Vlorë

car, bus, boat. Arrival is by road. Vlora International Airport is not yet certified and will not open to flights in summer 2026, so the working gateway is still Tirana, about two and a half hours north on the motorway. Ferries run to Italy, and the SH8 runs south to the Riviera, over the Llogara pass or through the tunnel beneath it.

Parking: Paid parking along the promenade and in lots behind it.

Best light: golden, sunset.

The bay faces west and the promenade takes the evening. The Pashaliman naval base sits on the same bay to the south and is a serious enforcement zone: do not fly there. The national registration requirement is itself unclear, so ask the AAC.

Drone: restricted. A permit or an exemption applies here.

Vlorë is where Albania declared independence in 1912 and where the Riviera begins, and it is a city rather than a resort: a university, a port, a long promenade and a working waterfront that empties out of season.

The thing to settle before planning around it is the airport. Vlora International has a runway and a terminal and no scheduled commercial passenger service as of July 2026, after the airlines that had announced summer routes cancelled them. Anyone flying in still lands at Tirana and drives.

What the city is good for is reach. The boats to Karaburun and Sazan leave from here and from Orikum just south, the Llogara pass and the Riviera start half an hour down the SH8, and the beaches on the bay itself take the domestic crowd rather than the international one.