Vlora, Karaburun & Sazan

The diving here runs from boats. Trips leave Vlora at 8.30 in the morning and cross the bay to the Karaburun peninsula or Sazan Island, with sea conditions deciding which, and the sites are proposed by divers' interests and the weather. A Sazan day has two dives, one on the outer side of the island and one on the inner, before the return to Vlora in the late afternoon. Good weather is a condition of every trip, and a poor forecast cancels it. Sazan is a military island, reachable only by special permission since the marine park was created in 2002.

Sazan's coastline is rugged and rocky, and walls are the main event: North Cape drops vertically, Devil's Bay mixes vertical walls with caves and reef, and Hell's Gorge holds a large air pocket in the middle where divers can surface inside the cave. Gorgonians cover the walls, the island's seabed holds Cold War remains and pottery from different periods, and Dafina Bay's floor is mostly healthy Posidonia. Wrecks are the other half of the story, from the hospital ship Po, sunk by British torpedo bombers in 1941, to the destroyer Intrepido and the reef-and-wreck dive at San Nicolo Bay.

The area suits divers with some experience who want walls, caves and wreck history. Wreck dives off Sazan run to 30–35 m and are meant for more experienced divers, yet the island has sites for all levels of recreational and technical diving, and on the peninsula Dafina Bay and Shen Vasil Bay are 10 m dives for beginners. Each trip needs at least two divers, and children under 12 cannot take part.