Albania's beaches! Today we're featuring lots of beautiful beaches in Albania, including our own favourite Bunec Beach. Albania's coastline is incredibly beautiful with crystal clear waters and pretty little islands. There are bustling tourist resorts, and there are also beautiful beaches in Albania where you can almost be left alone.
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Albania's beaches - How to decide which are the best?
How you experience a beach is of course personal, and depends on a thousand different factors. What was the weather like when you were there? What time of year were you there? Who were you there with? We can only start from ourselves and write personally about the beaches we have visited.
Albania's beaches - our favourites and more popular beach strips
By the time we arrived on the beaches of Albania in our campervan, we had been travelling along the coast of Europe for eight months. We'd seen hundreds of beaches, and perhaps started looking for the ones that stood out. Firstly, we offer five personal tips on beautiful beaches in Albania that we have visited. Then, the list continues with more popular Albanian beaches.
1st Radhima Beach
Radhima Beach in the region of Vlora is a real tourist destination with parasols and hotels. Here you will find restaurants with Italian food and you have a great view of the sea and the mountains on the other side.
The houses are low-built, which gives a cosy impression and removes the feeling of too much tourism. The ferry between Bari in Italy and Vlore here in Albania, means that Italians who want to get more out of their money on holiday, dominate the scene. Radhima Beach on the Albanian coast.
2nd Livadhi Beach
Livadhi Beach is located in Himara, in the region of Vlora. We crossed the high mountain pass of Llogora and meandered down to Livadhi Beach, which is more influenced by Greek than Italian. Here it is more chill and a quieter beach with nice tavernas along the promenade.
Life here at Livadhi beach is calm and so far tourism is relatively small-scale. We hope they can maintain this feeling in the future as Albania grows. There are also several other beautiful beaches nearby.
3. Bunec Beach is our favourite beach in Albania.
Bunec Beach is located in Piqeras in southern Albania, about 17 kilometres north of Saranda and is the "magic beach" for us. Almost completely untouched with a two kilometre long dirt road down to the beach, where mostly locals seem to find their way. When we got down to Bunec Beach we just said "wow"!
The beach is very long and there are some small beach bars playing some music, a secluded hotel and the green-clad mountain range in the background. No hordes of people, no beach balls and no pedal boats - welcome to Bunec Beach Riviera!
Here the water is truly crystal clear and in two places pure cold mountain water flows straight into Bunec Beach. All these factors make the beach with the sea outside magical, and there can't be many places like this left in Europe. We swam in the 30-degree water and suddenly we were met by a cold water stream in the summer heat from the cold mountain water.
4th Saranda Beach
Saranda Beach located in the tourist centre Saranda. Here we have the beach and the crowd for those who want everything at once, with many foreign tourists. It is perfectly fine as a beach and extends around the seafront with restaurants along the coast. There is cheap shopping and lots of tourists from the North with nightclubs and discos. Saranda is also a good starting point for excursions and various interesting sights.
Saranda has influences from both Greece and Italy, with the Romans dominating and building amphitheatres here. Boat services from Italy run like trains in the summer and Greece is their neighbour. There are plenty of hotels and apartments to rent, and if you're flying in from the North, you might land in Corfu and take the 20-minute boat crossing to Albania. Welcome to Saranda!
5. Ksamil Beach
Ksamil Beach located just south of Saranda, is one of the most popular of all the beaches in Albania. Ksamil is a tourist paradise with small islands outside, and you can see Corfu right next to it. It has everything for the charter traveller with sun umbrellas, pedal boats, vendors, jet skis and everything you can imagine. The beach in the bay is shallow, and the white beach with turquoise water. It is not white sand but more fine-grained gravel.
In addition to Ksamil the green-clad mountains rise up, providing a beautiful contrast to the white beach and crystal clear sea. There are lovely restaurants Here we tried, and if you walk along the seafront you will find nightclubs and bars. If you are not afraid of crowds, Ksamil is very nice and charming.
