Why Ohrid, North Macedonia Is the First Stop on Our 92-Day Balkans Trip

We haven't been to Ohrid yet. We want to say that up front, because we know how this genre of post usually works... someone writes "what to expect in Ohrid" after they've already gone, and just... doesn't mention that part. We're not doing that. This is the planning version. The before. The part where we're sitting in our apartment in Vlorë with a map, a spreadsheet, and honestly a little bit of nerves, trying to figure out if we got this right.

In three weeks we leave Albania, the place we actually live now, for 92 days. Seven countries. Thirteen cities. And the very first one, the place we land before we've even shaken off the goodbye-to-Vlorë feeling, is Ohrid.

So here's the honest version of why.

How many days do you need in Ohrid, North Macedonia?

We've given it seven. That's more than most travel guides recommend, and we know it. The typical answer floating around the internet is two or three days... enough for the Old Town, the lake, maybe one boat ride, and then you're gone. We looked at that number and just didn't believe it.

Ohrid isn't a stop for us. It's the whole opening week of a trip we've been planning for months, and we didn't want our first real days of it to feel rushed. So: seven days, eleven stops, and honestly we still think we'll wish we had more.

Is Ohrid worth visiting?

We can't answer that from experience yet, only from research, so take this for what it's worth. What made the decision for us wasn't a single "wow" landmark. It was that Lake Ohrid is one of the oldest lakes on the planet, older than most of the countries around it, and the town sitting on its edge has an old bazaar, an 11th-century cathedral, and a fortress you can climb before the day gets hot. That's the kind of density we look for. Not one postcard moment, a whole week of them stacked next to each other.

If you're the kind of traveler who needs a headline attraction to justify the trip, Ohrid might not sell itself to you in one sentence. If you're the kind who wants a place where every single day has something in it, we think it's going to earn its spot. We'll tell you in a few weeks if we were right.

What's actually in Ohrid besides the lake?

Here's the rundown of what we've mapped out, stop by stop:

Ohrid morning market — we've apparently decided we're market people now, because we've got ourselves down to go more than once
Old Bazaar and the Cathedral of St. Sophia — 11th-century frescoes, and from what we've read, almost nobody actually goes inside
Samuel's Fortress — the plan is to climb it early, because apparently the walls get hot fast once the sun's up
Church of St. John at Kaneo — this is the postcard shot, the one you've probably already seen if you've googled Ohrid even once. We're told it earns the hype. We'll find out.
Fisherman's House at Kaneo and the Bay of Bones — a reconstructed Bronze Age village built out over the water, which sounds a little wild written down like that
St. Naum Monastery — about 30 kilometers south, with a rowing boat out to the Black Drim springs. This is the one we keep circling back to in planning, so it might end up being the whole trip's opening highlight
Galičica National Park — a ridge where you can apparently see two different lakes at once

Is St. Naum Monastery worth the trip from Ohrid?

Out of everything on this list, St. Naum is the one we keep coming back to when we plan, so it gets its own section instead of getting buried in a bullet point.

It's about 30 kilometers south of Ohrid town, right where North Macedonia touches Albania, and it's not just a monastery, it's the whole point where the lake gets its water. The Black Drim springs feed in right there, dozens of them pushing up through the lakebed, and from what we've read the way most people actually see it is by hiring a small rowing boat and gliding out over the springs instead of just walking the monastery grounds and turning around.

We haven't done it yet. But between the frescoes, the peacocks that apparently wander the monastery courtyard, and a boat ride over water that's been filling this lake for longer than most nations have existed, this is the one stop on the whole Ohrid week we built the schedule around, not the other way around. If you're trying to decide whether St. Naum is worth the extra half-day trip out of Ohrid: everything we've read says yes, and it's the one thing on this itinerary we'd be genuinely upset to skip.

Is Galičica National Park worth visiting from Ohrid?

Galičica gets one line in most Ohrid guides, usually something like "great views," and then the guide moves on. We think that's underselling it, so it gets its own section here too.

The park sits on the ridge between Lake Ohrid and Lake Prespa, and the reason it keeps coming up in our planning is that one hike, apparently not even a hard one, gets you to a point where you can see both lakes at the same time. Two ancient lakes, one ridge, and from what we've read the light hits differently on each side depending on the time of day you go up. We don't have a summit photo yet. We have a spot circled on a map and a note to ourselves to go in the morning before the heat sets in.

If the question is whether it's worth carving a half-day out of an already packed week for a hike and a view: we think so, mostly because it's the one stop on this list that isn't a building, a market, or a monastery. After six days of history and old stone, we're guessing the two-lake view is going to feel like the exhale of the week.

What's the best way to get from Vlorë, Albania to Ohrid?

We're doing this by bus. That's its own post, honestly, because the logistics of getting from where we actually live to the start of a 92-day trip aren't nothing... routes, timing, what to pack for a travel day versus a destination day. We'll walk through that separately once we're closer to departure. For now, just know: no rental car for this leg, no flights. Bus, like most people actually crossing this part of the Balkans do it.

What are you nervous about?

This is the part we think most "destination guide" posts skip, and it's the part we actually wanted to write.

We don't speak Macedonian. We've read that English gets you pretty far in Ohrid because of how much tourism the town sees, but "pretty far" and "actually far enough" are different things when you're trying to sort out a boat schedule to St. Naum in person. We're also going in with seven days planned around eleven stops, which means if even one thing runs long, something else gets cut, and we don't know yet which one it'll be.

And there's a smaller thing too. This is stop one of ninety-two days. Whatever we get right or wrong about pacing, packing, and how much we try to cram into a week, we're going to be living with those lessons for the entire rest of the trip. Ohrid isn't just a destination, it's also the test run for how we do this whole thing.

Why we're telling you this before we've even left

We live in Albania now. Not visiting, not passing through... this is where our apartment is, where our life is, and in three weeks we're leaving it behind for three months to go see a part of the world we've wanted to see since we first started planning this move. We wanted to write this one down before we go, nerves and all, so that when we come back through and tell you what actually happened, you'll be able to see exactly how close we got it, and where we got it wrong.

If you want to follow the actual week as it happens instead of the plan we made from a kitchen table in Vlorë, that's what the channel's for. Come with us.

AprilAugust 25, 2026