Lady’s Pristina Travel Guide

Today I want to share my Pristina travel guide with you. The capital of Kosovo is one of the most underrated cities in Europe, and it’s worth a visit on a trip to the Balkans.

Pristina Travel

Not many people travel to Kosovo. The capital, Pristina, isn’t exactly the first place that comes to mind when people think of visiting the Balkans. But then again, neither is Sarajevo or Skopje. And certainly not Tirana.

Given my Balkans travel itinerary had already covered so many unlikely capital cities, I didn’t hesitate to add Pristina to the list. So I traveled to Kosovo, my 78th country.

How to Get to Pristina, Kosovo

My bus left Skopje at 9am. It took a surprisingly short 25 minutes to get to the border of North Macedonia and Kosovo.

After crossing over, the driver accidentally left our passports with the Kosovo border authorities. He turned back to collect them, and I recovered from my near heart attack. The rest of our trip to Pristina took place without incident.

The remaining two hours took us through the beautiful Kosovo countryside.

We passed forested mountains, flat stretches of farmland, and more large construction plants and home improvement stores than I’ve ever seen. Kosovo was building and rebuilding.

Things to Do in Pristina

When I arrived in Pristina, I met the only other English speaker on the bus. We set off to explore the city together for the afternoon. My map was terrible and my new friend’s map was non-existent, so we relied on the locals for directions.

That meant meandering through a maze of communist-era apartment blocks and around several new buildings to get to a large street with no signs.

There we took a detour into a fruit and vegetable market in Pristina that sold bright blue plums, juicy peaches, and ripe bananas. It reminded me of the markets I’d seen in Ohrid and Skopje.

After visiting, we asked for more directions and headed up the busy road. Soon we found ourselves in another market in Pristina.

This one was on a wide pedestrianized street and featured everything from traditional clothing to regional foods. At the end there was an entire section dedicated to honey.

A bit farther up the street, we came across a fence covered in photos of people who had died in the war in Kosovo in the late 1990s.

It was a haunting reminder of Pristina’s past, and one of the only signs we saw that made us feel like we were in anything but a city that had been at peace for centuries.

Another reminder was the abundance of EU vehicles cruising the streets of Pristina. Bright blue and painted with the signature yellow stars, they could be seen driving up and down the busy roads as we walked along.

Speaking of walking, when we came to the end of the street we were on, we were lost again. We stopped a passer-by to ask for directions, and ended up having a long conversation with him.

He was French and married to a woman from Kosovo. He’d just returned to the capital after a year’s absence, and he couldn’t get over the fact that we were visiting the city for fun.

Pristina travel is usually related to business or foreign aid, and he was surprised tourism was starting to take off.

The Frenchman was helpful in telling us where we were (apparently we’d just walked down Boulevard Nena Tereze, one of the city’s main streets).

He suggested we walk around the nearby historic area and have an espresso macchiato. According to him, Kosovo has the best coffee in the world. He said even the Italians will admit it.

We took his advice, and settled into an outdoor table near two historic mosques on Zenel Salihu in Pristina. The coffee was as good as our unofficial guide said it would be.

It gave us energy to explore another huge fruit and vegetable market in the vicinity. In addition to produce, this market was full of everything from watches to washers.

Back on Boulevard Nena Tereze, we took our guide’s advice again and tracked down a bohemian cafe called Tingle Tangle with the help of a mother-daughter team we asked for directions.

The cafe was located on a hidden street behind the main pedestrian area, and was packed with Pristina’s artsy crowd.

We took a table outside and ordered raki, a spirit that’s a must-try in the region. The server said he’d just gotten a new kind of raki in stock, and brought a shot glass of it to the table.

He didn’t know the English word for the fruit that flavored it, but I think it was peach. Either way, it was good.

After enjoying the drinks and atmosphere at Tingle Tangle, our unofficial Pristina travel itinerary took us to a street called Bulevardi Bil Klinton. Yes, it was named after the former American president.

In fact, it wasn’t the only thing in Pristina named after an American institution. On the way to Bulevardi Bil Klinton, we passed Capitol Cafe, complete with a picture of the American capitol building in Washington, D.C. on it.

Elsewhere in Pristina we saw a hotel with a giant replica of the Statue of Liberty on top. It was nice to know there was still someplace in the world where people liked the US.

In fact, they really liked the US. Not far from the corner of Nena Tereze and Bil Klinton sat a giant statue of Bill Clinton in Pristina. It was surreal.

Pristina Travel Guide

After posing for photos with the former president, my new friend and I walked back to the bus station to catch the 3pm bus from Pristina to Skopje.

While my time in Kosovo had been short, I was really glad I’d decided to visit. Not many people visit Kosovo, but more people should. I hope this Pristina travel guide convinces you to do so.

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