Livadhi · Himarë · Albanian Riviera
Shade first.
Sea second.
Camping Himara is an olive grove on the terraces above Livadhi, set back behind the coast road. You pitch between the trees, walk down to the water in about eight minutes, and come back up out of the sun.
Before anything else
What is here, and what is not
On site
- Tent pitches under the olive trees
- Tents to rent, made up with bedding
- Room for campervans, motorhomes and caravans
- Hot showers and toilets
- 230 V electric hook-up
- A washing machine
- A bar and a small restaurant
- Free WiFi
- Parking on site
- Pets welcome
Worth knowing
- Bathrooms are shared
- Electricity and laundry are charged as extras
- Motorhomes are limited to 8 m long and 3.8 m high
- The beach is downhill from here, and uphill on the way back
- Closed from December to April
- WiFi is the lowest-scoring thing guests rate on Booking.com
The camp scores 8.9 on Booking.com, where guests rate the people who run it 9.9 and the WiFi 2.5. Read the reviews
The grove
A working olive grove, walled in dry stone
The hillside behind Livadhi is cut into terraces, each one held up by a wall of stacked limestone, and the camp occupies a stretch of them. The pitches are simply the flat ground those terraces make, with an olive standing on almost every one. Cypresses mark the tracks.
It is quiet in the way a farm is quiet rather than the way a resort is: gravel underfoot, a washing line strung between two trunks, a donkey working its way along the edge of the trees.
Four ways to sleep
Bring one, or borrow one
- Your own tent
- Pick a place between the trees. The pitches are the flat ground the dry-stone terraces make, so most of them have a canopy over them for most of the day.
- A tent from the camp
- Tents are rented made up, with a mattress, a pillow and bed sheets, and sleep two.
- A campervan or motorhome
- Motorhomes up to 8 m long and 3.8 m high are taken. 230 V European sockets are available as an extra, and there is fresh water for refilling and washing up.
- A caravan
- Caravans are taken too, and there is room for cars and motorbikes. The tracks through the grove are gravel.
The shade
It moves all day
Olive shade is not the flat dark of a pine wood. The leaves are narrow and silver and the canopy is open, so what falls on the tent is a shifting dapple that travels with the sun. It is enough to make the middle of an August afternoon liveable, which on this coast is the whole argument for camping uphill instead of on the sand.
Open May to November, so the grove is also open either side of the heat.
Down to the water
Eight minutes down, and back up again
The track leaves the grove between the cypresses and drops to the coast road; Livadhi Beach is on the other side of it. The walk takes six to eight minutes, downhill on the way there. There is public shingle and there are private stretches with umbrellas for hire.
- Livadhi Beach
- About eight minutes on foot, down through the grove and over the coast road
- Aquarium Beach
- A small cove the camp puts at a twenty-minute walk
- Jale Beach
- North along the SH8, clear water and beach bars
- Gjipe Beach
- The canyon beach north of Dhërmi, reached on foot from the track
- Porto Palermo
- The castle on its bay south of Himarë, and the Cold War submarine tunnel beside it
The bar
One kitchen, under the big olive
A thatched roof, a counter and a scatter of benches and tables under one big old olive. Coffee in the morning; beer, wine and cocktails later. The kitchen does breakfast, vegetarian plates, fresh fish and Albanian home cooking, all as extras rather than as a board.
Drinking water is at the bar. Fresh water for refilling and washing up is out in the grove.
Around the grove
Getting here
Off the lane above Livadhi
Turn off the coast road at Livadhi and climb. The entrance is a dark red board reading Kamping HIMARA beside a red steel gate, with a gravel drive running up into the olives from there.
Reception speaks English, French and Italian.
40.11332 N, 19.72125 E