Folie Marine — Attraction in Bashkia Himarë

Don’t waste your time or money on scammers.

My wife is from Albania and it is such a beautiful country with such friendly people. This resort is a slap in the face to the culture. Even talking to the staff he joked and said “we do not target poor albanians only the 1% of North Americans….” as a Canadian I found that very off putting and racist.

If you ask any staff to lift a finger you will likely be met with an eye roll and unprofessionalism. They believe just because you are here that is good enough. The staff are king not the customers. The pool is closed and they will not tell you.

We asked for towels from 4 different people for them to tell us “we don’t have towels after 3pm”….. 😂 ok.

To reserve the “pre-reserved” cabanas included in our suites, you need to talk to another 4 people for them to give you wrong information then the staff take our seats and give them to another guest that paid for the day.

The food is terrible. The drinks are ok. There is bugs and ants in both of our suites, they do not care.

They try to be like Ibiza but you can not even pay via card. PayPal only…. sounded like a scam from the beginning and should have trusted our gut.

Please there is so many good places to go in Albanian especially the south, don’t waste your money on a superficial resort filled with people that forgot where we came from.

The list goes on but i will summarize a few points:

Dirty rooms with bugs no direction of where to go and what to do in the resort or how things work staff that will scam and target foreigners (not giving correct change, charging for things that are included, taking your credit card and tapping it with the wrong amount on the receipt hoping you won’t notice and then they will give you cash back, etc.) Basic necessities are your problem not there’s All 4 of us are not joking when we say a hostel in Dhermi would have been a much better experience. They do not care about you at Folie Marine unless you have 1 million instagram followers 😂

Look at the news. The owners do not even know who owns this place because they stole the land and have a feud. They are born and bread scammers. How do they expect to manage it?

Please come visit Albania and enjoy the beautiful beaches in the south, just...

Wannabe Ibiza Style / $$$$ = not worth it

Let's talk about the good things first: Our room was nice with a breathtaking seeview. Absolutely fantastic! The water in the sea was clean as well and very refreshing. The beach is not sand and mostly filled with little and big stones which for me is not something that I prefer.

Not good: quality is nowhere near the price. Don't order any special food like "vittello tonnato"... It's going to be a 'wrong' copy of what they saw in a picture of a real Italian restaurant. That's by the way something you will observe across the country: wannabe Italy...(I'm Albanian for the records)

If you come for party make sure that you KNOW the party is during your stay. Check specificaly for a event... Do not trust Instagram posts of the day with old fotos... We were here from Monday to Thursday during July and there was no party at all. To be precise, even the freaking playlist was so lame that you would fall asleep. I asked several times to make it louder or change the sound... but 'forget it' was usually the answer. This brings me to the last point: service! Omg... Waiters are constantly sitting with their mobile phones in the hand and usually their back is towards the guests... Have you ever seen such a thing? You need to stand up or scream ... And there were maximum 7 groups of guests there... Imagine a party with several 100s ?!

Overall: never ever again, 2 stars would be my rating but I'm giving them some credit for the party I've never experienced... hence 3 stars. Prices are too high for Albania. Considering the very very cumbersome road, it takes 3h 30min from Tirana with little traffic... Honestly not worth the ride, take instead the flight to Ibiza, as bottles are almost same price. Drinks are approximately 8 euros which is Germany level. Hotel price is ok with 180 euros per night,...

The beach at Jale is beautiful but the experience at Folie Marine can spoil the beauty of this Albanian paradise: expect arrogant service, a rude and superb receptionist with your customers and very high prices for Albanian standards. Beach service is virtually non-existent unless you tip the staff in advance. The faded flamingos at the entrance already announce the decay of the place, confirmed by accessing the dirty bathrooms in the pool area. Parking is paid separately (300 Leks).

The parasol definitely doesn't protect anything from the sun and the chairs were extremely uncomfortable and in disrepair. The attendant to whom we made the payment authorized us to use the other tent that was better protected from the sun without further charges. After 20 minutes that we were already installed, we were asked to leave the tent in a rude manner by the receptionist: when asked the reason and explained that it had been authorized by the other employee, she claimed that he did not send anything and that the place was reserved for bar customers... The detail is that we paid the same amount (which is not low) to sit in the first row of the beach, and the chair remained empty the entire period we were on the beach, as well as most of the other seats. ..

We are frustrated with such attitudes and discouraged from consuming anything there. I don't mind paying more for quality service, but what we see is complete disrespect for the customer. I do not recommend. Head to the opposite side of the beach and search for other beach clubs that will offer a much more...