Services in Saranda.

Saranda curves around a wide, south-facing bay in a crescent of white apartment buildings and palm-lined promenade, with the hills of Corfu filling the horizon opposite. It is the Albanian Riviera's working capital: the ferry port for Corfu, the marina the gulets and motor yachts call home, and the natural first night of any journey down this coast.

The town itself trades polish for energy — seafront restaurants grilling the morning's catch, a promenade that fills at dusk, the ruins of a fifth-century synagogue a block from the bars. The luxury here lies in what Saranda commands: villas in the quiet hills above the bay, Ksamil's turquoise coves twenty minutes south, the UNESCO ruins of Butrint at the end of a scenic channel, and a private boat to Corfu in well under an hour.

Treat it as your harbour. Charter out of the bay in the morning — Kakome and Krorëza beaches to the north are still reachable only by sea — and come back to a waterfront table as the lights of Corfu Town come on across the strait.