Lagunabeach

The place

Laguna Beach sits on a sand-and-pebble spit at the mouth of the Vivari Channel, where Lake Butrint drains into the Ionian. Fresh and salt water mix here, so the swimming is calm and shallow rather than island-clear. It stays quiet even in August, with little more than a bar and a few sunbeds. The draw is the setting: the Butrint National Park gate and Ali Pasha's fortress are close, making this a swim-after-the-ruins kind of stop.