Saranda, the logical base
This is the town: the port, the hotels, the restaurants, the supermarkets, and where the boat parties leave from. There is accommodation at every price, a seafront to eat and drink on, and the hotel pool parties like the Infinity Sunset at Bougainville Bay. It is also where the El Mar excursion sails from. For a week in a group, it is the base that asks the least organising.
Ksamil, closest to the clubs
Twenty minutes south, a much smaller village, with the islets that made its name and above all the open-air clubs: Greg Beach Club, Poda, Principotes. Sleeping there removes the end-of-night taxi, which is the main argument. In exchange, accommodation is more limited and saturates in July and August, prices climb faster, and there are far fewer restaurants and shops than in Saranda.
The taxi maths
A Saranda to Ksamil run costs under ten euros, agreed before you get in since there is no meter. Split four ways that is two fifty each per trip, so five euros return. Across a week with seven nights out, thirty-five euros a head. Real, but not what tips a budget: the difference in accommodation prices usually weighs more, in either direction.
The real friction point
It is not the price, it is availability. There is no public transport between Saranda and Ksamil at night: the minibuses run by day and stop. At four in the morning in Ksamil you need a taxi and there is not always one. The habit that solves it: agree the return with the driver who took you out, or take their number. That is the local way and it works.
What repeat groups do
They sleep in Saranda and sort the transport once, with the same driver for the week. That gives the best balance: the comfort of the town, the choice of restaurants, the port for the boat party, and a ride home that does not depend on luck. Ksamil earns its keep mainly for a short trip built entirely around the clubs.
The season, which caps everything
The Riviera opens in early June and shuts in mid-September. Outside that window the accommodation question stops mattering: the beach clubs are closed, so are many hotels, and Ksamil goes back to being a village of a few hundred people. Booking for July and August means weeks ahead, especially in Ksamil.