Ksamil Islands Beach

Ksamil is at the southern end of the Albanian Riviera, a few kilometres from the Greek border and directly opposite Corfu. Four small islands lie a short distance offshore, close enough to swim to, and the beaches face them across shallow turquoise water.

The transformation here is the fastest on this coast. Ksamil was a collective farm village under Hoxha and effectively empty of tourism until the 2000s; it now receives very large summer numbers, and the building that accompanied that was largely unpermitted. Albania demolished a substantial number of illegal structures along this shore from 2013 onward, including much of what had been built on the Ksamil beaches themselves — a clearance that is still discussed locally and that is visible in the gaps.

The water is genuinely exceptional: shallow, clear and warm, sheltered by the islands and by Corfu across the strait. The beaches are small coves of pale sand, and in August they are covered end to end with rented sunbeds, which is the current complaint and the subject of periodic government action on pricing and space. The islands themselves are uninhabited and small enough to walk around, and boats run out to them through the day for anyone who would rather not swim.

Butrint, four kilometres south, is a UNESCO World Heritage site — a Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Venetian city in a lagoon, and one of the more complete archaeological sites in the Mediterranean. Saranda ten minutes north is the working town and the ferry port for Corfu, and it is where the accommodation and the food actually are.

Four islets a short swim out, water that is genuinely exceptional, and coves so small that August covers them end to end with rented loungers. Albania demolished a great deal of unpermitted building here from 2013 and the gaps are visible. Butrint, four kilometres south, is among the most complete archaeological sites in the Mediterranean and almost nobody at Ksamil goes.