Sarande, the pearl of Albania

The trip to Sarande
At the moment there are hardly any organised trips to Sarande; especially when you are not travelling by group. That is why you have to book just a flight. This could be to Tirana, to Korfu or to Yioannina. A direct flight (from Holland) to Tirnana is about 100 euro more expensive as a flight to Greece. Additional you have to travel about 280 km from Tirana by bus to Sarande. By car it takes at least 5 hours and by bus about 8 hours. As the busses don't have air-conditioning and the roads are still in bad or very bad conditions for big parts I advise you to leave this possibility out of consideration (as yet). At the moment they are busy fixing the road from Sarande to the main-road Tirana-Greece. In September 2004 only 5 km were ready, which means that the other 25 km of winding mountain-road is still in a very bad condition. But we made this trip once in December 2004. Take a look at "by car". A flight to Yioannina (via Athens) means from this Greek airport first by taxi (or bus) to the border which takes about 1 hour. From there just pray there is a bus or taxi ready to bring you to Sarande. The Greek taxi is not allowed to cross the border. From the border it takes about 2 hours to get to Sarande (by car) on the same road as mentioned above (there is only 1 road leading from Sarande to the hinterland). The best connection by far is via Korfu. In August 2004 we had the problem only one ferry was going. When we arrived at the harbour in the morning, the boat just left, so we had to stay in Kerkyra for one day. We booked a hotel near the harbour and enjoyed the beautiful weather and nice food in the town. The ferry leaves every morning at 9.15 p.m. to Sarande. Just to be sure we were at the harbour at 8 o'clock so we had plenty of time to buy a one way ticket (15 euro). Then you have to report to the custom-house were you have to leave behind your passport. They bring it aboard afterwards for a check by the Albanian custom-officers. Finally the boat departs at 9.45 p.m. That day we had the hydrofoil so it took us less than half an hour to get to Sarande. There the Albanian custom-officers come aboard, calling each name on the passports and return them to the owner so they can leave the boat. Foreigners are always the last ones, because you have to buy a visa (10 euro). Leaving Sarande is much easier. Foreigners are the first who get their passports in Korfu, while the Albanians sometimes have to wait very long. In our case they had to stay aboard for almost half an hour before the Greek custom-officers had checked and stamped all their Passports. To be short: don't expect efficiency as you are used to in Western-Europe and be patience.

The trip to Sarande

At the moment there are hardly any organised trips to Sarande; especially when you are not travelling by group. That is why you have to book just a flight. This could be to Tirana, to Korfu or to Yioannina.
A direct flight (from Holland) to Tirnana is about 100 euro more expensive as a flight to Greece. Additional you have to travel about 280 km from Tirana by bus to Sarande. By car it takes at least 5 hours and by bus about 8 hours. As the busses don't have air-conditioning and the roads are still in bad or very bad conditions for big parts I advise you to leave this possibility out of consideration (as yet). At the moment they are busy fixing the road from Sarande to the main-road Tirana-Greece. In September 2004 only 5 km were ready, which means that the other 25 km of winding mountain-road is still in a very bad condition.

But we made this trip once in December 2004. Take a look at "by car".

A flight to Yioannina (via Athens) means from this Greek airport first by taxi (or bus) to the border which takes about 1 hour. From there just pray there is a bus or taxi ready to bring you to Sarande. The Greek taxi is not allowed to cross the border. From the border it takes about 2 hours to get to Sarande (by car) on the same road as mentioned above (there is only 1 road leading from Sarande to the hinterland).

The best connection by far is via Korfu. In August 2004 we had the problem only one ferry was going. When we arrived at the harbour in the morning, the boat just left, so we had to stay in Kerkyra for one day. We booked a hotel near the harbour and enjoyed the beautiful weather and nice food in the town.
The ferry leaves every morning at 9.15 p.m. to Sarande. Just to be sure we were at the harbour at 8 o'clock so we had plenty of time to buy a one way ticket (15 euro). Then you have to report to the custom-house were you have to leave behind your passport. They bring it aboard afterwards for a check by the Albanian custom-officers.
Finally the boat departs at 9.45 p.m. That day we had the hydrofoil so it took us less than half an hour to get to Sarande. There the Albanian custom-officers come aboard, calling each name on the passports and return them to the owner so they can leave the boat. Foreigners are always the last ones, because you have to buy a visa (10 euro).
Leaving Sarande is much easier. Foreigners are the first who get their passports in Korfu, while the Albanians sometimes have to wait very long. In our case they had to stay aboard for almost half an hour before the Greek custom-officers had checked and stamped all their Passports.
To be short: don't expect efficiency as you are used to in Western-Europe and be patience.