The Albanian Riviera, from Vlorë to Ksamil

The Ionian coast road

The Albanian Riviera starts with a climb. From the bay of Vlorë, the SH8 road goes up through a pine forest to the Llogara Pass, at 1,027 metres. At the top, the coast appears all at once, with tight hairpin bends down to the Ionian Sea. A toll tunnel now bypasses the pass: for the view, take the old road.

At the foot of the pass, the road goes from one village to the next. Dhërmi, Vuno, Qeparo and the old town of Himarë are built on the heights. In Himarë and Dhërmi, many people speak a Greek dialect as well as Albanian. The beaches lie below: Jalë, Livadhi and Gjipe, at the mouth of a canyon. Further south, the long beach of Borsh runs beside the road under olive trees, and Lukovë steps down to the sea in terraces of citrus trees.

The trip ends in Ksamil, facing small wooded islets, in clear turquoise water. Just to the south, the ruins of Butrint fill a peninsula between a lake and a channel. Inland, the Blue Eye, Syri i Kaltër, is a deep blue spring among the trees.

At the top of Butrint’s hill, a Venetian castle houses the site museum. Come late in the day, when the heat and the crowds ease.

On a hill near Finiq, Phoinike was the capital of the Chaonians, a people of Epirus; its large theatre dates from the 3rd century BC. Saranda was the ancient town of Onchesmos. Right in the centre, you can visit the remains of a 5th-century synagogue that became a church in the 6th century. Saranda’s modern name comes from the Byzantine monastery of the Forty Saints, whose ruins look down on the town.

A coast fortified for centuries

For centuries, the Ottomans and the Venetians fought over this coast. Corfu, just opposite, remained Venetian until 1797. In 1537, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent had Lëkurës Castle built above Saranda, against the Venetians. In the early 19th century, Ali Pasha of Tepelenë, master of Epirus on behalf of the Ottomans, fortified the coast in turn. At Porto Palermo, an inscription dates his fort to 1804 and says it was built by French engineers.

It was in Vlorë that Ismail Qemali declared Albania’s independence, on 28 November 1912. Under the communist regime of Enver Hoxha, the country shut itself off. From 1967 to 1986, it was covered in concrete bunkers, which you still see on the beaches. The Riviera was a military coast at the time. It opened up to tourism in the early 1990s and has been built up quickly since, especially in Ksamil and Dhërmi.

What not to miss

1. 1The Llogara PassThe winding descent to the Riviera, on the old road.
2. 2Zvërnec MonasteryA medieval monastery on an islet in the Narta Lagoon, at the end of a wooden footbridge.
3. 3Gjipe beachA cove at the mouth of a canyon, reached on foot or by boat.
4. 4The old town of HimarëThe Kastro quarter and its churches, inside the castle walls.
5. 5Porto Palermo CastleAli Pasha’s fort on its peninsula, at the head of an almost enclosed bay.
6. 6The Blue EyeDivers have gone down 50 metres into the spring without finding the bottom.

The Albanian Riviera in pictures

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The clear turquoise water of the Blue Eye, under the trees.

The Riviera table

On the coast, people eat grilled fish, octopus and mussels farmed in Lake Butrint. The olive oil comes from the olive groves of Borsh, the oranges and lemons from the terraces of Lukovë.

Byrek, a flaky pie filled with cheese or spinach, is eaten at any time of day. On the slopes of Llogara, stalls sell honey and çaj mali, mountain tea. The meal often ends with a glass of raki.