-
We are thinking of a trip to Corfu and the Albanian Riviera in early September. We have neither been on Corfu nor in Albania yet. We are thinking of something like 4 nights Corfu, 4 nights Albanian Riviera and back another 3 nights Corfu. It should be a mix of beach and culture. Any tips for such a trip? Where to stay? What to see?
….er…. something definitely not to be talked about on public forums!
I will just say for Albania, google maps is your friend.We visited Sarande as a cruise port-of-call. It appeared to be popular with Albanian tourists, however, we didn’t feel comfortable there and chose to return to the ship, to avoid being cursed by the heather-selling old women. I couldn’t imagine anything worse than spending 4 days and nights in Albania! I can understand why 10% of the male Albanian population has migrated to the UK.
I have in laws who operate a business between Italy and Corfu, by all accounts it’s not unknown for people to get caught up in altercations between gangs/police/coastguard in that stretch of the Adriatic! Corfu is supposed to be beautiful, though.
Not on the coast, but about 50km inland from Sarande, Gjirokastër is very beautiful as is the surrounding countryside. Not many tourists currently, but it is unsurprisingly growing fast as people discover these gems.
We visited Sarande as a cruise port-of-call. It appeared to be popular with Albanian tourists, however, we didn’t feel comfortable there and chose to return to the ship, to avoid being cursed by the heather-selling old women. I couldn’t imagine anything worse than spending 4 days and nights in Albania! I can understand why 10% of the male Albanian population has migrated to the UK.
That’s interesting. I was very close to booking a tier point holiday to Albania with the express desire to go to Sarande and across to corfu. Have read a million times people saying Albania was a pleasant surprise, that the south coast is stunning etc and it’s so cheap. On another travel forum one guy said he goes several times a year he loved it so much. What else bothered you besides the heather pests?
I am a regular visitor to Corfu and stayed on the Albanian coast 4-5 years ago for a short time. I’m a recent convert to Corfu from where there is good sailing, love Corfu Town and the coast north of Ipsos. Kontokoli area is close to the Marina I use with some nice restaurants etc. South east coast from Corfu Town also really nice and can be very quiet.
Albania was a great experience. We stayed for 3 nights in Sarandë and one night down the coast. We hired a taxi and driver for half day trips. Butrint, Girocaster and the Blue Eye pools were a highlight. I understand there is one ‘5 star’ hotel in Sarandë but can’t comment on accommodation as we were on a yacht. You can use Euros as well as the Lek and most things are very very cheap. There is a lot of German/EU investment going into the area and so modernisation is happening at pace. We never felt unsafe or threatened etc but kept to the main thoroughfares.
The beaches are lovely , though the site of old Hoxha-era machine gun nests every 500m is somewhat disconcerting! The only disappointment we had was the standard of food in restaurants, which was relatively poor compared to Greece/Croatia/Italy etc. But we found reasonable
Places and over all I would recommend a stay.
Enjoy……
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
