Another slow travel month has passed in Albania, and we are starting to near the end of our stay here. But time has passed so quickly that I only now realized I never posted about our third (and last) apartment in Sarande!
Note that I didn’t use the word “Airbnb” to describe our current place.
Read on to find out why.
Sometimes It’s All About Who You Know
Readers who have been following us for a while know that we’ve been staying in Airbnbs in Sarande this past January and February.
We were initially prepared to book through Airbnb during March, but we were strongly encouraged by our Sarande expat friends to see what the local market would bear before committing to anything.
So, as a first step, we took the path of least resistance and directly contacted our previous landlord to see if they had any vacancies and were willing to do a cash deal.
And we were so glad we did!
Our landlord was more than happy to oblige.
We ended up scoring our most luxurious apartment in Sarande, but it was the cheapest!
Come take a look.
Welcome To Our Final Sarande Apartment!
Our apartment is on the eastern side of Sarande near the waterfront, only a 10-minute walk to the port. It is located on the third floor of an apartment complex, which is thankfully very quiet during the off-season.
Walking through the front door, you enter a short hallway with coat hooks, storage, and a full bathroom on the left side.
The entrance is directly ahead.
Prety nice for a spare bathroom!
At the other end of the hallway, you enter the kitchen/dining room area, which is well equipped. It has a convection oven, range, microwave, electric kettle, big refrigerator, and all of the pots, pans, and cooking equipment that Rhonda likes. 🙂
Rhonda’s playground. 😉
A living room is also connected to this common area space, with a big screen TV, stereo surround system, AC/heat unit, two big convertible couches, and lots of tables.
There is also a sliding door leading to the first balcony of the apartment, which has a lovely ocean view. There are three apartment balconies in total.
Not a terrible view!
From the common area, you can access a guest bedroom with sleeping space for 4 people (including hideaway bunks). There is lots of storage, AC/heat, and a sliding door that accesses a large side balcony area shared with the master bedroom.
View from the entrance.
View from the opposite side.
The master bedroom is accessed from the common area too.
It has a big comfy bed, a wardrobe, nightstands, a desk area, and AC/heat. It also has TWO sliding glass doors, one leading to a balcony shared with the guest bedroom and one leading to a private balcony with an ocean view.
View from the entrance.
View from the opposite side. I accidentally took my picture in the mirror!
There is another full bathroom next to the master bedroom, with the usual amenities and lots of toiletry storage.
Another bathroom with plenty of amenities.
The shared balcony has surprises too. Here, there are washer and dryer units, a gas grill for BBQ, and a SAUNA!
This is the first time we have ever had a clothes dryer, not to mention a sauna!
Inside Rhonda’s hotbox.
Rhonda has been loving the sauna and uses it daily. But it isn’t exactly my thing since heat tolerance is not my strong suit.
So for all of this, including utilities and 20 Mbps internet, we are paying $19.79 USD per day!
We know of lots of places where a room in a hostel would be far more expensive than this.
So our final apartment during this stage of our international travels was fantastic!
Amazing what apartment deals you can get if you can contact a landlord or realtor directly and are willing to pay cash for a month’s stay.
It is good we kept direct contact info for all our Airbnb landlords over the last three years!
If we return to any of the locations we have visited in the past, we will reach out to them on WhatsApp and hopefully work out a cash discount.
We will miss this apartment, as well as Sarande, as we are leaving in just a few days!
We’ve had a wonderful time and have made some great lifetime friends that we will remain in touch with moving forward.
But we are off to our next travel destination in Albania – the town of Berat! We will spend a couple of nights there, exploring everything this UNESCO World Heritage site has to offer.
From there, we will head to Rome, Italy, for one final hurrah before returning to the USA.
More on that later!
Until next time…
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6 thoughts on “Our Final Apartment in Sarande (Albania)”
We know Berat well. Recommend a meal out at the higher end (but still reasonably priced) Hotel Castle Park restaurant on the opposite side of the river.
Great find for your last apartment! You really struck gold there.
It was your slowest travel ever it seems with 3 months in one place. I am curious why…have you got tired from monthly moves and decided to do such extended stay? It is such a hard choice between seeing more places and settling down for a longer time to feel more “at home”.
I am curious about your plans for Rome. Have you been there before? We have spent 3 days in Rome in October 2017. The biggest disapointment was Trevi fountain and Spanish steps. We could not see much aside from tourists… If you want to see them I recommend to go in the early morning, after that it is a madhouse.
Our favorite place was Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia. We happily spent several hours there until it closed and it was really interesting and refreshingly not crowded. Highly recommended if you like history.
I am looking forward to read about your Rome adventures!
Hello Svetlana! The biggest reason we slowed down it was the best location to escape the Schengen zone in an place with a decent winter climate. That said, we extended our original two month stay plan because we met so many cool people to explore the area with. So spending an extra month in Sarande wasn’t a burden, especially since we had a cheap place by the ocean!
We had a great time in Rome and as I write this we are in the airport waiting for our flight back to the USA. We did many of the greatest hits, including the Vatican museums, Colloseum, and those related things. Sadly we never got to the Etruscan museum, but I suspect we would have enjoyed it greatly. We did enjoy enjoy ourselves in Rome though. More than Barcelona I think, but less than Madrid. YMMV!
6 thoughts on “Our Final Apartment in Sarande (Albania)”
We know Berat well. Recommend a meal out at the higher end (but still reasonably priced) Hotel Castle Park restaurant on the opposite side of the river.
Thanks for the suggestion! Sounds like the perfect place for our final days in Albania. We’ll give it a try!
What a beautiful place!! We can’t wait to see you both. Enjoy Rome!!
We will! See you in a couple of weeks.
Great find for your last apartment! You really struck gold there.
It was your slowest travel ever it seems with 3 months in one place. I am curious why…have you got tired from monthly moves and decided to do such extended stay? It is such a hard choice between seeing more places and settling down for a longer time to feel more “at home”.
I am curious about your plans for Rome. Have you been there before? We have spent 3 days in Rome in October 2017. The biggest disapointment was Trevi fountain and Spanish steps. We could not see much aside from tourists… If you want to see them I recommend to go in the early morning, after that it is a madhouse.
Our favorite place was Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia. We happily spent several hours there until it closed and it was really interesting and refreshingly not crowded. Highly recommended if you like history.
I am looking forward to read about your Rome adventures!
Hello Svetlana! The biggest reason we slowed down it was the best location to escape the Schengen zone in an place with a decent winter climate. That said, we extended our original two month stay plan because we met so many cool people to explore the area with. So spending an extra month in Sarande wasn’t a burden, especially since we had a cheap place by the ocean!
We had a great time in Rome and as I write this we are in the airport waiting for our flight back to the USA. We did many of the greatest hits, including the Vatican museums, Colloseum, and those related things. Sadly we never got to the Etruscan museum, but I suspect we would have enjoyed it greatly. We did enjoy enjoy ourselves in Rome though. More than Barcelona I think, but less than Madrid. YMMV!