Tours in Sarandë

Come down to the waterfront in Sarandë in the evening and you will see the whole town doing the same thing. Walking. Slowly, in both directions, along the promenade, with the bay on one side and the apartment blocks stacked up the hillside on the other. Nobody is in a hurry. Find a seat at a café, order something cold, and watch the ferries and the light change over the water, with Greece's island of Corfu sitting low on the horizon.

Sarandë is a seaside town first, and it is easier to enjoy if you let it be one. The streets behind the front are steep and a little untidy, and the climb up to the viewpoints pays you back with the full curve of the bay. Fish is the obvious thing to eat here, but pay attention to the small plates too: salty cheese, ripe tomatoes, olives, good olive oil. They taste better than they have any right to.

The town is also a base for some of the best-known places in the south. Butrint, with its ruins among lagoon and woodland, and the Blue Eye spring, a pool of startling colour, both make a good day out. If there is somewhere else you want to see, ask. A local guide can build a day around it.

What we sell in Sarandë itself is a table, not a monument. Southern Albania makes its own wine and its own raki, and the best way to understand either is to sit with a family that produces them. Expect strong spirits flavoured with walnut or oregano, local grape varieties you will not find at home, and plenty of food to go with them. It is slow, convivial, and very much how people here spend an afternoon.