A Corfu to Albania day trip crosses the Straits of Corfu from the Greek island of Corfu to Sarandë on the Albanian coast and returns the same day. On the Albanian side lie the ancient city of Butrint, the Blue Eye spring and the beaches of Ksamil. The trip is one of the Greece Tours on Greece Ville.
This post covers the crossing, the papers for the border, the tour formats, Sarandë, Butrint and its national park, the Blue Eye and Ksamil, the castles and history of the strait, and the questions that come up before booking.
What is a Corfu to Albania day trip?
A Corfu to Albania day trip is a same-day crossing from Corfu over the Straits of Corfu to Sarandë on the Albanian coast, and back. The visit on land covers Sarandë, Butrint, the Blue Eye spring or the beaches of Ksamil.
The north-eastern edge of Corfu lies off the coast of Sarandë. A strait between 3 and 23 kilometres wide separates the island from Albania.
Corfu town is the capital of the Ionian Islands region. Its old town joined the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007, and the city has 23,541 residents out of 99,134 on the whole island.
Corfu has traditional ferries and high-speed ferries to Igoumenitsa on the Greek mainland and to Sarandë in Albania. A Corfu to Albania day trip uses this ferry link across the strait.
Tours on sale combine the crossing with a visit to Saranda and Butrint National Park, or with the Blue Eye and a stop in Saranda. Tours that start in Saranda add Ksamil and Lëkurësi Castle.
- Sea gap: 3 to 23 kilometres between the north-east of Corfu and the Albanian coast.
- Departure: Corfu, with ferry links to Sarandë and Igoumenitsa.
- Arrival town: Sarandë, on an arch-shaped bay of the Albanian Ionian coast.
- Main sights: Butrint, the Blue Eye spring, Ksamil and Lëkurësi Castle.
The sections below cover the crossing, the papers, the tour formats and each sight that a Corfu to Albania day trip reaches on the Albanian side.
How does a Corfu to Albania day trip cross the Straits of Corfu?
A Corfu to Albania day trip crosses the Straits of Corfu, the narrow channel that separates Corfu from the coasts of Albania and Greece. The channel links the Adriatic Sea with the Ionian Sea, and ferries use it to reach Sarandë.
The Straits of Corfu carry shipping to the ports of Saranda in Albania and Igoumenitsa in Greece. Local and tourist traffic between the Greek mainland, Albania and Corfu shares the water with ships from the Adriatic.
The Albania and Greece border runs 282 kilometres in length. It begins in the west at the strait east of Corfu, continues on the mainland near Sagiada and ends at Lake Prespa, where North Macedonia meets both countries.
Corfu lies in the north-western corner of Greece. Its shape resembles a sickle, and the south-east side of the island lies off the coast of Thesprotia on the Greek mainland.
The high-speed ferries of a Corfu to Albania day trip use the same channel as the shipping bound for Sarandë. The Corfu boat trip post covers the outings that stay along the Greek coast of the island.
- Channel: Straits of Corfu, between Corfu and the Albanian and Greek coasts.
- Seas: The Adriatic to the north and the Ionian Sea to the south.
- Ports: Sarandë in Albania and Igoumenitsa in Greece.
- Border: 282 kilometres long, starting at the strait east of Corfu.
The crossing ends in the bay of Sarandë, where the Albanian part of a Corfu to Albania day trip begins.
Which papers does a Corfu to Albania day trip need?
A Corfu to Albania day trip needs a passport valid for at least 3 months. Citizens of certain countries enter Albania with a national identity card instead. Albania grants 90-day visa-free entry to a list of nationalities, close to the Schengen rules.
All visitors to Albania need a passport valid for at least 3 months. A national identity card replaces the passport only for the citizens of countries that Albania lists for ID entry.
The visa policy of Albania follows the visa policy of the Schengen Area. It grants 90 days without a visa to the Schengen Annex II nationalities, with a short list of named exceptions.
Visitors who stay longer than 90 days need a “D” visa. A Corfu to Albania day trip stays well inside that limit, since the return crossing takes place on the same day.
Albania uses its own currency, the lek, with the code ALL and the sign L. Historically one lek was divided into 100 qintars.
- Passport: Valid for at least 3 months for every visitor.
- Identity card: Accepted in place of a passport for listed nationalities.
- Visa-free stay: 90 days for Schengen Annex II nationalities.
- Currency: The Albanian lek, code ALL.
A Corfu to Albania day trip ends on the same day, so a visa question arises only for nationalities outside the visa-free list.
Escorted tour or ferry alone: which Corfu to Albania day trip fits?
A Corfu to Albania day trip comes as an escorted day trip from Corfu with the crossing included, as an Albania cruise, or as a ferry crossing followed by a tour from Saranda. Each format reaches Butrint, the Blue Eye or Ksamil.
