Fra Sarande: Blue Eye, Butrint, Ksamil & Lekuresi Castle Tour

Very friendly and helpful. Good explanation of what we saw. We even went to get us water when we were stuck in traffic.

Excellent day guided by Santi, he took us through beautiful places with all the necessary information from the first minute, highly recommended!

It was an enlightening trip - if you enjoy history and culture, you would love this. Also it is mixed to sights and wonders of nature. Santi was a great tour guide - knowledgeable and flexible in coordinating the trip to suit the needs of the visitors. She was helpful beyond the tour with tips on where to go and drivers for our next destination. Highly recommended.

Excellent guide (June 29, 2026) very friendly and knowledgeable

Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and answered everyone's questions. The driver was safe and considerate of the road and his passengers. The tour covered some of the major surrounding areas of Saranda and Ksamil. The Blue Eye cove was beautiful and we should have taken the opportunity to walk around here more, but the heat was up to 35+ by then. All in all a good trip.

Very nice guided tour. The staff that we went with was absolutely amazing. Highly recommend. 🤩

All three locations are worth visiting and the most interesting was the archeological site, Butrint. I have always had excellent expriences with Viator and recommend using them and visiting these sites but, for this location in Saranda, Albania, I would suggest that Viator use a diffenent local tour company. Our guide, Santi (sp?) was very knowledgeable, friendly and flexible, however, I did have some significant issues with the local tour company contracted by Viator. I was booked for a 8:30 am tour but we were late boarding the bus although it was there. It was almost 9:30 before we left. The tour guide shared information she was given by a tour manager who was at the pick up point. To my knowledge, all passengers for the 8:30 am tour were ready. We were waiting for a group the manager claimed were having issues tendering to the pick up point. Two different ships were involved. Passsengers stated it was the responsibility of guests to get to the meeting point on time and didn't feel we should wait for more than a short time. One passenger spoke to the manager and indicated he was quite rude. We discovered that the 8:00 am group was also waiting and would be part of our group. I want to add that this was a small group excursion. The guide explained that leaving late was not her decision to make and we understood that. Finally, our bus left but then returned to the pick up point as the "late" individuals were on their way. Close to 9:30 am, a group arrived and were put on our bus. Many passengers, believing that that were just late were quite upset with the supposedly late group although one passenger made the situation very unpleasant. We later learned that, we had at least 3 groups with different tour times. There were scheduled for 8:00, 8:30 and 9:30. It turned out that the group that was supposedly late were not late and some shared their ticked that indicated a 9:30 tour. We ultimately found out that the local tour company decided to combine the groups and use two small busses. There were several passengers that chose the early tour so they would have time to explore the port area before having to tender back to the ship. The dishonesty of the local manager caused for some initial group tension when that should never have happened. Finally, our bus left and, to make matters worse, stopped at a gas station for fuel! That was completely unacceptable. We had sufficient time at the first two locations but the last location, at the castle, had to be shortened to get passengers back to the port. My group should have returned by 3:30 pm and got back by 4:00 pm. The tour guide did the best she could but I still felt that she, due to the misinformation she was given and passed along to us, had to deal with some very frustrated passengers through no fault of her own. I place the full responsibility on the local tour company but believe Viator should know what happened and would hope that, for future excursions, they would used another local company because the sites are well worth visiting.

In port for one day with a cruise on our first visit to Albania- wanted to see as much as possible and this trip covered many different aspects- ruins, beach, and geography! Unfortunately a slow start as they merged 4 different tours start times into one, so we wasted time waiting for the last group to arrive. Good modern comfortable transport. A guide who spoke good English and ensured the group stayed together. The cafe at the Blue Eye was great for a quick snack and very reasonably priced. Some in the group claimed they didn’t know about the €6.50pp fare for the little train to the Blue Eye but it was in the tour details. A good day out.

Great combination of nature and history. Our guide, Santi, spoke perfect English and Greek I believe. Was well educated in the history of Butrint, and of her homeland. Only suggestion would be, you might need to bring a sandwich or something easy to carry as there was only a brief, quick stop to grab a bite to eat!

Good guide, nice trip and lots of information. Worth taking your time with Butrint.