Paragliding off a mountain above Lake Ohrid, three hours kayaking into cliff caves, and the best steak I have ever eaten in a village nobody has heard of. Everything you’d go to the coast for, without the sand. £2,000 all-in, for a week, for three of us, flights included.

Nobody tells you that paragliding is a sitting-down sport.

I had pictured hanging out of a harness with my legs swinging about. What actually happens is that you sit in a seat, strapped in facing forwards, with an instructor sitting behind you doing all the work. It might have been more comfortable than the plane we came out on.

Then the ground goes, you rise rapidly, and everything is suddenly a long way below. Lake Ohrid is the view, the trees below you seem minuscule. The lake is thirty kilometres long, large enough that part of the coastline is another country — Albania — and you can’t see the far end of it properly. The old town shrinks into a small brown-roofed triangle sticking out into the water. There are mountains all round, cupping the lake in a valley. There is no engine anywhere and nothing attached to you, so it is almost silent, only the wind and commentary from the instructor.

You don’t jump off anything. The canopy comes up behind you and pulls you backwards a step or two while it takes up the slack, and then you run forwards down the slope as hard as you can. You don’t run for long. The wind does nearly all of it. One moment you are running and the next your legs are still going and there is nothing under them.

That is also why we didn’t fly on the first day. The wind has to come up the face of the hill so that it fills the canopy and lifts it. That afternoon it was coming from behind us, which flattens the canopy instead, and Sasho wouldn’t take us up. We drove back down without flying and went up again early the next morning, when it was right.

For ourselves, and most people I know who’ve done anything like this before, it was behind a speedboat on a rope. That is a different thing altogether. You get a hundred feet or so, you go where the boat goes, and you come down when the driver decides. This is off a mountain with nothing holding you, and you stay up for as long as the air lets you.

It cost €89 each, but with a 10% discount for three, so about £70, and another €20 for the photos and video. Dad thinks it would have cost about the same for one of us elsewhere as it did for all three here. The other reason for doing it here is the landscape and the views along Lake Ohrid. Paragliding is the thing all three of us mention if we are talking about the trip.

Fergus (11): “I’m not good with flights and I was nervous going up. Once we left the ground I wasn’t scared at all, which surprised me. It felt really nice, just floating. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing and I’d do it again tomorrow.”

We both had GoPros in our hands the whole way down, so there are some great pictures and videos to bring it to life.

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That was the Thursday morning. Here is how we got there.

We had seven nights, a hire car and a loop that starts and ends in Skopje: down to a canyon, up into the mountains, across to Lake Ohrid, then back north through two Roman cities. Swimming, paddling, boats and sun, all the things you go to the seaside for, without a single grain of sand in the car.

Skopje

We landed at quarter past seven, picked up the car, and headed into town to meet our first host, Tarik. We got the keys, dumped the bags and headed straight back out with Tarik showing us some of the main streets nearby and suggesting places to eat. So we saw a decent amount of the middle of Skopje before the first proper day even started.

The Old Bazaar was mostly shut by then and almost empty. Our apartment was on the first floor above a shop, on a street with cafés and locals eating outside them at ten at night. We asked for a recommendation but ended up eating at a kebab place on the square, to eat quickly and also take in the streets around us. It was very good and it was the first of many times that week that the bill turned out to be about a third of what it would have been at home.

The next morning the same streets were completely different. Shops open, people everywhere, particularly along Gold Street, which is exactly what it sounds like and is a whole street of jewellers.

The thing you cannot miss in central Skopje is the statues. They are enormous, there are dozens of them, and they are all over the bridges and the square. Chief amongst them is a huge statue of Alexander the Great.

We did two stops that morning. The Mother Teresa Memorial House is on the site where she was born and only a ten minute walk away. The building is nice, with doves worked into the design, but the upper floor was closed off and the ground floor is mostly an open meeting space, so there isn’t much in it.

Walk over there anyway, because the Church of Saints Constantine and Helena is right next to it. It is modern and covered in decoration, with a roof shaped more like a Russian church than anything in England, and it is sitting in the middle of completely ordinary city-centre office and shop buildings. Go inside, where it’s beautifully decorated.

Dad: “The Church was the best building we saw in Skopje. It’s totally out of context with everything around it, and that’s exactly what makes it stand out.”

Kale Fortress is free, has a good view over the city and takes twenty minutes. The ruins themselves are simple. It’s not yet presented, maintained or restored like you might see in other touristy cities.

Matka Canyon

Half an hour out of Skopje and it stops looking like a city very quickly. Matka is a steep-sided gorge with a dammed river running through it, and the water is properly blue.

The plan had been to kayak up the canyon to Vrelo Cave. We got there, everyone we spoke to said it was too far, and so we took the boat instead. The cave was twenty minutes in a motor boat, so I’d say they are right. You can kayak in the blue water at the start of the canyon, but we decided to save that for another day.

Vrelo is worth the trip. Nobody has ever established how deep it actually goes, and it is thought to be one of the deepest caves in Europe and possibly in the world. The part you can get into is lit well enough to see the whole roof, with stalactites coming down, one enormous one in the middle that they call the Pine Cone, and still water on the floor. It doesn’t feel scrubbed up or over-managed. Fergus got some very good photographs in there.

Two hours at Matka is enough. It also meant we could arrive in Mavrovo before it was dark.

Mavrovo

Mavrovo is a mountainous national park and, in winter, a ski resort. The summer side of it is only just starting up. We didn’t find bike hire, or easy kayak hire, or rafting, and we didn’t actually see anyone out on the lake. What there is instead is beautiful scenery, hill walking, mountain roads, a waterfall, a monastery and time.

