Spile, Himarë · Vlorë County · Albania
himara hostel
An old family stone house, restored, with a garden around it. Dorms & privates. Free breakfast. Rentals.
Scored 9.0 out of 10 — wonderful — on Booking.com. That is the only guest score this site publishes, and it is published on Booking.com’s own scale.
What follows is one day here, in the order it happens. The beds come last, because at a house like this they are the last thing that happens.
08:00
Breakfast, and it is free
Every listing this house appears on agrees on one thing before it agrees on anything else: breakfast is included, and it is laid out on the long table in the kitchen.
The hostel’s own website leads with three words — dorms & privates, free breakfast, rentals — and free breakfast is the one every channel repeats. Hostelworld’s listing adds that guests are given mountain tea made with mint, homemade jam and raki.
Towels and bed linen are included too, which is worth knowing before you pack a travel towel for the Riviera.
10:30
Out — on a bike, or up the hill
The hostel rents bikes and publishes two routes of its own: up to the mountain village of Pilur, and south along the coast to the bunkers at Porto Palermo.
Up to Pilur
Six kilometres and 700 metres of ascent, two to two and a half hours, on local dirt roads through the olive fields that turn into a rocky trail. Waymarked white-red-white. There is no water on the route.
Distances and the waymarking are the hostel’s own.
Down to the bunkers
South along the coast to Porto Palermo, where a castle sits on its own causeway and the hillsides are pocked with concrete. Booking.com puts the castle nine kilometres from the door.
Bike rental is listed by the hostel itself; it publishes the route.
13:00
The kitchen is yours
A fully equipped shared kitchen under a timber roof — fridge and freezer, kettle, coffee machine, toaster, plates, pans, the lot.
Fridge and freezer, electric kettle, coffee machine, toaster, tableware, cutlery, pots and pans — Hostelworld lists the kitchen down to that level of detail, which is unusual, and which is the sort of thing you only bother writing down if people actually cook.
Himarë has a market and a run of small shops a few streets down towards the water.
17:00
The garden, the shade, the hammock
An old family stone house with a garden of fruit trees around it, a flagstone courtyard, a bar built along one wall, and a hammock slung under the reed shade.
Garden
Booking.com describes a garden full of fruit trees.
Terrace
Listed by every channel.
Shared lounge
Listed by every channel.
Outdoor fireplace
Listed on Booking.com.
The courtyard in the photograph at the top of this page is where the hostel puts its information board. The stools are green, the folding table is yellow, the flagstones are laid with white grout, and the palette of this entire site was sampled out of that frame and out of the tiled hall floor inside.
21:00
Film night
Film nights, darts and board games are all listed facilities here, which for a hostel is the difference between a bed and a place to stay.
Film nights are on the hostel’s own site and in Booking.com’s description of the property. Darts and board games are listed facilities. There is a bar counter built along the courtyard wall.
No opening hours are published for the bar anywhere, so none are given here.
23:30
Then, the beds
Six bookable types, from a tent on the grass to an apartment with a king bed. Reception takes arrivals until 23:00.
Tent
01 · 1 twin bed · shared bathroom
Camping on the hostel's own grass, booked like a bed rather than turned up with.
Single Bed in 10-Bed Dormitory Room
02 · 1 bunk bed · shared bathroom
The larger of the two dormitories. Towels and bed linen are included.
Bed in 6-Bed Dormitory Room
03 · 1 bunk bed · shared bathroom
The smaller dormitory.
Standard Double Room with Shared Bathroom
04 · 1 queen bed · shared bathroom
A private room; the bathroom is on the landing.
Deluxe Double Room
05 · 1 king bed · private bathroom
A private room with its own bathroom.
Deluxe Apartment
06 · 1 king bed and 1 sofa bed · private bathroom
The only type in the set with a photograph that both carries its name and shows a bedroom.
All six, with what is and is not photographed
the score, on its own scale
Booking.com rates this house 9.0 out of 10 and calls that wonderful. Its own breakdown:
- Staff
- 9.4
- Cleanliness
- 9.1
- Comfort
- 9.1
- Location
- 9.1
- Facilities
- 9.0
- Value for money
- 9.0
- Free WiFi
- 8.2
A rating of “4.5 out of 5” circulates for this hostel in third-party guides. It is a ten-point channel score halved and relabelled, and no platform publishes it. This site never uses it. Hostelworld and Tripadvisor both carry listings for the house and both are linked below, but neither score could be read off the platform’s own page, so neither is published here and nothing is averaged.
the numbers people ask about
- To the beach
- 700 m, an 8-minute walk
- Booking.com's own description, which names it Spile Beach
- To the beach, the other account
- a five-minute walk
- the hostel's own listing text — to the town centre and the nearest beach
- Check-in
- 15:00 – 23:00
- Booking.com; Hostelworld says the desk opens at 13:00
- Check-out
- 07:00 – 11:00
- Booking.com; Hostelworld says until 11:00, and the two agree on the end
- Up to Pilur
- 6 km and 700 m of ascent, 2–2½ hours
- the hostel's own route page
- To Porto Palermo
- 9 km
- Booking.com's neighbourhood distances
Where two sources disagree, both are printed. Nothing on this page is a midpoint.