The Albanian Riviera

It’s June, 35 degrees plus most days, and we’re in a country that borders the Mediterranean. The obvious thing to do is go check out the coast. You’re definitely spoiled for choice in Albania, with over 500km of coastline, there’s something for everyone. Durrës and Vlorë have your typical big beach resorts and Sarandë is supposedly the party capital. We decided to hit Himarë, which along with Dhermi are small, lowkey, sleepy beach towns with stunning blue water and not much else going on.

We arrived in Himarë after a typical Albanian bus ride. Arrive at the station, someone yells the place you want to go and you get on the first one you see. A few hours of blatant speeding, questionable overtakes and nauseating turns later, you arrive! Simple as that. Coming from Berat, a small city in its own right, it was so nice to get to a properly small town. The vibes were a lot more relaxed than the big cities, though it might have been due to the beach.

In terms of accommodation in Himarë, there’s one main hostel that has been around for years, and is somewhat prolific. It used to be called Sun Bakers, but now goes by Trip’n’Stay hostel. Most people we’ve spoken to about Himarë didn’t even know there were other hostels. It’s a bit pricey and it seems to have a reputation as a bit of a party hostel, almost completely full of Aussies, so for the same price as a packed dorm, we got a room to ourselves in Himarë Hostel.

After checking in, we immediately went out with one goal in mind – chillax on the beach. Himarë did not disappoint. The main beach right in the centre of town is perfect. The best part was getting the crystal water you expect from the Med, without the huge hordes of tourists and crazy sunbed enterprises. That’s not to say it wasn’t busy, there were definitely others down at the beach, but everyone had breathing room.

We even met one local dog who was absolutely endearing at first. He was roughly corgi shaped, and said hello by coming up right in between us and laying down, asking for a scratch. He was quiet and very friendly, which lulled us into a false sense of security, as once we had made the mistake of giving him a pat, we became his victims. Once accepted into the shade of our umbrella, he slowly started pushing boundaries. First he started nipping and nibbling. Not hard or aggressive at all, he’d just pinch the tiniest square or your skin or shirt in a playful and l extremely aggravating puppy kinda way. Then he got up and started digging, slowly at first, but picking up the pace until he was tossing sand everywhere. Now you think it would stop here, but this is all part of his plan, cause as you get up to get out of the blast zone, he goes for your towel. Not just in a cute way, but in a ‘holy shit this little dog is about to hatecrime my towel’. We resorted to putting the towel on top of the umbrella out of his reach, but he was like a little pogo stick, doing crazy leaps just to try get a mouthful of towel. Our final resort was to just abandon him and get back in the water, at which point he found another victim further along the beach. We later met someone at the hostel who’d had a similar experience, so he must be some local terrorist.

The next day brought a whole new agenda. Locate another beach, then post up all day. Himarë has some pretty impressive options if you’re willing to walk for a bit. There’s Filuraki Beach, which is the worst kept ‘secret’ beach ever, and requires a pretty gnarly scramble down a cliff to reach the water. The descent is so gnarly some people even advise only approaching via the sea with a boat. Looks stunning though. Otherwise there’s Gjipe Beach further afield, better to access that one with a 4×4 supposedly, and various others.

Pick of the day though, was aquarium beach. Maps made it out to be about a 50 min walk from the town, but it ended up being closer to 1.5 hours. Up some steep hills too, which was so not ideal under the midday sun. All worth it once you arrive though. The beach itself is very small, only about 30 metres wide or so, at the end of a narrow cove. The walk is a bit of a filter though, and there was heaps of space to spread out. Then we chucked the snorkels on and got straight in to wash the sweat off. I’m not 100% sure why, but the water in Albania was noticeably cooler than in Turkey and Greece. Maybe it’s currents into the Adriatic or depth or something, but it was so nice and refreshing. And the aquarium part of the name didn’t disappoint either! Heaps of fishies to look at, plus there were lots of fat kina. They looked very similar to the NZ variety, and were supposedly edible, so if you’re missing the taste of Kaimoana there’s probably an option there. We bravely passed on that one though.

Aquarium Beach

After some obligatory flips and bombs from the rocks on the walls of the cove, and many hours chilling in the sun, we headed home. The walk was so good Milly even planned for us to do it twice, by way of leaving her bag on the beach that we only remembered halfway home. And that was it in Himarë really. We headed home on the bus the next day, only thing note was an awesome Scottish lad who was in the final weeks of several year trip, who invited us to come and stay with him within only 15 minutes of meeting.

Probably a bit boring to read about honestly, but we can’t recommend Himarë enough as a spot to just chill out and swim for a few days. It’s a bit more pricey on all fronts than other spots in Albania like Berat and Tiranë, but in the grand scheme of European beach towns it was definitely affordable. Sarandë is by far the more popular destination on the Albanian coast, but do not pass this cutesy little beach town up. Just bring plenty of cash as the ATMs in town all have criminal fees!

Love from a warmer climate,

Finn

P.S. This hostel cat stole Milly’s boiled egg