Escorted day trips from Corfu bundle the crossing with a visit to Saranda and Butrint National Park. One tour sold in Corfu pairs the crossing with the Blue Eye and a visit to Saranda.
A further format makes Butrint National Park optional, so the day stays in Saranda for travellers who skip the ancient site. An Albania cruise from Corfu is a further listing for the same crossing.
Tours that start in Saranda combine the Blue Eye, Ksamil, Butrint and Lëkurësi Castle in one day. A Corfu to Albania day trip on the ferry alone joins one of these tours on arrival.
Albania day trips also leave from Parga on the Greek mainland, with Butrint and Saranda as the stops. The Parga boat trip post covers the sea outings from that town.
- Escorted day trip: Crossing from Corfu with Saranda and Butrint National Park.
- Blue Eye trip: Crossing from Corfu with the Blue Eye and a stop in Saranda.
- Albania cruise: A sea day from Corfu with time ashore in Albania.
- Ferry plus local tour: Crossing alone, then a tour from Saranda to the sights.
The tour cards and availability boxes on this page list live dates for each format, from Corfu and from Saranda.
What does Sarandë show on a Corfu to Albania day trip?
A Corfu to Albania day trip lands in Sarandë, a town on an arch-shaped bay between the Gormarti and Berdeneshi hills. In antiquity it was Onchesmos, a port of Chaonia in Epirus opposite the north-western point of Corfu.
Sarandë takes its name from the Byzantine monastery of the Forty Saints, Agioi Saranda in Greek, after the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. The name replaced the local name Skelë only in the early 19th century.
Onchesmos served as the port of Phoenice, the capital of the Chaonians, today Finiq. Cicero named a favourable wind for the passage from Epirus to Italy after the town, the Onchesmites.
A Corfu to Albania day trip passes the site of the first synagogue in Albania, built in Sarandë in the 4th or 5th century. A church replaced the synagogue in the 6th century.
The town had 20,227 residents at the 2011 census, across 70.13 square kilometres. Sarandë is part of the Albanian Riviera, the coast along the Ionian Sea in the districts of Sarandë and Vlorë.
- Setting: An arch-shaped bay between the Gormarti and Berdeneshi hills.
- Ancient name: Onchesmos, the port of the Chaonian capital Phoenice.
- Modern name: From the Byzantine monastery of the Forty Saints.
- Population: 20,227 residents at the 2011 census.
Sarandë is also the base for the boat and coach tours that serve a Corfu to Albania day trip on the Albanian side of the strait.
What does Butrint show on a Corfu to Albania day trip?
A Corfu to Albania day trip reaches Butrint, an ancient Greek city and later Roman colony, 14 kilometres south of Sarandë and close to the Greek border. UNESCO listed Butrint as a World Heritage Site in 1992, and the national park followed in 2000.
Butrint began as a settlement of the Chaonians, a Greek tribe of Epirus. It later became part of the state of Epirus, then a Roman colonia and a Byzantine bishopric, before a major earthquake flooded the city in the Middle Ages.
By the 4th century BC the city held a theatre, a sanctuary of Asclepius and an agora. The theatre is known for the large number of inscriptions carved on its stones.
The Roman poet Virgil named the seer Helenus, a son of King Priam of Troy, as the founder of the city. Virgil and Dionysius of Halicarnassus both wrote that Aeneas visited Butrint after the fall of Troy.
The Greek calendar of Butrint appears on the Antikythera Mechanism, the oldest known analog computer, dated to about 150 to 100 BC. The ruins stand on a hill above the Vivari Channel.
- Location: 14 kilometres south of Sarandë, close to the Greek border.
- UNESCO: World Heritage Site since 1992.
- Monuments: Theatre, sanctuary of Asclepius and agora from the 4th century BC.
- Legend: Founded by Helenus of Troy, according to Virgil.
A Corfu to Albania day trip that includes Butrint pairs the site with the ancient sights covered in the Corfu tour post on the Greek side of the strait.
How does Butrint National Park frame a Corfu to Albania day trip?
A Corfu to Albania day trip to Butrint enters Butrint National Park, which covers 9,424 hectares of hills, freshwater lakes, wetlands, salt marshes, reed beds and islands. The park was established on 2 March 2000 to protect both nature and the ancient site.
The park holds over 1,200 animal and plant species. Its lagoon is a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, and Lake Butrint is an Important Bird and Plant Area.
Butrint Lagoon is a salt lagoon south of Saranda, 7.1 kilometres long and 3.3 kilometres wide. It covers 16 square kilometres, reaches 24.4 metres at its deepest and has the shape of a giant footprint.
