Sarande
Sarandë is where the Albanian south becomes reachable from one bed. Butrint and the Blue Eye are day trips, Corfu is half an hour by fast ferry, and the sunset belongs to Lekurësi castle.
Sarande in a nutshell
Sarande: what to expect
93,000+ stops in Albania are planned on Stippl, and this is the shape they make.
Sarandë is the largest town on the Albanian Riviera and the practical capital of the south coast. It is built as an amphitheatre around its bay, with a flat seafront and everything behind it climbing steeply. Butrint compresses 2,500 years of continuous habitation into fifty hectares, walkable in a couple of hours. Lekurësi castle looks over the strait to Corfu at sunset, the Blue Eye is a karst spring forty minutes inland, and the coves north and south are reachable only by boat.
Sarandë is where Albania stops being a road trip. It is the first destination in the country where most travellers stay more than a single night, and half of its trips never leave Albania at all against a third nationally. Ksamil, eleven kilometres south, is a substitute rather than a companion: it turns up on Sarandë trips less often than trip length alone predicts, so people base themselves in one town or the other.
Two nights, and use them as a base for the whole south. Butrint, Ksamil, the Blue Eye, Gjirokastër and the Riviera villages are all day trips from here, and Corfu is half an hour by fast ferry into another country. Do not come for sand, because the town beaches are pebble and Ksamil is where you will find it. Do not come for an old town either: Sarandë is a modern working port and the historic layer is thin.
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Anyone basing for the south
Butrint, Ksamil, the Blue Eye, Gjirokastër and the Riviera villages are all day trips from here, and Sarandë is the 2nd most-planned stop in Albania.
Town people, not resort people
Restaurants, bars, a promenade and a supermarket, rather than a strip of hotels.
Budget travellers
The Riviera's cheapest real town, with hostels as well as hotels, and most people give it 2 nights.
Corfu day-trippers
The ferry to Corfu runs several times a day, and plenty of people cross for the day in either direction.
Maybe not for you: anyone who wants sand, since the town's beaches are pebble and Ksamil is where the sand is; and anyone looking for an old town, because Sarandë is a modern working port and the historic layer is thin.
The best time to visit Sarande
Closed-feeling
November to March
Mild and wet, most beach businesses shut and the ferry to Corfu down to a few sailings a day. The town keeps working; the Riviera around it does not.
First window
May and June
Warm, open and uncrowded. The beach clubs along the front open, the sea turns comfortable in mid May and the road to Ksamil is still quick.
High summer
July and August
Hot, dry and full, with the promenade packed until midnight and the Corfu boats sold out on peak days. Prices are at their highest and so is the noise.
September
September
Warm sea, the town half as busy and the first autumn rain. For a base on the southern Riviera this is the month.
- July is the month most travellers plan Sarandë for on Stippl, about 59 days ahead. The town has more rooms than any other place on the Riviera, which is why it is the fallback when Ksamil and Himarë are full.
- The Corfu ferry is the way in for many, and the summer timetable is the good one. From June to September there are several crossings a day; in winter it drops to one or two, and a missed boat is a night in Corfu Town.
- Sarandë's Blue Eye closes to swimming and the spring has no shade. The site is a short hour, best at opening in July and August, and the taxi drivers charge by the trip rather than the meter.
- The promenade is loud until late in summer. Every bar on the front runs music to midnight in July and August; a room two streets back sleeps, a room on the front does not.
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Things to do in Sarande
Butrint
Take the bus eighteen kilometres south, about €1, to the UNESCO site with its theatre, baptistry and Venetian tower, walkable in about two hours, about €10. Go at opening and pair it with a Ksamil afternoon.
Lekurësi Castle at sunset
Drive or take a taxi ten minutes up to the Ottoman-era castle above the town for the panorama over the bay, the strait and Corfu on a clear evening. Free, and the restaurant inside has the table.
The Blue Eye
Drive forty minutes inland to the karst spring of extraordinary blue, about €0.50 and a two-kilometre walk from the car park. No swimming, no shade, and best at opening in summer.
