The evening cruise is the gentlest way onto the water from Vlora: three hours, a small group and the end of the day as its backdrop. It asks less planning than a full day out, but the little it asks is different. Here is how the evening runs, what is included, and what is worth bringing along.
How the evening is laid out
The cruise leaves from Vlora port, heads out to Sazan Island for a stop of half an hour and comes back to the port, three hours in all. Its departure time is not fixed for the whole year: it follows the season, so check the time for your own date when you book. On 10 November 2026 the departure on offer was 17:00. Bookings start at two guests, and no more than 16 come aboard, and the languages named for the trip are English, Italian and Spanish. If you are staying away from the centre, allow enough time to reach the port: the boat leaves at its set time, and on a three-hour trip a late start is hard to make up.
Because you are back three hours after you leave, dinner belongs after the cruise rather than before it. On board there is bottled water and two drinks for each guest, beer or soft drinks, which is enough for the evening but not a meal. If you are hungry by late afternoon, eat something light beforehand and keep the proper dinner for when you are back on land. A late lunch and an early, light snack are the easiest way to arrive neither hungry nor full.
Light, layers and photos
Evenings on open water tend to feel cooler than the same hour in town, especially once you are wet, so bring a light layer even in summer. The cruise includes swimming stops and snorkelling gear, which means a towel and dry clothes for the trip back are worth more than anything else in your bag. A small dry bag keeps the phone, the layer and the towel together. Sandals or flip-flops that cope with a wet deck are easier than trainers, and they dry on the way back.
For photos, the simplest advice works: keep the phone in a pouch until you want it, shoot with the light to your side rather than straight into it, and take the pictures you care about before the swim rather than after. Remember that a moving boat is not a tripod. And put the camera down for a while; three hours pass quickly, and the light changes faster than you expect. A short trip is the one where it is easiest to spend the whole time behind a screen and the most rewarding not to.
For the evening
- Check the departure time for your own date; it moves with the season.
- A light layer, a towel and dry clothes for the trip back after the swim.
- A dry bag or pouch for the phone and cash.
- Dinner booked for after you are back, about three hours after the departure.
