Përroi Shatait

With a severe lack of travel guides for Albania, we were basing most of our research on zooming around Google Maps and looking for nice beaches. Dhermi had been mentioned as having a nice beach strip with a more historic old town set about a 10-minute drive up the mountainside. We picked up the car in the morning and drove over Llonga Pass and down into Dhermi. The road up to the pass meandered through a steep valley and into a rainforest. As we reached the summit, the mountain range suddenly disappeared unveiling a breathtaking coastline.

Driving into Dhermi we immediately recognised the benefit of having a car. The place was completely deserted. Being a single strip of hotels and sand that would normally be covered with sun beds and umbrellas, there was only one restaurant open. And it had no one in it. Fortunately, we hadn’t booked anywhere to stay so could stop for a look and keep driving.

Being about lunchtime now, we drove up to the old town and faced the same problem. Only one bar was open and when we walked in to ask for something to eat there were only a handful of local men on the beers and eating plates of chopped-up cabanossi. Not quite the beach resort experience we were hoping for on our first stop. We kept driving and found a small bar with an outdoor area that was offering cold beer and some packets of chips so figured that may be our only chance.

Extremely grateful we had opted for our own car, we continued to the next main beach town of Himare. Simply put, without it we would’ve likely been dropped off by a bus along the roadside of Dhermi and been stuck there with nothing to do and nothing to eat. The weather was forecast to be average for the next few days as well so being comfortable in a car was a dream.

Himare was thankfully a little more populated with 3 restaurants open along the beachfront. We booked a last-minute apartment in town and went down for a swim and the sunset. Being so close to Greece there is a big Greek influence in the Riviera. After struggling to find decent food for a while we treated ourselves to dinner at a traditional Greek restaurant and were done for the day.Read more