Is Casa Del Sol on the beach?

No. The terrace stands about a hundred metres above the sea on the hillside at Potam, and the nearest beach, Llaman, is roughly 600 m away in a straight line — further on foot, because the road switchbacks down. What the height buys you is that every room here faces open water.

Is the pool open outside the summer?

Yes. The listing states the outdoor pool is open all year, which is unusual on this stretch of coast. It has a pool bar and it looks straight out over the Ionian.

How many people fit in a room?

The Villa with Sea View and the Apartment with Sea View each sleep up to four. The two Deluxe Double types are built around one king bed, one of them with a sofa bed as well. Cribs and extra beds are not available, so the bed count is the limit.

Do all the rooms face the sea?

Every one of the four room types sold here is a sea-view type. There is no room at Casa Del Sol that faces anything else.

Is there food on site?

There is a restaurant cooking Greek, Italian, seafood and grill, a bar, a coffee house and a snack bar, plus a pool bar out on the terrace. Breakfast is served continental and buffet.

What are the check-in and check-out times?

Check-in is from 13:00 until midnight, and check-out is between 10:30 and 11:30.

No. Pets are not allowed, and the property is entirely non-smoking.

Yes, free private parking on site, which matters here because the property is a few kilometres out of Himarë town on the coast road.

Potam, Himarë · 100 m above the Ionian

Casa Del Sol — Luxury Villas

A guest house standing a hundred metres up the hillside at Potam, with a pool that is open all year and four room types that all face the same water.

Check dates on Booking.com

What this is

Above the water, not on it

The terrace at Casa Del Sol is cut into the olive slope above Potam, on the coast road between Himarë and Porto Palermo. The sea starts a hundred metres below the pool coping and about six hundred metres away in a straight line, which is why the coast reads as a whole from up here rather than as one cove.

The house is a dark two-storey block under a terracotta roof, glazed the full width of both floors. Every room type it sells is a sea-view type. There is no room here that faces the hill.

The whole property seen from above: a dark two-storey block under a terracotta pantile roof, its pool and flagstone terrace carried on a stone-clad retaining wall cut into a hillside of olive trees and dry grass — The whole property, pool deck carried on a stone retaining wall above the olive terraces

The pool

Open every month

Most pools on this coast are drained by the end of October. This one is listed as open all year, with a bar at the side of it and nothing between the far coping and the Ionian. Loungers and parasols along the edge, a chrome water blade at the deep end, and a hanging chair on the terrace behind.

Open all year
Pool bar
Sun loungers and parasols
Free private parking on site

The pool photographed from the water, its pale stone coping running out towards the Ionian far below, with white parasols, a hanging rattan chair and the coastline curving away to the right

The rooms

Who fits, and where

All four types face the sea, so the only thing that separates them is the bed count. The lines below are drawn to one scale: the longer line is the bigger room. Cribs and extra beds are not available, so what is drawn is the whole capacity.

Villa with Sea View
One king bed, two full beds and a sofa bed
Ninety square metres taken whole, with its own kitchen and its own balcony over the pool
Sleeps 4
Apartment with Sea View
One queen bed, two twin beds and two sofa beds
Five beds — more than any other type here
Sleeps 4
Deluxe Double Room with Balcony and Sea View
One king bed and a sofa bed
A balcony of its own, facing the water
Deluxe Double Room with Sea View
One king bed
The plainest of the four, and the same view

Inside the Villa with Sea View

Ninety square metres
Taken as an entire villa
Private kitchen
Private bathroom
Balcony
Sea view
Mountain view
Pool with a view
Air conditioning
Flat-screen TV
Soundproofing

A guest room with an oak slatted wall lit from behind, brass globe reading lamps, a taupe upholstered bed with a charcoal runner, and full-height curtains drawn back from a balcony door

A guest room in pale grey with cove lighting, a white upholstered bed, petrol-blue curtains at a balcony door and a marble-topped side table on slim brass legs

The table

Greek, Italian, and the grill

The kitchen cooks Greek and Italian, seafood and grill, and it is laid out for families rather than for a hush. Breakfast comes continental and buffet — juice, pancakes, cheese, fruit — and it is the part of the stay guests single out most often.

