Coming into North Macedonia we really had to slow down our travels a bit as we both were getting quite tired. We only spent 2 weeks in North Macedonia and only visited two places: Ohrid and Skopje. But we did have a blast in North Macedonia and really enjoyed our time in this country. On this page you can read all our North Macedonia travel tips to make your trip great. For more tips and ideas, head to the bottom of this page, where you can find all our blog posts from North Macedonia.
North Macedonia is quite off the radar for many travellers, maybe also since it’s a landlocked country. However there is a beautiful big lake, Lake Ohrid, which is worth a visit.
In general we found North Macedonia very interesting and enjoyed very good food, beautiful nature and history. It’s a country I would love to come back to and travel to more places. It was also the cheapest country we visited in Balkans, food was extremely cheap and also accommodation. So it’s a great place for any budget traveler.
North Macedonia Travel Map
We only stayed at AirBnbs in North Macedonia – there was loads to choose from everywhere we went. In general there is a lot of good value accommodation around and as a couple it was easy to find apartments for a good price. We tried to stay for about €20-25 per night. We didn’t have to try hard or lower our standards to find good accommodation within our budget.
North Macedonian food is balkan food, but with a little more Greek influence. The food is very hearty and meat heavy. However, as with all balkan countries we did enjoy it a lot!
North Macedonia is a small land locked country, but you can still find quite diverse areas, with mountains, beautiful nature and lake side towns along lake Ohrid. North Macedonia is not super catered to tourism, but it’s a great place to enjoy local life, walking around, trying different food and coffee. In Skopje you will find lots of things to do as in any other capital city.
We went by bus everywhere in North Macedonia. It’s hard to find any information online about bus schedules, but easy when you’re on the ground, there is bus company offices where you can ask for a schedule. People was very helpful as well.
As the country is small the bus journeys are never very long.
Cost of Travel in North Macedonia
We try to live on a budget of €1000 per month per person, €2000 in total for the two of us each month, which leaves us with €66 per day.
We are not super cheap when we travel as we still want to experience the places we go to. We tend to choose accommodation where we can cook, at least breakfast. But we do not usually eat all our meals at home.
Below you can see how much we spent in each category. The total cost for 12 days for the two of us was €682, which ends up being €57 per day for the both of us, which is under budget. However, we didn’t travel around that much in North Macedonia and only visited two places.
- Accommodation: €271 39.8%
- Food: €284 41.5%
- Activities: €16 2.5%
- Travel: €34 5%
- Coffee: €20 3%
- Alcohol: €5 1%
- Miscellaneous: €51 7.5%
Categories Explained
Accommodation: we opt for places with a kitchen, where we have a private bathroom. We prefer staying in apartments and we usually do not go for the cheapest option, but still keeping it under midrange.
Food: in this category all restaurant visits and supermarket purchases are included. We try to keep this cost low but we really do enjoy trying local food. Included in this category is also drinks with dinner and lunch, we usually drink water or a soda to lunch and a beer or a glass of wine with dinner – however all alcohol drunk outside of meals is not included in this category. Restaurants are kept to budget and midrange places, we tend to go to a nicer restaurant about once a month to celebrate.
Activities: all actives are included in this category, such as museums, entrance fees to attractions etc. However, this tend to be low as we prioritise other parts of our travels.
Travel: this category includes all transport between places as well as within cities. Here we try to opt for the cheapest options. We only use taxi/uber when we need to and walk a lot within cities. The biggest part of this category is the busses we take between destinations.
Coffee: we love to try to find the best coffee places everywhere we go. Therefore we decided to have a coffee category which includes all coffee we drink except for the coffee we have for breakfast. We usually have one or two coffee stops per day.
Alcohol: all alcohol that is not consumed with a meal is added to this category. We are not big drinkers, but we do enjoy a beer or a glass of wine from time to time.
Miscellaneous: in this category we add things like toiletries, cigarettes, medicines, ATM charges, Sim cards + data etc.
All our blog posts from North Macedonia
What to do in Skopje
Our second and last stop in North Macedonia was Skopje. We didn’t know what to expect and was quite surprised by this eclectic city. Skopje pretty much has it all, historical old town, brutalist architecture and a renovated city centre filled with sculptures. And when...
What to do in Ohrid
We initially planned on staying a couple of nights in Ohrid, but kept on prolonging it and ended up staying for a week. We both fell in love with this little city situated by lake Ohrid. We stayed in an apartment just in the city centre close to the water, and enjoyed...
How to cross the land border between Albania and North Macedonia by foot
One of our most googled items during our travels through balkans was how to cross land borders between countries. Most of them were pretty straight forward, especially since we were on busses who knew which borders are open for foreigners etc. However, at one point we...