All our Albania guides tagged beaches.
The small beach village with the turquoise islets is the photograph everyone arrives for. Whether you should also sleep there, rather than in Saranda twenty minutes up the road, is a different question.
The coast is warm and calm, the drives are shorter than the map suggests, and a cable car out of Tirana buys you an afternoon that nobody complains about.
Saranda vs Ksamil compared as a base on the Albanian Riviera: beaches, hotels, restaurants, transport, day trips to Butrint and the Blue Eye, costs and crowds, with a clear verdict per traveller type.
The best spots on the Albanian Riviera, from the islands of Ksamil to the beach village of Dhërmi, hidden Gjipe, laid-back Himarë and lively Saranda, plus how to string them together.
A coast that runs from flat Adriatic sand in the north to Ionian coves under a mountain road in the south, and the beaches worth the drive.