A boat day along the coast
Take the speedboat day to the coves south and north of town, Kakome, Krorëz, Gremina Bay and the sea caves, reachable only by water, about €40. The standard summer day and the reason to stay a third night.
The Monastery of the Forty Saints
Walk up to the sixth-century ruin the town is named after, on the hill above it, damaged under the communist regime and now near-empty. Free, and the view is the point.
A day in Corfu
Take the fast ferry half an hour across the strait to a different country, about €25 return, for Corfu Town's Venetian old town. Several crossings a day in summer, one or two in winter.
The neighbourhoods of Sarande
The centre
Promenade, port, the xhiro
The flat seafront spine along the boulevard: the promenade, the port, the public beach and the restaurant and beach-club strip, where the evening walk happens. For first visits and anyone who wants everything on foot.
Everything on the front, and the noise of the front until late.
Upper centre
Hillside, residential, cheaper
The hillside directly above the centre: quieter, residential, family-oriented and cheaper, with everything a downhill walk and an uphill return. For budget stays and families.
Sleep and lower prices, and the climb home after dinner.
Kodra
Boutique resorts, sea views
The upscale side: boutique resorts and higher-end hotels along the coast with the sea views the centre cannot offer, ten to fifteen minutes downhill to the promenade. For couples and a pool with a view.
The view and a pool, and a taxi home from the front.
Rruga Butrinti
Clifftop road, beach clubs, coves
The clifftop road running south toward Ksamil: terraced beach clubs, the town's better coves and the larger hotels, the summer party strip. For beach clubs and for the coves without the town beach.
The best swimming and the clubs, and a ride into the centre.
The port side
Ferry terminal, family hotels
North of the promenade around the ferry terminal: mid-rise and family hotels, a calmer waterfront, thinner crowds and the Corfu boats on the doorstep. For families and for the ferry.
The Corfu boats at the door and the calm, and a walk along the front for dinner.
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Where to stay in Sarande
Stay on the seafront for a first visit if you can take the noise, and directly uphill in the upper centre if you would rather sleep: everything is a downhill walk and an uphill return. Most people give Sarande 2 nights on Stippl, the first Albanian stop where one night is the minority choice. Apartments dominate the mid-range now, so book one with a balcony.
The centre
Mid-range hotels and apartments along the boulevard, €40 to €100 in summer, with hostels from €12.
Upper centre
Family apartments and guesthouses on the hillside, €25 to €60, quieter and cheaper.
Kodra
Boutique resorts and higher-end hotels with the sea view, €90 to €200.
Rruga Butrinti
The larger hotels above the beach clubs, €60 to €150, the summer party strip.
The port side
Family and mid-rise hotels by the ferry terminal, €35 to €80, with the Corfu boats at the door.
What to eat in Sarande
Adriatic fish and shellfish, the reason to eat in Sarandë
Tomato, cucumber, olive and feta salad; reliable everywhere on the southern coast
National pilsner, the default beer order here
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Sarande customs and what not to do
The xhiro is the event
The whole promenade walks it at sunset and it is the same ritual as every Albanian town; the restaurants fill early, so book a terrace or eat at seven.
Greek is spoken in the south
A Greek Orthodox presence is visible in the churches and audible in the villages toward the border; the monastery at Mesopotam and the churches in town are in use.
Coffee is a slow ritual
A coffee on the front is an hour, not a stop, and the waiter will not bring the bill until asked; a second one is the normal way to keep the table.
The nod can mean no
The upward chin jerk is no and a sideways wobble can be yes; in the market and with taxi drivers, get the number spoken.
Do
- Walk the promenade at sunset
- Take the ferry to Corfu for the day; it is thirty minutes
- Book the Ksamil and Butrint bus tickets the day before in summer
- Cover shoulders and knees at the churches and the mosque
Don't
- Expect the town beach to be the good one; go to Ksamil or Mirror Beach
- Swim at the Blue Eye; it is prohibited
- Pay in euro; the change comes in lek at a poor rate
- Drive the coast road north at night
What a Sarande trip costs
Budget
€40–55
Dorm bed or basic guesthouse, buses and furgons, market food plus a €5–10 restaurant meal, free hikes and beaches.
