Arjileo · Himarë · Albanian Riviera
A wood-fired oven, seven cocktails and ten rooms on a hillside a hundred metres above Himarë bay. Breakfast from eight. The oven is lit at six.
There is no building in the way, and no beach umbrella in the frame.
Sunset Serenity is a family place on the track at Arjileo, above Potam, roughly a hundred metres up from the water. Everything faces west: the lawn, the stone terrace, the pizza oven, the bar, and most of the rooms. Guests put the arc of the view at close to two hundred and seventy degrees. Come for the pizza; the sunset is included.
08:00
The oven is already warm and the bay is still flat.
Breakfast runs from eight until noon on the terrace and on the lawn — eggs with pancetta and tomato, byrek, bread from the wood oven, cake under a glass dome, and coffee made properly at the stone bar. Guests eat here; so does anyone who drives up. At this hour the light comes off the water rather than at you, and Himarë is a white line at the far end of the bay.
18:00
Slow-fermented dough, one bake at a time, in front of the fire.
From six the wood oven works through the evening under its tiled pergola, until ten. Seven pizzas, all Neapolitan in shape — a blistered, spotted cornicione and a thin base — from a plain Marinara to burrata with basil, pancetta with mushroom and courgette, and a pesto with mortadella, stracciatella and pistachio. Appetisers are burrata and bruschetta. Dessert is tiramisu or a chocolate soufflé.
sundown
Every table faces west. Nothing stands between the terrace and the horizon.
The property sits about a hundred metres above the sea on the hillside at Arjileo, looking out over Filikuri, the headland, Himarë bay and the open Ionian beyond it. There is no building in the way and no beach umbrella in the frame. Guests describe close to a two-hundred-and-seventy-degree view from the top of the garden. The bar runs through it — a spritz, a Negroni, or one of the seven house cocktails built around raki, sour cherry, blueberry and melon.
after dark
Himarë turns into a string of lights and the goats can be heard on the hill.
The kitchen and bar carry on until ten. Festoon bulbs come on over the lawn, the town lights up along the shore two kilometres below, and the terrace stays warm long after the sun has gone. If you would rather not drive back down the track in the dark, there are ten rooms behind the garden.
Seven pizzas and seven cocktails, and not much else.
A short list, done properly, is the whole idea. Two of the house cocktails are built on raki, which is the giveaway that they were invented here rather than copied out of a book.
Slow-fermented dough, baked one at a time in the wood oven from six in the evening. Neapolitan in shape — a blistered, spotted rim and a thin base.
The house list. Raki turns up in two of them, which is the giveaway that they were built here.
Prices are on the card at the table — they change with the season, so they are not printed here.
If you would rather not drive back down in the dark.
Exposed local stone behind the bed, linen, warm lamplight, a balcony or a patio, and in most cases the same view the terrace has. Booking.com guests score the place 9.1 out of 10 — wonderful — and rate the WiFi higher than anything else, which up here is not nothing.
01
A private balcony over the bay, and the sun going down from your own chair.
02
Stone, linen and warm lamplight, with the window pointed at the water.
A hundred metres up, halfway between Potam and the sea.
The cove directly below is Gjiri i Filikurit — Booking.com measures it at a hundred and fifty metres, though the path down is steep and unsurfaced and most people arrive there by boat. Himarë town is a quarter of an hour's walk down the track, and eight minutes back up by car.
Tables by phone. Rooms on Booking.com.
There is no online table booking — one call does it, and it is worth making in July and August if you want the rail at sunset. Aim to arrive about forty-five minutes before the sun goes down.
Booking.com guests rate the property 9.1 out of 10 — wonderful. Google rates it 4.7 out of 5. Read the reviews on Booking.com.
Off SH8, then up the track.
| Where | Rruga Arjileo, off SH8 above Himarë, Vlorë County 9425 |
|---|---|
| Height above the sea | About 104 mEU-DEM elevation at the exact coordinates |
| Nearest beach | Gjiri i FilikuritBooking.com measures it at 150 m; the path down is steep |
| Breakfast | Served 08:00 – 12:00, on the terrace and the lawn |
| Oven & bar | 18:00 – 22:00 |
| Parking | Free, private, on site |
| Rooms | Ten, across three types |
| Check-in / out | 15:00 – 00:00 · 08:00 – 10:30 |
| Languages | Greek, English, Albanian |
| Reservations | By phone — +355 69 297 4648 |
Four things within a quarter of an hour.
A cliff-enclosed cove directly below the property. Booking.com measures it at 150 m and about a thirteen-minute walk; the descent is steep and unsurfaced, and most people arrive by boat.
The long pebble beach immediately north, backed by olive terraces and the coast road. The closest place to swim without a scramble.
The ruined fortress and the stone village on the hill above the modern town, with its own view back down the coast.
Ali Pasha's triangular fortress on a causeway in a near-enclosed bay, south along SH8. The shortest genuinely worthwhile drive from here.
It depends on the date. The terrace faces west over the open Ionian at 40.0868° N, 19.7554° E, so sunset ranges from roughly 17:00 in midwinter to just after 20:30 in late June. The time for today is shown at the top of this page, calculated for these exact coordinates. Arriving forty-five minutes before it gives you the best of the light.
Calling ahead is sensible in the evening, especially around sunset in July and August. Reservations are taken by phone on +355 69 297 4648 — there is no online table booking.
Yes. The pizzeria, café and bar are open to visitors as well as guests — mornings from eight until noon, evenings from six until ten.
Seven wood-fired pizzas, from Marinara and Margherita through pancetta, burrata, eggplant and a pesto with mortadella and pistachio; burrata and bruschetta to start; tiramisu and chocolate soufflé to finish. At the bar: seven house cocktails, the classics, five beers including Albanian Korça and Himara, three alcohol-free mixes, and a Chardonnay and a Merlot by the glass. Breakfast is continental with cooked plates, byrek and proper coffee.
It is signposted off SH8, the coastal Riviera highway, on the hillside at Arjileo above Potam — about eight minutes' drive from Himarë town centre. The last stretch is an unsurfaced track; take it slowly. Parking at the top is free and private. There is a hand-painted sign on the gatepost.
The property sits about 104 metres above it. Gjiri i Filikurit is 150 metres away as Booking.com measures it — around thirteen minutes down a steep, unsurfaced path. Potam Beach, 1.2 km away, is the easier swim.
Yes — ten rooms across three types, all with a balcony or patio, air conditioning and a private bathroom, most facing the sea. Booking.com guests score the property 9.1 out of 10. Rates and availability are live there.
Both, free. WiFi is the property's highest-scoring category on Booking.com at 9.4. Parking is private and on site, which matters here because the track is not somewhere you want to leave a car on the verge.