I arrived in Ohrid, and I immediately felt at a loss. The little town in North Macedonia was not what I had expected it to be. It was crowded with tourists and at a first glance I couldn’t find anything authentic. Until I stumbled upon a little shop run by writer and photographer Misho Yuzmeski called Cultura 365. Misho does private tours, ones where you can set your own itinerary and I happily jumped on this chance.

Why a Private Tour?

I don’t usually go on private tours. They’re often expensive and I don’t like to put myself in the situation where I’m in the middle of nowhere with just one person I don’t know. This time around I opted for a private tour because I didn’t really have a choice. All other tour options were only available to a minimum of two people. I couldn’t even pay for two people to join a tour, so instead I went private. I loved it. Especially, because Misho allowed me to set my own itinerary. That meant I could step away from the beaten path altogether, something I wouldn’t have been able to do on an organised tour.

You can actually do this road trip yourself by renting a car with for example Sunny Cars.

The Route: Lake Prespa

There are two parts to this day tour. The first is nearer to Lake Prespa than to Lake Ohrid. For geography nerds, there are actually two Prespa Lakes. The Greater Prespa Lake is in Albania, Greece and Northern Macedonia. The Small Prespa Lake is only in Greece and Albania. I visited the Greater one.

Lake Prespa has remained somewhat isolated and pastoral compared to its neighbouring Lake Ohrid, which means the area is more pristine and lacks the hustle and bustle of tourism and overdevelopment.

Izbishta
The first stop on this road trip is a tiny abandoned town called Izbishta. It’s located approximately two hours from Ohrid. You don’t necessarily have to visit Izbishta, but it’s nice to visit at least one abandoned town to get a better understanding of the development of the country.

North Macedonia used to belong to Yugoslavia. The country suffered severe economic difficulties after independence. It also had a hard time developing from a socialist country into a market economy. As such, the bigger cities of the countries transformed first. Electricity, phone lines, water lines, and later internet were rolled out in the capital first and only years later reached the more rural areas. Therefore, people left the small towns in order to find work & a more comfortable living in the cities. Leaving whole villages abandoned now.

It’s quite eerie walking through the empty streets. I was happy that I had a Macedonian guide though, because we could have a conversation with the few elderly people we did meet.

Resen
The next stop is a considerably larger town called Resen. This city & area is known for its apples. That’s why Misho buys me a bag filled filled with them.

There’s also a a historic neoclassical estate in this town called Saraj, which houses a gallery filled with ceramic art from all over the world.

Modern art. Abstract art. It wasn’t my favourite sight, but it’s very welcoming to be at a touristic place where not many people hang around. You might like it though if you’re into art.

Slivnicki Monastery
I tell everyone I meet about my love for Christian Orthodox churches. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I told Misho as well. He acted upon it straightaway and he drove me to a little town in the middle of nowhere to visit Slivnicki Monastery.

We have to pick up the key at a seemingly random house in a small village in order to unlock the church. Needless to say, there’s no one there when we reach the church and visiting it is insanely serene.

Churches and old monasteries like these are used for social gatherings nowadays. People from the village organise barbecues in front of the church for example. It’s not a bad place to be at all. As always, the paintings on the walls are gorgeous.

St George
Misho can easily read my enthusiasm for this church so we drive to the next one. We go through a similar ritual by picking up a key and we reach St. George. A church which is heavily under construction but can still be visited.

The paintings on the wall are much older here, but equally beautiful.

For those of you who would like to follow my itinerary and rent a car: I’m sorry I can’t give you the address of where the keys were picked up. I don’t want to publish someone’s address on my website. Everyone in the village knows where the key is though, so you just have to ask someone before you drive up to the church.

Pretor
After all these sights, it’s time to relax a bit with a cup of coffee. We did this at an incredibly quiet lake bar. It does get busy in summer according to Misho, but I think that busy is relative to what it’s like in Ohrid. However, in September most bars & shops around Lake Prespa close.

National Park Galičica
The final stop near Lake Prespa is the National Park which separates Lake Prespa and Lake Ohrid. This National Park is actually a mountain which goes all the way into Albania. Needless to say, it has a completely different look-and-feel from the other areas we had driven through. It has windy roads, and dense forests. From the top of the mountain you can see both lakes very well. We only drive through the area, but I can imagine it would be a lovely place to go for a hike if you have more time.

Lake Ohrid
Lake Ohrid is is one of Europe’s deepest and oldest lakes. Like Lake Prespa it’s located in more than one country, namely Albania and North Macedonia. The sights I visited on this day trip are pretty limited. Most sights are near Lake Prespa. I will actually dedicate my next blog posts to an itinerary on what to do near Ohrid, so stay tuned if you’d like to learn more.

Cave Church
This sight is fun because if you’d like to visit it, you’d have to search for it a bit. There’s no mention of it on Google Maps or on Google for that matter.

It’s there though, and it’s a fun hike to reach it.

The Balkans have quite a few of cave churches. One of these is near the Gradishte campgrounds. You can park the car near the camping; then you’ll have to walk through the camping towards the bar Orevche. If you keep the cliffs on your right hand side and continue walking over bridges, you’ll reach a tiny cave church.

Elshani
A local (still inhabited) village near the shores of Lake Ohrid and near the National Park Galičica was the last stop of the day.

Conclusion

Ohrid wasn’t necessarily my favourite town. I’ll write more about that in my next post. This trip was saved by the fact that I booked this private tour with Misho on my final day in the country. It was so much fun to explore “the real” North Macedonia.