Lake Ohrid Travel

Today I want to bring you my Lake Ohrid travel guide. This lake in North Macedonia is home to the city of Ohrid, which is one of the most beautiful spots in the Balkans and one of the best places to visit in Europe. With rich history and stunning scenery, it’s worth a special trip.

Lake Ohrid is paradise. Straddling the border between Albania and North Macedonia in the Balkans, the ancient body of water lies at the base of green mountains and stone fortresses.

Its perimeter is dotted with cities and towns that are home to some of the most important churches in North Macedonian Orthodox history.

The most famous of the cities is aptly called Ohrid, and I was excited to enter my 77th country there.

How to Get to Lake Ohrid

If Lake Ohrid is paradise, traveling there from Tirana is exactly the opposite.

The bus company that sold me my ticket failed to mention that instead of taking the direct, two-hour route to Ohrid, the bus was going to drive all the way in the other direction first.

Yes, to get to Lake Ohrid I traveled way out to the city of Durresi on the coast, then traversed the entire country of Albania before reaching the border with North Macedonia.

By the time I got to Struga, the closest town to Ohrid, I’d been on the bus for five-and-a-half hours. While the Albanian countryside was scenic, it wasn’t five-and-a-half-hours scenic.

Where to Stay on Lake Ohrid

After sharing a taxi to the city with some fellow Americans I met on the bus, I staggered up a tiny cobblestone street to my accommodation in Ohrid, Villa and Winery Mal Sveti Kliment.

I’d been upgraded to the penthouse apartment, which consisted of a bedroom, a bathroom, and a large living room with a kitchen. The furniture was beautiful and the decor was unique to the region.

But the best part about the apartment was the view. The panoramic windows looked out onto Lake Ohrid, offering stunning vistas of orange tile rooftops and royal blue water.

Villa and Winery Mal Sveti Kliment was located on a quiet street right at the junction between the modern part of the city and the historic hillside where most of the sightseeing highlights were located. It was perfect.

Things to Do in Ohrid

After settling into my room, I took a walk into Ohrid. I started my stroll in the modern area, where there was a large pedestrianized shopping street. Stores sold everything from clothing to ice cream, and the place was bustling.

Farther away from the lake, I stumbled upon a 900-year-old plane tree with a massive trunk, as well as a farmers’ market laden with fresh fruits and vegetables, peppers in particular.

In fact, I didn’t even need to go to the market to find fresh fruit in Ohrid. There was fresh produce all over.

Every street I walked down had trees dripping with golden pears, ripe apples, big blackberries, and fat figs. Bright red peppers hung from windowsills, and the whole city had an aura of abundance.

As did the lake. After visiting the market, I walked along Lake Ohrid. As I did, I passed fishermen with their nets and saw tiny minnows swarming around ships in the harbor.

The high season had just ended, but there were still a few boats plying the route from Ohrid to Sveti Naum, a nearby 17th-century monastery.

With only a day and a half on Lake Ohrid, I didn’t have time for Sveti Naum. But it wasn’t a problem. The historic part of Ohrid was bursting with religious buildings.

Everything from 11th-century Catholic churches to icon-filled Orthodox ones and beautiful historic mosques graced the city.

On my second day in Ohrid, I explored some of these temples to the deities. I started at the tiny church with the big name, Sveta Bogorodica Bolnicka.

Originally used in the 14th century to quarantine visitors to Ohrid who might have carried the plague, the pint-sized place of piety was still a working church.

The historic frescoes were stunning, and the woodcarvings in the space above the altar were beautiful.

Speaking of frescoes, I soon moved onto the Sveta Sofija Cathedral, which had works of art dating back to the 11th century.

The church had been converted into a mosque during the Ottoman period, and hundreds of years of whitewashing the walls meant the Christian art underneath was remarkably intact. It was breathtaking.

From there I walked along a boardwalk and beside several beach-side restaurants to reach the end of Ohrid. High on a hill overlooking the lake sat the 13th-century church of Sveti Jovan at Kaneo.

Its umbrella-like dome was reminiscent of the Armenian style, and while its interior was a bit bare, its stunning architecture and beautiful views across Lake Ohrid more than compensated for it.

A set of stairs led up another hill from there, and as I climbed them the way became a walking trail. Soon I found myself in the middle of an enchanted pine forest.

Continuing, I came across a castle. Built long ago to protect Ohrid from enemy invaders, the walls of Car Samoil’s Fortress now act as a great vista point.

Retracing my steps a bit, I meandered over to the majestic modern church of Sveti Kliment i Pantelejmon. While it was built in recent times, it sat right next to a 4th-century one with beautiful Roman mosaics and a baptismal font.

Another Roman creation in the area was an amphitheater. Uncovered in 1984, the classical semi-circle was repurposed for concerts and shows in Ohrid.

Not far from there was the stunning city gate, which was just a few steps away from the famous 13th-century church of Sveti Kliment.

This particular church was so rich in historic art and iconography I could have stayed for hours taking it all in. It was one of the most stunning interiors I’ve ever seen.

After I’d made a pilgrimage to all the famous churches in Ohrid, I spent time meandering up and down the cobblestone streets.

I passed in and out of an art gallery, a restaurant or two, and a paper-making studio with what the proprietor said was one of two official copies of the original Gutenberg printing press (the other being in Bled, Slovenia, another place with a stunning lake that reminded me a lot of Ohrid).