The fact that both the lake and the town of Ohrid are under the protection of UNESCO should say enough. Lake Ohrid is one of the oldest in the world and the town itself is precious. The Galicica National Park, located between Lake Ohrid and Lake Prespa, is around the corner and offers good opportunities for hiking.
The main sights of Ohrid can be seen within a day. A convenient tour that takes you in a circle along the most interesting sites is described in my Ohrid City Tour with GPS, or download a PDF with a free self-guided City Walk of Ohrid.
But remember, Ohrid and surroundings have more to offer than these tours and one day is probably not enough for you! Tired of all the walking and sightseeing? Lake Ohrid has quite some nice beaches!
In the evenings, people stroll up and down the quay along the lake. During the day, water-taxi’s offer their services here, for instance to admire the Church of St Jovan on the cliffs at Kaneo from the water.
In the middle of the central square Krusevska Republika in Ohrid, near the fountain, there is a supposedly 900-year-old plane tree. This tree is locally know as “Cinar”. They say that the hollow trunk of the tree has housed a barber’s shop and later a very small cafe!
Another old plane tree, the 600 year old Voska Cinar, can be found at the street Goce Delchev, near the Voska Amam.
Churches and mosques in Ohrid
They say Ohrid used to have 365 churches, one for each day of the year. Nowadays, there are still a lot of churches. The most famous one is St Jovan, on a magnificent location on the cliffs overseeing Lake Ohrid. The Cathedral of St Sofia often hosts concerts during the Ohrid Summer Festival . You can read here more about the churches and mosques in Ohrid.
Monastery of St Naum
The famous Monastery of St Naum is located 30 km to the south, at the other side of Lake Ohrid. You can combine a visit to the Monastery of St Naum with several other activities along the way, such as visiting the springs, a drive through Galicica National park with amazing views of the lake, the Bay of the Bones Museum, hiking, several cave churches or the sandy beach of the Sveti Naum campsite near the village Lubanishta. See the following link for more info: Monastery of St Naum and other sights along the way.
Landmarks, excavations and ruins
There are quite a lot of excavations, ruins and other landmarks to be found in Ohrid. Examples are Tsar Samuel’s fortress that dominates the hill on which Ohrid was built, the clock tower, the three remaining Gates of the Town Wall, the archeological site Plaosnik as well as ruins of churches. You can read more about these sites here: Landmarks, excavations and ruins.
Museums, monuments and statues
An overview of Ohrid’s museums and monuments can be found here: Museums, monuments and statues
Restaurants in Ohrid
Restaurants in Macedonia usually do not offer “haute cuisine” but serve substantial meals which often are build around “skara”, grilled meat. The restaurants in Ohrid fortunately are no exception, since a good mixed grill makes me very happy! Meals are very affordable and you can leave the restaurant more than satisfied for under 10 euros. A good meal starts with an appetizer (ordever or hors d’oeuvre) of local products and a small glass of rakija. A freshly prepared Shopska salad (tomotoes, cucumber, onions, peppers and white cheese) is almost a must! So if you are hungry from all the sightseeing or care for a good grill after a lazy day at the beach, check out the restaurants in Ohrid!
Ohrid Market
In the center of Ohrid and near the Krusevska Republika Square (with the 900-year old tree) there is a food market. Good to know if you have a self-catering apartment since in the supermarkets vegetables are hard to find! Besides fruit and vegetables you can buy a lot of other items for in and around the house.
Have you seen the light?
If you have been to Ohrid, you must have seen them: the lamps in the shape of the famous Ohrid architecture houses. Believe it or not, I have been looking where to buy these lamps since 2008. The old versions were likely over 80 years old, which was why nobody could remember who manufactured them. In 2016, most of the old lamps had been replaced with shiny new versions. The new version of the lamps is made by a company called Pap. However, once we saw the lamp from up-close (and not hanging high up in the air), we realized that it was rather big! About 40×40 cm. We spoke to the people of Pap and they told us that they were thinking of manufacturing a smaller version for people’s houses. The big lamp would cost around 100 euros. This would be such a good souvenir! Next time we are in Ohrid, we will certainly check if they actually made a smaller version. Interested? See http://www.pap.com.mk/
Duvalo Volcano in Kosel
The only active volcano on the Balkans can be found about 7 km from Ohrid, in the village Kosel along the road from Ohrid to Resen and Bitola. There is a sign along the road that points to the volcano. Volcano probably isn’t the right word, because it never erupted. See the Kosel page for more information.
Samotska Dupka Cave
During a hike through Galicica National Park from the village Elshani to Konjsko in 2014 we passed the Samotska Dupka Cave. Unfortunately, the cave was closed with a fence and it was impossible to enter. In 2024 we tried again during a hike from Dva Javaora to the Samotska Dupka cave and we found the cave open and accessible.
Meckina Dupka or Bear Cave
In 2019 I read about the existence of the Meckina Dupka (Bear Cave), and had been searching online for its exact location without any luck. Coincidentally, when I took a taxi after a hike during which I had located the Krstova, Naumova and Crna Pesht caves, Ilce the taxi driver told me he had played as a kid in the Bear Cave. So instead of taking me back to my accommodation in Ohrid, we went together to visit the Bear Cave near Ohrid. It was only a short walk of 400 m and 50 m uphill from where we parked his taxi.
The cave used to be locked with a fence to protect the bats living there, but the fence was now open (or broken). We both entered the small cave, which involved some crawling through the small entrance. The taxi driver commented that his wife would kill him for making his clothes dirty. According to him it would be possible to descend deeper into the cave through the narrow hole at the end, which allegedly would lead to a plateau in the cave. However, the hole was very small and I decided to maybe come back another time. You can contact me if you would like to have the exact location of this cave.
See here for more caves in the neighborhood of Ohrid.
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