Most boat tour listings give you a list of place names and leave you to guess what the day feels like. This is the actual shape of our Saranda Beast Boat Tour — six stops, five to six hours, in the order we run them and for the reasons we run them that way.
Departure — Saranda port, 10:00 or 11:00
We leave from Saranda port itself rather than a beach further along the coast, so there is no transfer to organise at either end. You get the exact meeting pin on WhatsApp once your booking is confirmed. Come with swimwear already on under your clothes — the first swim stop arrives sooner than people expect.
1. Turtle Cave — 10 minutes, photos
A short run south and the coastline changes character completely: the hills stop being hills and become vertical limestone. Turtle Cave sits at the base of it. We hold position at the mouth for photographs rather than putting anyone in the water — the entrance is narrow, and on a July morning there can be several other boats waiting their turn. Ten minutes is honestly all it needs.
2. Gremina — 20 minutes, swimming and snorkelling
The first proper swim. Gremina is a cliff-backed stretch where the rock drops away underwater in steps, which is what makes it worth a mask — the interest is in the first few metres, right up against the wall. The ladder goes down, the music goes on, and most people are in the water inside a minute.
3. Roidhe Bay — 20 minutes, swimming and snorkelling
A wider, more open bay, and the one we rely on when the outer coast is choppy — it stays noticeably calmer than the stretches either side of it. Good for anyone in the group who is a less confident swimmer, because you can stand up closer to shore.
4. Krorez Beach — 3 hours, lunch and swimming
This is the centre of the day, and the reason the tour runs five to six hours rather than three. Krorez has no usable road access, so despite being one of the best beaches on this coast it never feels the way Ksamil feels in August. Three hours is enough to eat, swim, dry off, and swim again.
Bring cash. Lunch here is your own arrangement — it is the one thing not covered by the €30, and card acceptance on a beach with no road is not something to count on.
5. Kakome — 20 to 30 minutes, swimming and drinks on board
Kakome is the stop that tends to turn into a party, and we time it that way on purpose: mid-afternoon, everyone fed, the light going gold. Drinks come out on board — soft drinks, water or alcohol, all included in the ticket — the music goes up, and whoever wants to dance on the bow dances on the bow. It is also a genuinely good snorkel spot if you would rather be in the water.
6. Secret Beach — 20 minutes, last swim
A final short stop on the way back north. Twenty minutes, one more swim, and the photographs people actually end up keeping. Then a straight run back into Saranda, arriving around 5:45 from the 10:00 departure.
Why this order
Three reasons, none of them arbitrary:
- Wind builds through the day on this coast. The exposed southern stops happen while the water is still flat.
- Turtle Cave first, before the queue. An hour later and you are third in line at the cave mouth.
- Lunch in the middle, not at the end. Eating at the far point of the route means the return leg is relaxed rather than a rush.
If this route is not quite what you want
It is a fixed shared route at a fixed price, which is exactly what most people want for €30 a head. If you would rather choose the stops, the timings and who is on board, that is a private charter — we quote those individually, and the group versus private comparison walks through which suits which kind of group. Either way the fastest route to an answer is a message — see contact, or browse all our tours.