6. Dhermi Beach
Dhermi Beach is a beautiful beach with clear water and a big city vibe.
7. Borsh beach is the longest of Albania's beaches
Borcsh beach is a 7 kilometre long and beautiful beach north of Saranda.
8. Drymades
Drymades is supposed to be a beautiful beach with crystal clear water and few tourists.
9. Durrës beach
Durrës beach is a 10 kilometre long sandy beach with a lot of tourists.
10. Albania's beaches: Vlora beach
The tourist town of Vlora with the turquoise Adriatic Sea outside.
11. dhrale beach
Dhrale beach belongs to the green coast below Llogara National Park with mountains.
12. Jali Beach
jali Beach is located between Dhërmi and Livhadi on the river.
13. Gjipe Beach
Gjipe Beach is located south of Dhërmi on the west coast.
14. Albania's beaches: Shëngjin beach
Shëngjin beach is located 60 kilometres northwest of Tirana.
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Krisztina says:
Ohhh how inviting it looks, would have liked to be there and take a dip. So fun to read your blog. It is so wonderful to travel! Have a good time and enjoy!
20 August 2015 - 11:33
BP says:
Really, really nice! To look 30 metres into the water and see everything on the bottom must be amazing!
I'm not a fan of sand (especially when it's windy) so rocks are fine with me too;-)
20 August 2015 - 11:53
Henny says:
Albania delivers, in modern terms. So much fun to read about this rather unknown country thanks to you. Moreover, not a charter travel story but more on a grassroots level (or rubber wheel level).
20 August 2015 - 13:44
Mr Steve says:
Wow, so much Albania you offer. And so much Albania has to offer. It was different in Enver Hoxha's time. Then there was nothing to offer. Could it possibly be that the previous isolation "pays off" in the end?
With everything you are telling us here, Albania should have a golden future in tourism and hopefully they will have learnt from the tourism exploitation and mistakes of previous countries.
20 August 2015 - 14:07
admin says:
Krisztina, glad to hear that you appreciate our blog!
BP, we have also started to realise that stone can be nicer than sand, at least sometimes.
Henny, yes we are just pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it is and how friendly people are. It's a bit messy and disorganised at times, but it's not a big problem. Glad you're joining us!
Steve, Albania has a lot to offer and tourism is developing rapidly. Then I don't know how easy it is to avoid mistakes. The growth does not feel so planned but everyone who can expand is expanding...
20 August 2015 - 14:28
Marina says:
As I said, Albania is attracting more and more...
20 August 2015 - 17:21
snort says:
What a wonderful beach and so nice that it is not crowded!
20 August 2015 - 19:17
Matts Torebring says:
I would fit in really well there.
20 August 2015 - 20:52
Anja says:
"I heard the news today" oh girl, the .... "has just won "the war" :((((.....
20 August 2015 - 21:24
Anja says:
Otherwise - so magically beautiful colours in the picture from Bunic beach, or plazh in Albanian.
20 August 2015 - 21:28
Ditte says:
My interest grows with each post, even though I now don't spend time on beaches and sunbathing during the day. But snorkelling and swimming I can do.
Delicious with its clear waters, inviting both snorkelling and diving.
Great pictures!
Looking forward to the next post.
20 August 2015 - 22:10
admin says:
Marina, there is a lot of beauty in Albania!
Znogge, yes we are tired of crowded beaches... this is much better!
Matts, at least here you don't have to crowd!
Anja, .....? Please explain! Yes, it is very nice here!
Ditte, there is of course more than sun and sea here. We are, as you can see, very positive so far!
20 August 2015 - 23:26
Ama de casa says:
Delicious! 🙂
21 August 2015 - 10:31
Fantasy travel says:
Wow! I get soooo excited about Albania!
23 August 2015 - 19:05
Conny anthav says:
Hi there, we have been in Croatia since 2006 and are looking for something new, Albania is relevant to us, my question is what is the weather like in June and half of July?
22 September 2024 - 12:31