Vlorë, Radhimë and Orikum
Lost a ring in Vlorë, Radhimë or Orikum?
The Lungomare, Plazhi i Ri and Plazhi i Vjetër, Uji i Ftohtë, Zvërnec, the coves at Radhimë and the shore at Orikum.
Something lost along this bay is worth asking about, and what decides it is how small a piece of ground you can describe. The city end helps, because there is a building, a café front or a set of steps behind almost anywhere you could have stood. Write down which of those you were beside before the detail goes.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewellery recovery service that works with experienced local metal detectorists to search for a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone lost in Vlorë, Radhimë and Orikum in Albania.
Tell us what happened and where. We choose an experienced detectorist who knows the shore, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
The names on this page sit in a row down the same water. The tourism agency puts Vlorë where the Adriatic and the Ionian meet, the shore at Radhimë south of the city, and Orikum at the entrance to the Albanian Riviera, near the Llogara park.
One name on this coast can cover a lot of ground
The line worth writing first is where you were staying or eating, not the name of the town. Vlorë runs from the city beaches out past Uji i Ftohtë, Radhimë is a run of small coves, and Orikum has a shore of its own. Add the hotel, the bar or the restaurant and the ground shrinks at once.
If it has only just happened, keep people off the patch you were standing on and leave the sand unraked. Then send where you were, what you were doing when you last knew you had it, whether the sea was involved at all, and a pin on a map with anything uncertain marked as such.
The names that come up along the bay of Vlorë
- Vlorë city and its seafront
- The Lungomare
- Plazhi i Ri
- Plazhi i Vjetër
- The pavements and café fronts along the city beaches
- Sheshi i Flamurit, in the centre of Vlorë
- The National Independence Museum
- Uji i Ftohtë and the beach below it
- The pines above the beach at Uji i Ftohtë
- Plazhi i Zvërnecit
- The Zvërnec pine forest, by the Narta lagoon
- The coast road south out of Vlorë
- Radhimë village
- The small coves at Radhimë
- The hotels and guesthouses along the Radhimë shore
- Orikum town and its guesthouses
- Plazhi i Orikumit
- The marina at Orikum
- The port at Orikum
- The shore of the Orikum lagoon
- Boat trips out of Vlorë
- Sazan island and its beaches
- The Karaburun peninsula, its coves and beaches
- The Haxhi Ali cave on Karaburun
The places people name when they write in from this bay
A city seafront, then coves, then a marina town, one after another going south.
Plazhi i Vjetër, Plazhi i Ri and the Lungomare
The tourism agency puts both city beaches along the bay of Vlorë and calls them the heart of the coastal life of the city, with wide pavements, green walkways and a string of restaurants and cafés at the edge of the sea. It describes the water as calm and shallow. Maps give the name Lungomare to the seafront walk and the quarter behind it.
Uji i Ftohtë
The agency says the name comes from springs of fresh water running down into the sea, cool enough against the sea water for the difference to be felt. It describes rock and greenery around the beach, and pine shade during the day. Maps show Uji i Ftohtë as a hamlet of its own on the coast south of the city centre.
The centre of Vlorë, away from the sand
Not everything happens on a beach. The square in the middle of town appears on maps as Sheshi i Flamurit. Paving, kerbs, terraces and grass are different work from sand, so say plainly if that is where the afternoon went.
Radhimë
The agency describes the shore at Radhimë as lying south of Vlorë, made up of small coves, with water it calls clear as crystal, a quiet family feel, and modern hotels and traditional guesthouses along it. A cove is good news for a description, because the one you were in can usually be pointed at from the road.
Orikum
The agency puts the beach beside the coastal town of Orikum, by the tourist marina, with room to spread out, soft sand and a shallow entry into the sea, and it mentions sunsets watched from the port. Its page on the village describes houses and villas turned into family guesthouses for the summer. The Orikum lagoon lies on the same bay near the town, with a shore people walk along.
Zvërnec
Plazhi i Zvërnecit sits on the coast north of the city, and the agency describes calm water, untouched scenery and forest around it, away from the crowded tourist centres. Quiet ground comes with fewer landmarks to steer by, so the path you walked in on matters more than usual. Nearby, the Zvërnec pine forest lines the shore of the Narta lagoon, with paths for walks and picnics.
