"The south gate to Albania" a Sarande Travel Page by SirRichard

Sarande is a medium sized coastal town in the south of Albania, in front of the Greek island of Corfu.
I visited Sarande in a daytrip from Corfu. There is a boat that takes you there in about 2 hours. Then the group goes to visit the Butrint roman ruins, but I didn't want to go, so I stayed in the city and wandered around the streets, had a nice meal in a terrace and met the group at 4pm, just to go back to the boat and return to Greece.

The first impression you get when the boat arrives is that of a grey unfinished concrete city, with a small beach that is not really very attractive.

Sarande is actually a touristic center in Albania, people from Tirana come here to spend their holidays by the beach, but you really don't see much international tourism, maybe a few italians and greeks...

But as an overall impression is a nice place to spend a lazy day at the beach (an urban beach anyway) and start to know the country, though I wouldn't come for a long holidays here, as there is really not much to see around...