Travel video - Saranda - Albania

My bf and I took a summer trip to an exciting new destination - Saranda, Albania.

Where we stayed
Apollon Hotel - it’s a bit of a walk from the city centre but it’s located on a very pretty stone beach with super clear water. The hotel has its own sun beds on both the beach and on a deck. We preferred the deck.. There were always free sun beds so no rush getting down there. The hotel breakfast was alright and the hotel restaurant was good for lunch. I highly recommend getting a room with ocean views. The staff is very friendly and helpful. You can rent kayaks very cheap from the hotel beach which we did - a nice day activity.

Where we ate
There are a lot of restaurants close to where we stayed and in the city centre. However they all have almost the exact same menus - which gets boring after a few days. Here are a few restaurants that we went to:

Alban Restaurant
Mare Nostrum Cuisine
Taverna Laberia
Cocktail Dreams Saranda

From Sarandë to Ksamil
One day we decided to go to Ksamil. It had been highly recommended to us and we had seen lots of great places. We took the local bus that runs once every hour and cost 100 lek/ person (about 1 €). On our way there we got stuck in really bad traffic luckily the bus had AC so it was alright. Once in Ksamil we were a bit underwhelmed - I think my expectations were too high. It was packed with people and the water wasn’t as nice as others had told us/we had seen in pictures. We went to a sand beach which was decent but we didn’t stay that long. The bus ride home was way quicker (it took about 45min). I highly recommend getting on the bus at the first stop in Sarandë (because the bus can get very full). The bus stop is close to the harbour at the roundabout with the big tree.

Sarandë city centre
Every Thursday a big cruise ship docks in Sarandë. Which means lots more tourists, higher prices and pickpockets. I would recommend to stay away from the city centre on these days. We saw very young children (age 3-7) pickpock tourists so keep your stuff close and high.

Along the beach walk there are quite a lot of venders with different kinds souvenirs. I bought a very pretty ring.

Overall
We were happy with our trip. A week of sun and swimming. The people of Sarandë are very nice and helpful.