Sazan and Karaburun, by boat
Sazan island sits at the entrance to the bay of Vlorë, wild ground with Mediterranean scrub and clean beaches, and tourist boats run out to it from Vlorë. Across the water the Karaburun peninsula is rocky shore, steep slopes, sea caves and hidden coves with untouched beaches, visited for swimming, diving and snorkelling. The Haxhi Ali cave on it is reached only by boat from Vlorë. Name the boat, where it stopped and whether you went in off it.
Things worth knowing before you write in
What you do not need to have ready
Nothing has to be looked up before you write. If the hotel you were staying at or the bar you stopped at is all you can give, that is already something to work from, and whatever else is needed gets asked for afterwards.
Where somebody else runs the ground
Hotels, guesthouses, beach bars and the marina front a lot of this shore. Where the spot sits in front of one of them, it goes better if they are spoken to beforehand, and with you, than if somebody simply appears.
When you have no idea of the time
That holds nothing up. Morning, the middle of the day or after dark is usually enough, along with what you had done either side of it.
What you send stays between us
Your message and your photographs are used to set up a search and for nothing else. Nothing about you or the loss gets posted anywhere.
The bay does not stay the same from end to end
Things a searcher would rather know before setting off than after arriving.
Calm water without much depth in it
The agency calls the water at the city beaches calm and shallow, and the entry into the sea at Orikum shallow as well, over soft sand. Depth is the thing to be exact about, so say whether you could still stand up where you were.
Fresh water meeting sea water
At Uji i Ftohtë the agency says springs run down into the sea and the difference in temperature can be felt. If you were in the water near one of them, say so, because it places you better than a distance would.
Coves at one end, an open front at the other
Radhimë is described as small coves and Orikum as a beach with room on it, while the city beaches run as one urban front. A cove can be described whole. A long front has to be cut down by a hotel sign or a set of steps.
Want a first idea of your chances? Try the lost ring recovery calculator.
Questions about Vlorë, Radhimë and Orikum
My watch was on at dinner on the Lungomare and missing at the car.
The table is a better place to begin than the walk back to the car. The tourism agency describes the city beaches as having wide pavements, green walkways and restaurants and cafés at the edge of the sea. Name the restaurant, and say whether you went down onto the beach afterwards.
We stayed at Radhimë and the booking says Orikum.
Radhimë is a village inside the Orikum unit of Vlorë municipality, so a booking can carry either name honestly. This page runs from the city beaches down to Orikum, and either one lands inside it. A searcher works from something narrower than a town name though: the cove itself, or the frontage of the hotel you were staying at.
My bracelet is somewhere in the shallow water off Plazhi i Ri.
The agency calls the water at Plazhi i Vjetër and Plazhi i Ri calm and shallow, which is useful: somebody who was standing rather than swimming can often point at the patch they were over. Give the depth as you remember it, and what stood on the shore behind you.
A phone went over the side at the Orikum marina.
Nobody needs to check first whether a phone counts. What decides the job is how it went in: from the quay, from a ladder, or from a boat that was already under way. If it was a boat under way, that is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
Which beach do people mean when they say Cold Water?
Uji i Ftohtë, on the coast south of the city centre. Springs of fresh water run down into the sea there, the agency says, cool enough against the sea for the difference to be felt, and the name follows from that. Maps use the same name for the hamlet behind the beach, so say whether you mean the sand or the streets above it.
An earring is somewhere at Zvërnec.
Ground like that is placed by what you walked in past, so say where you left the car or which path you came down, and whether the earring went on sand, among the trees or into the water.
Keys went missing in the centre of Vlorë, nowhere near a beach.
Still worth sending. The square that maps name Sheshi i Flamurit, the streets around the National Independence Museum and the café terraces off them are ordinary ground for this, although paving and grass are worked differently from sand. Say roughly where you walked, and what was on the keyring besides the keys.
Somebody from the hotel already had a look. Is there any point?
Yes, and it helps to know it happened. Say who looked, what ground they went over and whether anything was moved or tidied while they were at it. Ground that has been turned over once is approached differently from ground nobody has touched.
Vlorë, Radhimë and Orikum
Write while the day is still clear in your head
Nothing has to be complete before you send it.
Send it on WhatsApp in whatever shape it comes out in. Somebody reads the whole thing and writes back with the questions that narrow the ground, so working out in advance which parts matter is not your job.