The Strait of Corfu measures barely 12 nautical miles at its narrowest point, a sliver of open water that has divided Greek and Albanian shores for millennia yet bridged them in a single morning's sail. Modern hydrofoils complete the crossing in 25 minutes, ferrying visitors from Corfu Town's New Port to Sarandë harbour seven times daily between April and October. The route traces the same path taken by Venetian galleys, Ottoman traders, and Byzantine supply ships, though today's passengers carry passports rather than cargo manifests. Sarandë itself stretches along a crescent bay framed by the Ceraunian Mountains, its promenade lined with whitewashed cafés and palm trees that sway in the Ionian breeze. The town's Greek name, Agioi Saranda, commemorates forty Christian martyrs drowned offshore in the fourth century; its modern incarnation emerged after 1991, when Albania's borders reopened following decades of isolation under Enver Hoxha's regime. The best day trips from Corfu to Albania pivot on Sarandë as a logistical base, fanning south to Butrint's UNESCO-listed ruins or inland to the Blue Eye Spring's cobalt pools. Butrint Archaeological Park occupies a limestone peninsula 18 kilometres south of Sarandë, accessible via the SH81 coastal road. The site preserves twenty-five centuries of continuous habitation: a Greek theatre carved into natural bedrock in the fourth century BC, a Roman forum paved with Proconnesian marble, a sixth-century baptistery whose floor mosaics depict peacocks and grapevines in tesserae no larger than a fingernail. Sections of the Venetian fortress still stand three storeys high above the Vivari Channel, its crenellated towers watching over the same lagoon that fed the ancient city's oyster trade. UNESCO inscription arrived in 1992, followed by a 1,000 ALL conservation fee introduced in 2018 to fund ongoing excavation and stabilisation work. The Blue Eye Spring lies 22 kilometres east of Sarandë, buried in beech forest near the village of Muzinë. The karst spring discharges 18.4 cubic metres per second from a depth that remains unmeasured despite multiple technical dives; its name derives from the cobalt and turquoise bands that radiate from the central vent, visible through water so cold it averages 12°C year-round. Albanian Riviera tours from Corfu pair the spring with Ksamil's trio of offshore islands, where Posidonia meadows meet white-sand shallows no deeper than two metres at low tide. The return crossing to Corfu departs Sarandë between 16:00 and 18:00, depending on season and operator, completing the circuit in under ten hours door-to-dock.