Restaurant, on site
Bar
Pool bar
Coffee house
Snack bar
Children’s meals
Wine and champagne

Before you book

What is here — and what is not

On the terrace

An outdoor pool, open all year
A pool bar
Sun loungers and parasols
A garden and a terrace
Outdoor furniture
Free private parking on site

At the table

A restaurant cooking Greek, Italian, seafood and grill
A bar
A coffee house on site
A snack bar
Continental and buffet breakfast
Children's meals
Wine and champagne

In the room

Air conditioning
A balcony
Sea and mountain views
A flat-screen TV
A refrigerator and a minibar
A private bathroom with a bidet
Free toiletries, towels and slippers
A wardrobe
Mosquito nets
Soundproofing

Around the clock

A twenty-four-hour front desk
Full-day security
CCTV outside and in the common areas
A security alarm and a safe
Free WiFi throughout
English and Albanian at reception

Worth knowing

Check-in runs from 13:00 right through to midnight; check-out is between 10:30 and 11:30.
Cribs and extra beds are not available, so the bed counts below are the whole story.
Pets are not allowed.
The whole property is non-smoking.
Parties and events are not held here, and the property does not take stag or hen groups.
Cash is accepted at the property.
No minimum age is set for check-in.

A made bed in striped white linen with rolled towels laid across it, marble-topped tables either side, and a framed photograph of a beach hung on the warm grey wall above the headboard

A bathroom lined in bronze-brown marble-effect tile with a round black-framed mirror, a navy vanity unit with an open oak cubby, and a wood-look plank floor

Where you are

Six hundred metres and a hundred down

Straight-line distances from the pin, which is the one Booking.com and Google Maps agree on to within a metre. The road down the hillside switchbacks, so every walk is longer than the number beside it.

Llaman Beach: 620 m; pebble, supervised, open around the clock
Mateus Beach: 740 m; the next cove south, below the road
A submarine bunker: 490 m; one of the tunnels cut into this shore
Porto Palermo Beach: 1.7 km; under the castle on its causeway
Himarë town: 3.7 km; the harbour, the market and the buses

The view from a room's own balcony: bistro chairs on timber decking behind a glass balustrade, the pool and flagstone terrace below, and the coast running north far beneath — From a room’s own balcony: the pool below, and the coast a hundred metres under it

Guests on Booking.com score the stay 9.4 out of ten and call it wonderful, with cleanliness and comfort the highest of the seven categories and location and value the lowest — which is about what a hundred-metre climb and a full kitchen would predict.

Check dates on Booking.com Read the reviews

Arriving

Getting up the hill

Casa Del Sol sits on Rruga Vangjel Zoto (SH8) at Potam, on the coast road roughly 3.7 km south-east of Himarë town. There is free private parking on site, which is the practical answer to the height — this is not a walk-out-of-the-lobby-onto-the-sand address, and a car makes the difference. Check-in runs from 13:00 all the way to midnight.

The pin

40.075764 N
19.771015 E
100 m

Open in Google Maps

Questions

The ones people actually ask

Is Casa Del Sol on the beach?: No. The terrace stands about a hundred metres above the sea on the hillside at Potam, and the nearest beach, Llaman, is roughly 600 m away in a straight line — further on foot, because the road switchbacks down. What the height buys you is that every room here faces open water.
Is the pool open outside the summer?: Yes. The listing states the outdoor pool is open all year, which is unusual on this stretch of coast. It has a pool bar and it looks straight out over the Ionian.
How many people fit in a room?: The Villa with Sea View and the Apartment with Sea View each sleep up to four. The two Deluxe Double types are built around one king bed, one of them with a sofa bed as well. Cribs and extra beds are not available, so the bed count is the limit.
Do all the rooms face the sea?: Every one of the four room types sold here is a sea-view type. There is no room at Casa Del Sol that faces anything else.
Is there food on site?: There is a restaurant cooking Greek, Italian, seafood and grill, a bar, a coffee house and a snack bar, plus a pool bar out on the terrace. Breakfast is served continental and buffet.
What are the check-in and check-out times?: Check-in is from 13:00 until midnight, and check-out is between 10:30 and 11:30.
Can I bring a dog?: No. Pets are not allowed, and the property is entirely non-smoking.
Is there parking?: Yes, free private parking on site, which matters here because the property is a few kilometres out of Himarë town on the coast road.