Grand Hotel Saranda

Sayana at reception was a real help from the start. We arrived without a booking, and Ms. Sayana greeted us warmly and showed us several rooms. Before our early flight from Tirana, she arranged a huge packed breakfast with almost everything from the regular buffet, booked our airport taxi, and made sure it was all in order before her shift ended. She’s a major asset to the hotel. There’s a pool, restaurant and beach bar, plus a private beach area with plenty of sunbeds. The shore is pebbly rather than sandy, so it’s better for swimming than sitting on the ground. The bar can get pretty loud at night. Housekeeping was inconsistent too, sometimes missing toiletries or cleaning in a rush. Our experience with the night staff was mixed. Ari, who covers the night and early morning shift, gave us wrong information about our booked airport cab, nearly making us miss our flight. He also openly criticized a colleague to us. Be careful if you have an early departure.

Right in central Sarande, the hotel is within walking distance of shops and restaurants, and it’s about a 20-minute drive to Ksmail and 30 minutes to The Blue Eye. We had ocean views, and our room’s balcony looked over the street. The bed was large with a top-notch mattress, and the bathroom was very spacious. There’s a restaurant on site, plus a pool, bar and shisha area outside with sea views. Breakfast had everything we needed, including Baklava and cakes. They also replenished the water bottles in our room each day.

We’ve been coming to use the pool during our vacation, paying the entrance fee and ordering plenty at the bar. But I don’t want to have to clean the pool before getting in. Today, because my child wanted to swim and that’s why we came, I spent 15 minutes removing clumps of other people’s hair, bits of plastic bags and lots of insects that had ended up in the pool overnight. It was really unpleasant. I wish I’d taken a photo before cleaning it, not afterwards. A dirty pool shouldn’t be presented as a good hotel, especially at these prices. There’s also been a broken electric lamp hanging in the pool for several days, ever since we first noticed it. We don’t know whether it’s safe to swim with electricity openly accessible in the water.

Thank you, Erik, for making our stay at Grand Hotel in Saranda so welcoming and easy from beginning to end. The hotel was comfortable, clean and well located, but the team’s hospitality and attention to detail stood out most. I’d highly recommend Grand Hotel to anyone visiting Saranda.