GRAND TOUR OF MACEDONIA

Walk back to Early Bronze age and beyond in North Macedonia: visit Kokino, the 4th oldest megalithic observatory in the world by NASA, and the Valley of the Stone dolls; take a relaxing spa break in a village setting and see how they crush the tasty local spice “K’cana sol” in the small ethno museum. Take a walk by the smaragd green lake up in Maleshevo Mountains and get some of their local pure pine honey and forest fruit jams. Visit the local manufacturers: the weaver, the blacksmith and the woodcarver! Enjoy a picnic by the waterfalls of river Bregalnica deep in the nature far from industry and pollution.

Take a tour of the most valuable Byzantine temples of East Macedonia: Vodocha and Veljusa. Up in the mountains, visit the colorful Yuruk tribes who lived isolated there for the last six centuries and taste the unique, traditionally prepared poppy-seed specialty. Continue to the wine area for a history tour of winemaking starting from the wine museum and the ancient city of Stobi, to the wine cellars of some of the best Macedonian wineries. You will taste Macedonian original rosé Stanushina, and the full-bodied red Vranec, along with the premium Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grown under the Macedonian sun!

Drive by the tobacco fields by Prilep and visit the tobacco museum, the leaning clock tower, the grand Orthodox temple St Archangel Michael perched up on the rocks by the medieval city walls of King Marko. Take a tour of the ancient city Heraclea built by Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great. Walk in the nature reserve of cormorants, pelicans, herons, cranes and swans and taste the fishermen dishes in a village by Prespa Lake. You will visit here the small church of Kurbinovo and see the preserved frescoes from 12th century that made this Orthodox jewel one of the most important places in the World treasury of cultural heritage.

Take a tour of Ohrid - the place with 365 Orthodox churches, a Roman amphitheater, the medieval Tsar Samoil city walls and world famous gallery of icons. Both Ohrid and Ohrid Lake have been put under UNESCO protection: the first for its great cultural value, and the lake for being the oldest lake in Europe with extreme biodiversity. You will visit the monk cells carved in the rocks above Ohrid Lake and drive along the border with Albania for a tour of the greatest Muslim and Bekteshi heritage sites in Macedonia. 

Back in the capital we’ll take the cable car to the top of Mount Vodno for fantastic view over the capital and the surrounding mountains. Down in the city, continue with a guided tour of Mother Teresa memorial house, the Macedonia square with the grand fountain Alexander the Great and many monuments and baroque buildings and bridges; cross river Vardar over the old Stone Bridge and walk into the oriental Old bazaar in the maze of narrow cobblestoned alleys lined with high mosques, Turkish baths turned into art galleries, and many art craft, carpet and jewelry shops. Farewell dinner will be in a restored Ottoman Inn in the Old Town. Leave Skopje on Day 11.

Visit Krushevo, the highest town in the Balkans, known as the center of the most important battles in the Macedonian history, but also for the rich Vlach traditions and art crafts, and for the mouthwatering dishes, including the Krushevo spiced sausage and their sweet, soft lokum deli. Take a tour of this picturesque town where nature and architecture are intertwined in perfect harmony and color. Afternoon drive back to Bitola in time to join the evening promenade in the old town.

We’ll cross the Albanian border by Prespa Lake and drive to the fishing villages of “Little Prespa” region, home to most of the Macedonian minority in Albania who leave mainly from fishing and from building – they are among the best masters in building stone houses. The nature and the lake are totally unpolluted and clean, thus the big flocks of pelicans and cormorants in the bay, and on the little island that we’ll visit by simple wooden boats. Lunch will be their traditional meal made of fish from the lake and caviar in mushroom sauce. Afternoon drive back to Ohrid.