Things to Do & See5 min read

El Mar Boat Tour: the Riviera You Can't Reach by Road

Turtle Bay, Anchor Bay, Soldier Bay and the Gremina cove — a full day of hidden coast, snorkelling gear included, for €40.

What the day looks like

Meeting point: Guma Bar Restaurant on the Saranda promenade, departure at 10:30am, back around 5pm. The route heads up the coast that has no road at all: Turtle Bay, Anchor Bay, Soldier Bay and the hidden Gremina cove — cliffs, caves and water so clear the boat seems to float on air. The €40 ticket includes sun umbrellas and sunbeds, snorkelling equipment, music onboard and multiple swimming and photo stops. It runs almost every day of the season.

A boat tour in Saranda, hour by hour

Book a boat tour in Saranda and the day starts on the promenade: Guma Bar Restaurant on Rruga Jonianet, departure at 10:30am, so aim to be standing there by ten. Mornings are when this coast is at its calmest, and the first stretch is spent watching cliffs slide past on a shoreline with no road behind it at all. Turtle Bay, Anchor Bay and Soldier Bay come one after another, each with time in the water: the snorkelling gear is already on board, the umbrellas and sunbeds are set up on deck, and the music runs the whole way. The Gremina cove is the one that ends up on everybody's camera roll. Nothing about it is rushed. The boat moves, stops, lets everyone swim until they are done and moves again. You are back around 5pm, showered and out before the xhiro fills Shëtitorja Naim Frashëri from about six.

Included, not included, and what to pack

The €40 ticket already covers what people usually end up renting separately: sun umbrellas and sunbeds, snorkelling equipment, music on board and the swimming and photo stops themselves. So leave your own mask at the hotel. What you bring is sun protection first — a full day between 10:30am and 5pm in an Albanian August, where highs average around 31°C, is a lot of sun — plus a hat, a towel, sunglasses and something light for the ride home. Bring cash, and bring it in lek rather than euros: euros are taken in tourist spots, but at a rate that quietly costs you. If you and boats have a history, take something for it before boarding rather than after. A dry bag is the one extra worth buying, because the best shots of this coast happen from the water rather than the deck. Charge your phone the night before: sockets here are European type C and F, 230 volts.

Getting to the meeting point on time

Guma is on Rruga Jonianet, on the Saranda seafront, a step off the kilometre-long promenade Shëtitorja Naim Frashëri, so from anywhere central it is simply a walk. From Ksamil the calculation changes. The two are about 15 km apart, 20 to 25 minutes by road; local buses run every 20 to 60 minutes through the summer and cost 100 to 150 lek in cash; a taxi has no official meter, so expect €13 to €40 depending on season and negotiation, always agreed before you get in. Give yourself a clear hour either way. The classic first-timer mistake is treating a 10:30am departure like a 10:30am appointment — boats leave, and the coast this tour visits has no road you could chase it down. Book online in advance too, because seats are finite and tickets sell in batches that get more expensive as each one goes.

What to do the day before and the day after

This tour is the sea half of the region, so give it a land half on either side. Butrint has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992, extended in 1999; it sits 4 km from Ksamil, the Saranda–Butrint bus passes through, entry is 1,000 lek and under-12s go free. Do the ruins the day before, while your legs are fresh. The Blue Eye, Syri i Kaltër, is a karst spring roughly 20 km inland where divers have gone down 50 metres without finding the bottom. The water holds around 10°C all year, swimming is forbidden, entry is about 50 lek plus parking in cash only, and it is a 20 to 30 minute walk in from the car park — a good day after. For either evening, Lëkurësi Castle, an Ottoman fortress from 1537 that is now a restaurant, looks down over the bay, Corfu and the Butrint lagoon.

Why it's the perfect recovery day

The maths of a Riviera week: white party Sunday, sunset session Tuesday, pool party Thursday, Wolf of Wall Street Saturday. Somewhere in between you need a day that asks nothing of you — and seven hours of coves, snorkelling and deck music is exactly that. You are back at 5pm, which leaves precisely enough time for a shower before the evening's programme. We have planned it that way on purpose.

El Mar Boat Tour — dates & tickets