In my travels on the eastern Adriatic and northern Ionian coasts, I’ve ended up visiting lots of city beaches, so for the first time I’ve pulled together a list of my favourites.
I’ve noticed that city beaches don’t always get the best write-ups, and a lot of travel writers instead extol the wonders of off the beaten track beaches. But in my experience city beaches can be a lot of fun, and a perfect place for people watching.
That’s certainly what I discovered when I was preparing to visit Saranda, Albania, and kept coming across comments like these:
“Saranda Beach is obviously not the best beach in Albania”
“To properly explore Albania’s best beaches, you’ll definitely need a car”
The first referred to Saranda City Beach, or Plazh Publik, the beach right in front of the promenade where the city centre meets the sea.
As we approached by ferry from Corfu, we saw the waves from the boat rolling towards the swimmers on Saranda City Beach, some of them just a few metres away from the ferry terminal.
We won’t be going there, I thought to myself, catching a glimpse of the crowded beach as I dragged a wheelie suitcase and an unhappy seven-year-old up the steep roads of Saranda towards our holiday apartment.
No, we would visit some of the secluded out of the way coves I’d seen in pictures, where sparkling blue water met empty white sand at the foot of a rocky cliff.
“I want to go to the beach!”
“I want to go to the beeeacch!” bellowed my daughter two minutes later, ahead of a full-on meltdown in which she angrily berated me for bringing me to this “horrible hot place”.
It was true. The choice of holiday destination, necessitating for a trek across Corfu Town to the ferry followed by a walk up the hilly streets of Saranda with our luggage, was entirely mine, though I could hardly be blamed for the late ferry that meant we docked in Saranda just at the hottest moment of the day.
We’d left temperatures in the low teens behind in Scotland — it had been 13C when we flew out of Edinburgh — and it was in the high 30s in Saranda.
“Ok, we can go to the beach,” I said, when we’d dropped off our things in the apartment.
After two small detours to buy first an ice cream and then an inflatable flamingo, we made it to Saranda City Beach. My daughter was already in her bathing costume, while I wriggled into mine under my clothes, concealed money and my phone in among our other items and blew up the flamingo.
Then we plunged in.
Well, Saranda City Beach was simply lovely. The water was warm but felt cool on our hot, sweaty limbs. We could see the stony sea bed and our drifting feet through the sparkling water. Even the frequent waves caused by the comings and goings of ferries, speedboats and the odd party ship just made it more fun as we bobbed up and down.
In fact we liked it so much we ended up swimming on City Beach at least once a day and usually twice except a couple of days when the red flag was up and waves shooting right up the beach to the wall of the promenade.
Just right for us
Was it the perfect beach? No. If you looked closely, there were cigarette butts and other small bits of debris among the stones. The water was sparkling on the first day but after the storm we noticed bits of palm tree and lots of litter — bits of plastic packaging, apple cores, apricot pits and so on — in the water. I tried not to think about the pollution from the nearby boats.
But aside from the litter, it was perfect for us. We didn’t hire a car, and any other beach would have required a long walk or a bus ride.
The city beach is where Saranda residents pop down for a swim after work or to meet up with friends and family, at least through May to October — just as they have been doing for generations.
We enjoyed watching the other people on the beach. We got chatting with one Albanian woman visiting from London with her two sons — when my daughter cheered me jumping off the concrete diving board she came over to check she was ok as she thought she was crying not cheering. Another kindly woman showed us the best places to enter the water to avoid slippery rocks.
Coming from the West Coast of Scotland we have a lot of perfect, clean beaches closer to home, and we enjoyed the contrast of the lively, busy beach so close to the cafes and restaurants (not to mention a couple of small playparks) of the promenade.
It’s not the first time we picked the ‘fun beach’ over the clean and beautiful ones; we did the same in Split, Croatia last autumn, and on several other trips.
That inspired me to put together a list of city beaches down the eastern Adriatic and Ionian coastlines.
Slovenia
Koper
Right on the sea front close to the old town and marina is Koper city beach, dubbed ‘Mokra macka’ or ‘wet cat’. It’s in front of the promenade, with steps leading down into the sea and a stretch of grass to lie back and relax on. There are cafes and restaurants as well as a children’s playpark nearby. According to the Koper tourist office, the beach has a Blue Flag, and lifeguards are on duty from 15 June to 30 September.
Croatia
Pula
Anyone staying in Pula is spoilt for choice when it comes to beaches, several of which have earned a Blue Flag. Valkane beach near the western part of the town is the most popular. Situated at the start of the Lungomare Boardwalk, it has two bars and lots of other facilities. The only drawback is the painfully sharp pebbles on parts of the beach.
Rijeka
Rijeka doesn’t have a city centre beach as the port is right in front of the old town. However, there are several gorgeous beaches at the foot of rocky cliffs in the suburbs. City bus No. 1 goes close to Fiumana and Ploce beaches, then take one of the staircases down to the waterside.
Zadar
Right in the centre of Zadar it’s possible to swim off the Riva, the popular promenade along the sea front, where you can also listen to the haunting strains from the Sea Organ. The next closest beach is at Kolovare, where there are lots of cafes and restaurants nearby.
When we visited Zadar, we stayed near Borik Beach, which is one of the most popular beaches in the area. In and around Borik there are actually lots of beaches, some that are more like concrete platforms, others with stretches of pebbes and shallow water.
Split
When we spent a week in Split, we spent every sunny afternoon on Bacvice beach. My daughter said it was the ‘best beach ever’ — which was a bit of a surprise for me as I’d been contacting the grey sand speckled with cigarette buts with the huge pristine expanses of white sand on the beaches near us in Scotland. But it was certainly a fun beach: she made friends with other kids there and chased the silvery fish darting in the shallow water. When it got too cold to stay in the water any more, we had drinks from the beach bar and visited the playpark on the cliff above, where we watched the local men play the traditional Picigin ball game.
Montenegro
Kotor
The coast around Kotor has many stunning beaches, but there are also a couple right in the city on the Bay of Kotor. Kotor beach is just north of the old town and there’s also the slightly wilder Kotor natural beach to the west of the old town, fringed with shady trees. These are popular with locals — though the arrival and departure of huge cruise ships both obscures the view and can fill the air with diesel fumes.
Ulcinj
Ulcinj’s city beach is the so-called ‘Small Beach’ though it’s actually more than one-third of a kilometre long — it’s only small in comparison to the nearby 12-km Long Beach. The curving expanse of sand is right in front of the old town and runs between the Ratislava and the old fortress.
Albania
Vlora
Vlora’s Plazhi i Ri is right in front of the city and popular with locals though the warmer months. Unlike the rocky coves further north, Plazhi i Ri is a broad stretch of sand, and the water is quite shallow and usually clean. Parts of it are taken up by (paid for) sunbeds but there are some free areas where you can sit wherever you like.
What do you think? I’d love to hear your good (or bad!) experiences of city centre beaches…
Steppe in Style 
Leave a comment