Palasë

Getting there

car, bus. On the SH8 at the foot of the Llogara switchbacks, with coastal buses running the road in season. The Llogara tunnel bypasses the pass entirely, so the drive over the top is now a choice rather than the only way through.

Parking: Roadside and informal parking behind the beach.

Photography

Best light: golden, sunset.

The descent from the pass gives the shot rather than the sand does, and the pass can sit in cloud on a summer morning while the beach below is clear. Check drone requirements with the AAC before travelling.

Drone: not confirmed. Albania's registration requirement is reported differently by every secondary source, so verify with the AAC before you fly.

Palasë is the first bay you meet coming down from the Llogara pass, four kilometres north of Dhërmi. It is the same water, on the same coast, at roughly half to a third of the sunbed price, and most people drive past it.

That is the entire argument for the place, and it is worth stating in figures. A set at Palasë runs around 1,000 to 1,500 lek. The flagship clubs at Dhërmi run 2,000 to 4,000. Nothing else about the two bays differs enough to explain the gap.

One mechanism here is not about the sea at all. Palasë's traffic is the pass's traffic, so what happens on the SH8 above decides how busy the sand is, and the pass at 1,027 m can be cold and clouded in on a summer morning while the beach is already hot.