Mid-range
€90–130
Private room or small hotel, a share of a hire car, restaurant meals, paid sunbeds, entry fees and a boat trip.
High-end
€200+
Boutique hotel or Riviera resort, private transfers or an automatic hire car, beach clubs, guided treks.
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Fun facts about Sarande
Sarandë is named after forty martyrs. Via a sixth-century monastery on the hill: Sarandë, Santi Quaranta and Agioi Saranta are all the same forty saints in three languages.
There is a fifth-century synagogue in the middle of the town. Its mosaic floors survive a few streets from the seafront, one of the more significant late-antique Jewish sites in the Mediterranean, and almost nobody visits.
Corfu is closer to Sarandë than Ksamil is to Butrint. Fifteen kilometres of water against eighteen of coast road, which is why the Greek island is a day trip and the ferry port matters.
The town is built as an amphitheatre around its bay. The seafront is flat and everything behind it climbs, steeply enough to decide where people choose to sleep.
Sarandë is where Albania stops being a road trip. On Stippl it is the largest town on the Riviera and the base for the whole south, with the buses, the ferry and the accommodation range.
The beaches in town are pebble. The sand is at Ksamil, 11 to 14 km south, and that is the deciding factor between the two towns for almost everyone.
Local tips for Sarande
Not two hours from Tirana, five
The bus takes four and a half to five and a half hours whatever the map says, about €12. Fly to Corfu and take the ferry across if the time matters more than the money.
The Ksamil bus is the workhorse
The Trans Butrinti service runs hourly from near the port along Rruga Butrinti, reaching Ksamil in twenty minutes and Butrint in thirty for about €1. Flag it down anywhere on the road.
Corfu in half an hour
The fast ferries cross in thirty-five minutes, about €25 return, and it is a genuine day rather than a novelty. Book ahead in peak season; the fast crossing fills.
How long to stay
Most people give Sarandë 2 nights on Stippl, as the base for Ksamil, Butrint and the coast boats; a third of all Albanian trips pass through. Two is right.
Ask for a faturë
Taxi overcharging is the standard complaint, and asking for a receipt obliges the meter. The steep streets and the summer traffic on Rruga Butrinti are the day-to-day hazard.
Swim where the town swims
Nobody publishes lifeguard or current information for this bay. Use the beaches inside the town and the ones the locals use; the rocks below the road are not for swimming.
Sarande questions, answered
As the southern hub. Sarande carries 8.82% of everything planned in Albania on Stippl, second only to Tirana, because the buses, the boats and the Corfu ferry all run from here. Build the south around it in Stippl and day-trip out to Butrint, Ksamil and the Blue Eye.
Two, or three to four with the day trips in. Across the Sarande stops planned on Stippl the usual is 2 nights, which covers the town and one excursion. Butrint, the Blue Eye and a boat day are each half a day to a full one, and they are what stretches it.
A base, and one of the few in Albania. Just 31.6% of the Sarande stops on Stippl come to one night, close to the lowest in the country, because everything in the south is a day trip from here rather than a separate bed somewhere else.
Yes, better than anywhere else in Albania. The Ksamil and Butrint bus runs through the day for the price of a coffee, boat trips and Blue Eye tours are sold along the promenade, and intercity buses to Tirana and Gjirokaster leave from the top of town. A car is mostly a parking problem here.
By bus, four and a half to five and a half hours, with roughly ten departures a day from the capital. It is a long haul on a winding coast road, so take a morning one and treat the Llogara pass section as sightseeing. The ferry from Corfu is the other way in.
It is thirty to thirty-five minutes each way on the fast ferry and it is a different country, so bring a passport and expect a border queue at both ends. Book ahead in July and August, when the boats sell out. A day gives you Corfu Town and not a great deal else.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
Plan Sarande in Stippl
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