Havana Beach Club

Every beach scene has a founding address, and on the Albanian Riviera it is this one. Havana opened on the Dhermi shore in 2001, years before the coast had a tourism industry to speak of, and it is widely credited as the bar that introduced beach nightlife to southern Albania. A quarter century later the formula is unchanged at its core: sunbed rows on luminous white pebble, a bar that runs from morning espresso to evening sets, and a crowd that treats the place as the default meeting point of the whole beach.

We rank it first on the Albanian Riviera club directory for reach rather than refinement. Sleeker rooms exist on this coast, and our directory names them, but no other venue combines Havana’s history, its central position on the Dhermi sand and the practical modern touch of live online sunbed booking. For a couple, the trick is knowing which hours belong to you and which belong to the party, and this page is built around exactly that.

Havana’s best kept secret is its own morning. The club opens at 8, hours before the beach fills, and until roughly midday the scene is espresso, flat turquoise water and half empty rows, as close to private as Dhermi gets in July. The other golden window is the obvious one: Dhermi faces almost due west over open sea, so the last ninety minutes of light turn the whole shore amber, and a reserved front row bed with two drinks costs less than a starter would at a Greek club across the strait. Book the specific bed on the map when you reserve online, the corner spots at the ends of the rows buy the most elbow room.

The afternoons and event nights are the other Havana. This is the venue that taught the coast to party, the programming still leans on live music and DJ sets, and an August Saturday brings a crowd that has no interest in whispering. Reviewers who arrive expecting a boutique hideaway leave annoyed, and the harshest recent accounts describe exactly that mismatch: peak season chaos, floating prices and staff stretched thin across too many beds. Neither side is wrong. Havana sells energy, and the couples who love it are the ones who came for the tempo or timed their day around it.

On value, the numbers stay friendly by any Mediterranean standard. Even the reported ceiling of 15 euros for a bed undercuts most of what Greece and Italy charge for the equivalent front row, beer starts around 400 lek, and the online booking removes the arrival haggle that still defines much of this coastline. The honest gripe is the drift itself, the same bed costing different money on different days, so screenshot the price you booked and settle any difference at the bar with the receipt in hand.

The beach itself is the argument for coming this far south: a long bright ellipse of white pebble under the Ceraunian mountains, with water so clear it reads as glass over the stones. The pebble bottom means no churned sand and quick depth, better for swimmers than paddlers, and the village of old stone houses on the slope above is worth the climb for an evening walk. Our Dhermi beach guide covers the full stretch, and the quieter arc of Drymades waits one headland north when you want the same water without the soundtrack.

Dhermi hangs off the SH8 coast road between Palase and Himare, about a half hour of switchbacks south of the Llogara pass, and the club sits centrally on the waterfront strip below the village. Summer parking near the sand is a contest by late morning, one more reason the early arrival is the right arrival, and the drop from road to beach is short enough that no shuttle is needed.

Booking is refreshingly modern for this coast: pick your exact bed on the SunEasy map, pay by card, and show the confirmation on arrival, or call the club directly for event tables and groups. Prefer a human to handle it end to end? Put your date and party size in the form below and our concierge desk will confirm the current bed rate with Havana and hold the request open until you approve it, without adding a fee.