort of divided into two sections and we stayed in the main section where there were more shops and restaurants. Having said that, the town is small and it only took us about 20 minutes to walk from one end of town to the end of the beach on the other section of the town. There were tons of boutique shops, mini markets, a great ice cream shop (that we went to every night with 1 euro ice creams), restaurants, etc. And, the town had a resident donkey walking around.

Again, driving and parking was an issue, but we had a parking lot next door to the apartment and we paid a woman 8 euros per day to reseve our parking spot.

(Many of the photos in the sections below are not my own – they were taken by others in the hub and uploaded into the WhatsApp group. But, as I was writing this blog, I couldn’t tell which photos were mine and which were from others…)

Himarë Old Town

The old town is actually quite a walk from modern day Himarë – about 1 hour (in the heat!). We were originally looking at staying here, but I’m so glad we didn’t! Instead R and I decided to stop and explore here after dropping off the kids one day.

There used to be a castle and a whole town here, but now it is mostly rubble with 3 cafes and a few hotels/Airbnbs. But the views were amazing!

Boat trip

One day, K went for a 3 hour boat trip with several other families to explore some of the surrounding beaches and caves. She had a blast.

Palermo Castle

We spent an afternoon exploring nearby Palermo Castle. The teens were given a project to research the history of the castle and put on a short skit to teach it to the younger kids and adults. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any photos of it! (Sorry) After exploring the castle, we spent the remainder of the afternoon going for a swim at the nearby beach.

Olive Oil Factory

We visited an olive oil factory in a nearby town. It was a small family-run business using 500 year old olive trees on their property. The son explained to us how each machine worked and then we could taste the oils and olives.

Hub & Friends

The hub had 3 ‘Nature School’ days per week – Tuesday – Thursday. We dropped the kids off at a different spot on each day: an ancient olive grove, a creek, and a beach in the next town over. During these times, the teens helped organise the younger children and ensured that their younger ‘buddies’ had their hats, water, etc. They played tons of games – both physical and card – and explored their surroundings.

In the evenings, we went for a swim on the beach and out for dinner (almost every night) and ice cream (pretty much every night). We celebrated my birthday while there (with a couple of 6 euro cocktails on the beach) and we brought in the summer solstice with an (almost) midnight swim.

We met a lot of wonderful people in the hub and the kids had a great time playing with other kids of all ages. We miss you all and hope to see you again!