Corfu and Albania

Our base on Corfu was Acharavi, a relaxed resort on the long north coast of the island. The days went by between the pool, the sandy beach and the swings in the hotel garden, the evenings with dinner in the village tavernas and the sun setting straight into the sea.

On the west coast, Paleokastritsa is a string of small coves with clear turquoise water between wooded headlands. We started at the monastery on the headland above the bays, with its whitewashed gate and views out to the rocks in the sea, then went down to swim in one of the coves.

In the late afternoon we drove up to Afionas, a village of narrow lanes and bougainvillea high above the sea, and walked out along the path to the viewpoint over Porto Timoni, where a thin strip of land joins the headland and two bays lie back to back on either side of it.

On our last day on Corfu we went to Sidari in the north-west, where the sea has carved the soft sandstone cliffs into narrow channels and little coves. The most famous is the Canal d’Amour: legend has it that couples who swim through it together will stay together. We spent the middle of the day in its warm, shallow water.

In the late afternoon we walked through Corfu Town, whose old town is on the UNESCO World Heritage list: under the arcades of the Liston, built by the French in the style of the Rue de Rivoli in Paris, through narrow lanes of tall, faded Venetian houses, and along the waterfront with a view of the Old Fortress.

In the evening a fast ferry took us across the strait to Saranda in Albania, half an hour away.

Ksamil, a few kilometres south of Saranda, was our base in Albania: a small seaside village with clear water and little islands just offshore, right opposite Corfu. We spent two lazy days on its beaches and by the pool, and the evenings over long dinners in the village.

We spent our last day by the sea near Saranda: a morning by a hotel pool, an afternoon on a pebble beach under straw umbrellas, and a walk through the town. In the evening we took the long bus ride north to Tirana.

We had one morning in Tirana, the capital. We walked to Skanderbeg Square and the Et’hem Bey Mosque with its slender minaret, and walked past the Pyramid, a communist-era monument recently rebuilt as a centre for young people, with steps up its sloping sides. In the afternoon we flew home.