Lukova Beach, Albanian Riviera

Having not planned where we would stay that night we were keen to get to the beach early and scope out our options. The road back to the coast from Gjirokaster passed back through Sarande before heading north. And even then the road stayed inland for about the first 20km. There were a few beaches that we’d flagged along this stretch but none of them had a clear way to access them by car. Again Google offered little information on how to even access them on foot.

At this point, we had nowhere to stay that night and no food with us. We stopped at a corner store to grab some basics but only managed to get a pre-packed jam-filled croissant as a breakfast at best.

At this point, we had already passed the side roads that could have led us to one of the beaches we had marked. So, the following exit we found was a 7-minute drive to Lukova Beach.

We wound our way down through a hillside covered in Olive trees to a short stretch of makeshift bars and a field of more olives behind. Like the other beaches, they all appeared to have been packed up and closed for the off-season.

We had a wander around the strip and scoped out some possible spots to sleep. Realising that one of the bars had a few people in it we stopped by and asked if they were open. After grabbing a beer and going to pay the owner Guesti, he asked where we were staying. We explained that we hadn’t got any plans yet and also needed somewhere for dinner. Guesti looked around and stated that we could set up a tent anywhere we liked, and that he could cook us dinner as well. We accepted the offer and spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying our nice secluded beach to ourselves. We wandered around the olive grove with cows, goats, dogs and their pups, and even a cat that followed us down to the beach.

Dinner was a delicious fresh spaghetti with a salad made by Guesti himself. And rather than a tent we set our sleeping mats up on the decking of an abandoned bar set over the water. That night was a complete full moon that made it like daylight all night. We woke up to a beautiful day and cows down on the sand and in the waves along the shore. We dropped back in to see Guesti who offered us a coffee and then went on to prepare an Albanian breakfast of eggs, bread, feta and olives. He also explained that from Lukova we could hike back to the beaches we’d skipped past the day before. And so our plans for the day were decided.Read more