Himarë

Highlights

Beaches

Sights

A short itinerary

1. Day 1
   · Arrive, check in, wander and get your bearings
   · First look: Old Himarë village
2. Day 2
   · Old Himarë village
   · Beach time at Livadhi

Good to know

• Visit Gjipe Beach via canyon walk or boat
• Drive the Llogara Pass for the views
• Quieter alternative to Ksamil

Where to stay

Himarë is really three places: the beach strip, the town, and the old village up the hill. They feel completely different.

• Livadhi — The main beach strip just north of town, where most of the hotels and apartments are. You walk out of your room onto the sand.
• Himarë town, Spile — The working town with the harbour, the shops and the year-round life. Cheaper and less pretty, and the beach is a few minutes away.
• Old Himara village — Up the hill behind the town, half ruined and half restored, with the castle and the best view on the coast. Very few rooms, and you need a car.
• Dhërmi — Fifteen minutes north, more developed and more expensive, with the loudest beach clubs on the Riviera.

The beaches

This stretch is the Albanian Riviera proper, and the beaches vary from fully organised to a genuine walk-in.

• Livadhi — Long, easy and organised, with the most choice for eating.
• Potami — Just south of town, pebbles and very clear water.
• Jale — North, popular with a younger crowd and busy with music in August.
• Gjipe — The one worth the effort: a beach at the mouth of a canyon, reached by a rough track and then a walk down, or by boat from Himarë or Dhërmi.
• Filikuri — Small, hidden and usually reached by boat, with a sea cave beside it.

Getting there

• The Llogara pass — The approach from the north, climbing over a mountain and dropping to the sea. One of the best drives in the Balkans, and worth timing for daylight.
• From Sarandë — About an hour and a half along the coast road.
• From Tirana — Four to four and a half hours, most of it on good road.
• Getting around — A car makes the difference here. Buses run along the coast but infrequently, and the good beaches are between the villages.

How long to stay

• Two days — The town and two beaches.
• Three to four days — The right length for the Riviera, including Gjipe and a boat trip.
• A week — Works if you are moving slowly along the coast between Vlorë and Sarandë.

Worth knowing before you go

• Gjipe requires either a rough track and a twenty minute walk down, or a boat. Ordinary hire cars should not attempt the track.
• The Llogara pass is spectacular and slow. Do not plan to drive it in the dark.
• Late July and August are busy and loud on this coast. June and September are a different holiday.
• Old Himara village above the town is nearly empty and worth the drive up at sunset.

Combine with

Himarë or Ksamil?

This is the real question on the Albanian Riviera, and it comes down to what you want from the coast.

Ksamil has the more famous water and the islands. It is also almost entirely privatised, loud, and expensive: a day bed and umbrella there typically runs ten to thirty euros and far more at the premium spots. In Himarë, the equivalent on an organised beach is more like five to fifteen, and there is still sand you can put a towel on.

Himarë is a working town with a harbour, shops and year-round life rather than a resort built for the season. It is quieter, cheaper, and closer to the wilder beaches. What it does not have is the postcard turquoise of the Ksamil islets, so if that photograph is why you are coming, factor that in.

The short version: Ksamil for two nights if the islands matter to you, Himarë as the base for the rest of the coast.

Getting here

Himarë sits midway along the Riviera between Vlorë and Sarandë, and there is no airport anywhere near it. Everything arrives by road.

• From Sarandë — about an hour and a half, several buses and furgons a day, roughly 800 to 1,000 lek. The easiest approach if you came in on the Corfu ferry.
• From Tirana — three and a half to four hours driving, four to five by bus. A private transfer runs well over a hundred euros for the vehicle, which only makes sense split between three or four.
• From Vlorë — two to two and a half hours by bus, over or under the Llogara pass.

If you are driving, the SH8 is in good condition and the Llogara Tunnel now takes the sting out of the pass, though the old road over the top is still the better view. Two things from driving in Albania matter specifically here: fill up in Vlorë before Llogara, because there is a long stretch with nothing open, and do not drive this coast at night.

Managing without a car

You can, but it takes planning, and there is one thing worth knowing before you arrive: ride-hailing apps do not operate anywhere on the Riviera. No Uber, no Bolt. Taxis are arranged through your accommodation or flagged in the street, and you agree the fare before you get in.

• Scooter — the sweet spot for three days or more. Two taxi runs up to Dhërmi cost about the same as a full day of scooter, and the coast road is made for it.
• The bus trick — southbound buses toward Sarandë will drop you anywhere on the SH8 if you ask. That is how you reach Borsh and Porto Palermo. Flag a northbound one to come back, and have a fallback, because they thin out badly in the afternoon.
• Water taxis from the harbour reach the beaches you cannot drive to.

Gjipe and Porto Palermo

These two are the reason to base yourself here rather than further south.

Gjipe sits at the mouth of a canyon and is the best beach on this coast. Most people take a taxi to the trailhead and walk down, which is thirty hot minutes each way. The better option in summer is a water taxi from Himarë harbour, around five to ten euros a head and about fifteen minutes, which skips the walk entirely and drops you on the sand. If you drive, note that Gjipe is the one beach along here that charges for parking.

Porto Palermo is fifteen minutes south: Ali Pasha's fortress on a spit in a sheltered turquoise bay, with a Cold War submarine tunnel cut into the headland beside it. Entry to the castle is a couple of hundred lek. Two or three hours covers it comfortably, including a swim.

Without a car, any southbound bus passes the junction for a hundred or two hundred lek, but it stops up on the main road and leaves you a ten to fifteen minute walk downhill. A taxi round trip with waiting time is worth negotiating up front if there are two or more of you.

Where it is