Bradt North Macedonia Guidebook
The updated Bradt North Macedonia guidebook. Travel tips and expert advice featuring Skopje hotels and restaurants, Roman and Ottoman sights, monasteries and wineries. Also features Lake Ohrid, Kokino megalithic observatory, Lake Matka, Matka Gorge, Mavrovo, Treskavec, Kratovo, Monospitovo, Galičnik, Tetovo, Kruševo, tavernas, kayaking and hiking.
Size: 135 X 216 mm
Edition: 7
Number of pages: 376
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Bradt North Macedonia Guide
The latest edition of the only English-language guide to North Macedonia.
About this guide to North Macedonia
The updated Bradt North Macedonia guidebook, now in its seventh edition, remains the only standalone English-language guidebook from a mainstream publisher to this compact, intriguing and inexpensive destination. This Balkan country offers huge variety to travellers, brimming with historical interest, outdoor activities and authentic regional cuisine – and providing opportunities for discovery while getting away from the crowds.
The updated Bradt North Macedonia guidebook provides wide-ranging advice on what to see and do, and where to stay and eat:
- the country’s urban centrepiece is Skopje, with its wealth of Ottoman buildings, old bazaar, lively culinary scene, world-class museums (including one dedicated to Mother Theresa of Calcutta, who was born here) and contemporary art, while the Mount Vodno cable car provides grand aerial views of the capital;
- the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ohrid offers medieval churches beside Europe’s oldest major lake (formed four million years ago); and
- the ruined Roman city of Heraklea Linkestis delights with its well-preserved mosaics and old buildings.
North Macedonia is a great outdoors destination, with fertile valleys harbouring some of the world’s oldest vineyards contrasting with soaring forest-swathed mountain ranges offering fine trekking in summer and skiing in winter. Below the impressive Matka Gorge, Lake Matka excels for kayaking. Mavrovo National Park is one of the Balkans’ largest, offering scenic drives, hikes, and visits to Mijak hill villages like Galičnik. Discovered only in 2001, Kokino is the world’s fourth-oldest megalithic observatory, established 4,000 years ago. And if you need some downtime after all this exploration, why not relax in one of North Macedonia’s excellent thermal spa centres?
Above all, the updated Bradt North Macedonia guidebook celebrates the sense of connection and gentle pace of life that reward visitors. Tractors may outnumber cars on country roads; drive-throughs are non-existent, chain restaurants very nearly so. You won’t miss them, however, as you tear off a piece of burek (a savoury pastry), or sip thick coffee unchanged from Ottoman times. Throughout the country, welcoming family-run tavernas and lively pavement cafes serve authentic traditional cooking and locally produced Vranec wine and rakija (smooth fruit brandy). Explore, relax – and enjoy.
Contents
Introduction
PART ONE GENERAL INFORMATION
1 Background Information
2 Practical Information
PART TWO THE GUIDE
3 Skopje
4 Polog and Mavrovo
5 Lake Ohrid and Galicica National Park
6 Pelagonia, Prespa and Pelister
7 The Lower Vardar and Tikves Winelands
8 Stip, Strumica and the Southeast
9 Kumanovo and the Northeast Highlands
Appendices: Language; Glossary; Further Information
Index
About the authors
Thammy Evans’s first overseas trip was to Malaysia at the age of eight, and she has been dabbling in numerous foreign languages ever since, helping her to work and live outside the UK for 30 years. This included living and working in North Macedonia for five years as a political advisor to NATO HQ Skopje. The experience gave her a solid, wide-ranging understanding of the country, helping her write Bradt’s North Macedonia guidebook and Bradt’s Skopje e-guide. She has also written Bradt’s Great Wall of China guidebook and has co-authored Bradt’s Croatia: Istria.
Amber Charmei (ambercharmei.com) was a 15-year-old with a backpack and a tattered copy of Greece and Yugoslavia on $5 a Day when she touched down in Athens from downtown New York in 1981, sleeping on stacks of kilim rugs as she travelled around with her artist parents. For 25 years, she has lived in Thessaloniki, in northern Greece. Charmei visits nearby Northern Macedonia frequently, lured by the unspoiled wild beauty inviting hiking, followed by relaxing in naturally therapeutic hot springs. She loves the astonishing architectural variety of Skopje and its surprising contemporary arts scene. Above all, she visits North Macedonia for the evermore elusive experience of being in a truly unspoiled place, untouched by mass tourism, where the welcome is warm, the excellent rustic cuisine remains close to its roots, the ruby-red vranac wine flows, and the sense of authenticity remains wholly intact.