Things to Do & See5 min read

Albanian Riviera or the Greek Islands for 2027?

Same sea, same sun, a very different bill. An honest comparison for anyone deciding where next summer's trip goes.

They are closer than you think

This is not a distant alternative to Greece — Corfu is visible from the Saranda promenade, and the fast ferry crosses in about 30 minutes. Same Ionian, same water, the same sun going down over it. What changes on the Albanian side is the price of everything you do once you are there, and the fact that the coast is still filling up rather than already full.

The bill, honestly

Travel guides consistently put Albania around 40–60 % below Greece for comparable experiences. In practice: a local beer at €1.50–2.50, a full restaurant meal around €10–12, party tickets from €15–20 and a boat party with an open bar from €45. A night out on this coast is regularly quoted at €20–30 against €60–100 in Mykonos. The currency is the lek — about 95 to the euro — and while euros are accepted almost everywhere touristy, the rate you get is worse, so paying in lek is simply cheaper.

Albania vs Greece: how you actually get there

The first honest difference in the Albania vs Greece decision is arrival. A Greek island is usually one flight and a transfer. Saranda is usually one flight and a boat: land at Corfu, take the number 15 bus for about €1.20 or a taxi for €15–25 over the three or four kilometres to the port, then cross with Finikas Lines or Ionian Seaways — 30 minutes on the fast hydrofoil, 50 to 70 on the conventional ferry, €20–30 each way, with more than twenty departures a day in summer. Gate to promenade, that is roughly two hours. Flying into Tirana is often cheaper but adds three and a half to five hours of road, with around ten buses and vans a day at €12–17. Vlora airport, open to commercial flights since summer 2026, sits two and a half to three hours up the coast. Add a passport check, since Albania is outside the EU, and that is the whole extra cost of getting here.

Which one is actually your trip

Greece wins for anyone who wants one direct flight, a card accepted everywhere and the big club brands with names on the poster. It also wins outside the beach season: from around November most of the Albanian coast shuts and the Corfu ferry drops to roughly one crossing a day. Albania wins for groups counting the bill, for people who like a coast where the beach club, the boat and the club all sit within fifteen kilometres, and for anyone who wants their daytime to be more than a sunbed. Butrint has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992, the Blue Eye is a karst spring divers have gone 50 metres down into without finding the bottom, and the Ottoman castle of Lëkurësi, built in 1537, is now a restaurant with the whole bay underneath it. Come with cash, expect to pay in lek and to agree a taxi fare before getting in, and the place repays you generously.

Do both — the 30-minute ferry makes it easy

You do not actually have to choose. The crossing is 30 minutes on the fast boat, more than twenty departures a day in summer, €20–30 each way — so a fortnight can be a week of Greek islands and a week on the Riviera, or a Corfu base with a few nights in Saranda for the parties. Two practicalities: it is a real border, so passports and some queueing time, and your EU roaming stops working the moment you land, which an eSIM from about €3.50 solves. Do it in 2027 rather than later. Albania went from 6.4 million foreign visitors in 2019 to more than 12 million in 2025, Vlora airport opened to commercial flights in 2026 and the Llogara tunnel cut roughly forty minutes off the coastal drive in 2024. The infrastructure is arriving fast; the prices and the space on the sand have not caught up yet.

What Greece still wins on — and what it doesn't

Being fair about it: Greece has more direct flights, more established infrastructure and the big-name club brands. Albania is outside the EU, so your phone plan does not roam for free and you cross a passport border coming from Corfu. Against that, Ksamil's water genuinely earns the Maldives comparison the travel press keeps making, Butrint is a UNESCO World Heritage Site four kilometres from the beach clubs, and the country went from 6.4 million visitors in 2019 to over 12 million in 2025 — which tells you the gap is closing fast. Coming in 2027 means seeing it before it closes completely.

See the season for yourself