The Vivari Channel links Lake Butrint with the Straits of Corfu. Its water flows in both directions every six hours, carrying salt water into the lake on the rising tide.
A pontoon lies near the gate of the park. Two small forts, the Ali Pasha Castle and the Venetian Triangular Castle, stand near the mouth of the Vivari Channel.
- Area: 9,424 hectares of hills, lakes, wetlands and islands.
- Species: Over 1,200 animals and plants.
- Lagoon: 16 square kilometres, listed under the Ramsar Convention.
- Channel: The Vivari Channel, with a tidal flow that turns every six hours.
The park also protects the islands of Ksamil, so a Corfu to Albania day trip that adds a swim at Ksamil stays inside the same protected area.
What do the Blue Eye and Ksamil add to a Corfu to Albania day trip?
A Corfu to Albania day trip can add the Blue Eye, a spring in the village of Muzinë whose blue water shows to a depth of over fifty metres, and Ksamil, a coastal village south of Sarandë with white sand beaches and offshore islands.
The Blue Eye lies in the municipality of Finiq in southern Albania. Divers have gone down fifty metres, yet the full depth of the karst hole is still unknown.
The spring is the source of the Bistricë river, 25 kilometres long, which reaches the Ionian Sea south of Sarandë. The source stands at 152 metres and discharges 18,400 litres of water each second.
The Blue Eye is a protected natural monument of 180 hectares, with oak and sycamore trees around the water. In the summer of 2004 the source dried up for a short time.
Ksamil was built in 1966, during the communist era, south of Sarandë on the road to Butrint. It had 2,731 residents at the 2023 census, and the Ksamil Islands are its main attraction.
- Blue Eye: A karst spring in Muzinë, visible to over fifty metres of depth.
- Bistricë river: 25 kilometres from the spring to the Ionian Sea.
- Ksamil: A village of 2,731 residents inside Butrint National Park.
- Ksamil Islands: Small islands off white sand beaches south of Sarandë.
Swim stops on the Greek side of the strait are covered in the Paxos Antipaxos cruise post, a sea day from Corfu.
Which castles and history line a Corfu to Albania day trip?
A Corfu to Albania day trip passes Lëkurësi Castle, built in 1537 by Suleiman the Magnificent above Sarandë, and the forts at the mouth of the Vivari Channel. The strait saw the Corfu Channel incident of 1946, an early episode of the Cold War.
Lëkurësi Castle stands on a hill about 1 kilometre south-east of Sarandë. Its walls form an almost square plan with two round towers at opposite corners, and it once held 220 soldiers.
The castle was built to defend against the Venetians. From its hill the garrison controlled Sarandë, Butrint, the islands of Ksamil and the Straits of Corfu.
In 1946 Royal Navy ships came under fire from Albanian fortifications in the strait, then struck mines there. The events led to the Corfu Channel Case at the International Court of Justice.
Britain broke off talks with Albania on diplomatic relations in 1946 because of the incidents. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were restored only in 1991.
- Lëkurësi Castle: Ottoman castle of 1537, about 1 kilometre south-east of Sarandë.
- Garrison: 220 soldiers in the Ottoman period.
- Channel forts: Ali Pasha Castle and the Venetian Triangular Castle at the Vivari mouth.
- Cold War: The Corfu Channel incident of 1946 and the case that followed.
Cruise passengers who stop in Corfu for one day have their own options, covered in the Corfu shore excursion post, alongside a Corfu to Albania day trip.
What do travellers ask about a Corfu to Albania day trip?
A Corfu to Albania day trip raises the same questions before booking: which papers the border needs, how far Albania lies from Corfu, whether the Blue Eye fits into one day and which currency Albania uses. The answers draw on both coasts.
Can a Corfu to Albania day trip go ahead with an identity card?
Yes, for citizens of the countries that Albania lists for entry with a national identity card. All other visitors need a passport valid for at least 3 months. Albania grants 90 days without a visa to the Schengen Annex II nationalities.
How far is Albania from Corfu on a Corfu to Albania day trip?
The north-eastern edge of Corfu lies off the coast of Sarandë, across straits between 3 and 23 kilometres wide. Butrint lies a further 14 kilometres south of Sarandë, close to the border with Greece.
Does a Corfu to Albania day trip include the Blue Eye?
One of the tours sold in Corfu pairs the crossing with the Blue Eye and a visit to Saranda. Tours that start in Saranda also combine the Blue Eye with Ksamil, Butrint and Lëkurësi Castle in one day.
Which currency does a Corfu to Albania day trip use in Albania?
Albania uses the lek, with the code ALL and the sign L. Historically, the lek was divided into 100 qintars, and the money of Albania stays separate from the money used on Corfu.