We had a lie-in and a slow day, and after two days of travelling it was the right call.

The reason people come to the town of Mavrovo is the old Church of St Nicholas, which stands half sunk in the lake. It is barely signposted and it doesn’t come up properly on Google Maps, because the newer St Nicholas Church nearby wins the search. We drove past it several times before working out where it was.

It is derelict, standing in the water with the front door hanging open so you can see straight through into the flooded inside. There were horses wandering round it while we were there, which is not what you expect at the most photographed building in the valley.

Fergus: “It was very cool and a little bit spooky. The horses made it feel even more unusual.”

The new church up above the waterfront is the exact opposite, modern and beautifully done, and worth twenty minutes on its own. You can see both in about half an hour and they are five minutes apart.

Duf Waterfall and Bigorski Monastery are not in Mavrovo. They are about fifty minutes’ drive away, down the Radika valley, and the drive is genuinely part of the day rather than something to endure.

We started with lunch at Bigorski Anovi, just below the monastery. A nice place, busy, including a couple of coach parties, with great views.

Getting to the waterfall takes you along a well marked country path, and that walk is part of what makes it a worthwhile visit. There are smaller cascades on the way up and the noise gets steadily louder before you see it.

St Jovan Bigorski is a working monastery built into the side of the valley, founded in 1020. The carved wooden iconostasis inside it is the sort of thing you look at for a while before you understand how much work it is. It is walnut, every panel is a scene from the Bible with animals and birds worked in around them, and it took a family of local carvers six years to finish. Then we drove back over the mountains.

And then the dinner. We ate twice at Mavrovski Merak, just a few minutes from where we were staying. Half the places nearby were shut, so it was partly forced choice and we were not expecting much. Maybe the low expectations helped, but it was brilliant.

The steak is on display in a dry aging fridge and you order it by the 100g. Dad ordered 500g and it arrived in the grill pan it had been cooked in, still sizzling, already sliced. Garlic butter, whole cloves of garlic, rosemary and rock salt on top, and rare in the middle. It is the best steak I have ever eaten. Fergus says the same and he has said it about four times since we got home.

Ohrid

Ohrid is the reason to come to North Macedonia. If you only have a few days, spend them here rather than in Skopje. It’s more used to tourists and costs a little bit more, but for that you get the lake, the mountains, the old town, the restaurants and every activity all in one place.

The town is winding lanes, cobbled and pebbled, going up a hill above the water, with very old churches sitting between restaurants and shops. St John at Kaneo is the one you will have seen without knowing where it was: a small stone church on a cliff directly above the lake, with the water on three sides of it. We walked back round to that side more than once. Samuel’s Fortress is up above the whole thing.

Our apartment was almost on the water, with balconies looking straight down the lake and parking outside the door, which matters more than it sounds in the old town. Ana who runs it messaged before we arrived with directions and was around most days with recommendations.

Fergus: “You felt like you were right in the town and right beside the lake at the same time.”

Being the busiest place we went is also what made it the easiest. Ohrid has enough operators that a plan falling through in the morning can turn into something else the same afternoon.

When the paragliding was called off on our first afternoon, the team lent us their paddleboards at Cuba Libre for nothing, so we spent the rest of the day on the lake instead of sulking about the wind. They did it again two days later, when there were three boards, so Dad came out as well.

Three hours on the lake

We’d booked to scuba-dive at Bay of Bones, which is an archaeological site, so you would be diving over a submerged Bronze Age settlement. The instructor went out early that morning, found algae had cut the visibility to almost nothing, and cancelled every dive of the day.

So we kayaked instead, and it turned out to be one of the best things we did all week.

It was set up the night before. Dad emailed Michel, who hires kayaks near Ohrid, at about ten at night. He replied within minutes, moved it onto WhatsApp and had it arranged in about five. It was a national holiday so he wasn’t guiding himself, and he knocked money off for that. Three kayaks came to around €50.

We were out for three hours and I would have stayed out longer. Away from the algae round Bay of Bones the water is crystal clear. The lake is so big, and any traffic so spread out, that you feel like you have it to yourself. We saw a few motor boats heading for Bay of Bones and that was it.

The cliffs on the near side come straight down into the water and there are small caves cut into them at the waterline. You can paddle into them, sit inside and listen to the noise change.

Then Bay of Bones, arriving at it from the water. It is a full-size reconstruction of a Bronze Age village built out over the lake on wooden stilts, with wattle-and-daub huts and platforms joined together above the surface. Most people were arriving at it by road, parking and walking down. Arriving by water made us feel like adventurers, and more connected to a village of people who lived on the water.

We didn’t swim. It was late May and the water was colder than any of us fancied.

If you take one thing out of this whole article, take the kayaking.

Galičica, Bitola and two Roman cities

There are two ways from Ohrid to Bitola. There is the fast road, and there is the road over Galičica National Park. From where we dropped the kayaks the mountain road added about ten minutes. It climbs past the paragliding launch, goes over the top and comes down the far side with another lake, Prespa, out in the distance. Take that one. Ten minutes is not a real decision.

Bitola is a one-night stop and one night is right. There are churches, statues and a canal, and Široko Sokak, the long pedestrian street, was busy on the Friday evening we walked it. What Bitola really does is put you twenty minutes from Heraclea in the morning and on the road to Stobi afterwards.

The apartment was the best value of the entire trip. From outside the building looks like nothing at all. Inside it had been completely refurbished, with more space than we needed, for about £28 for the three of us.

Heraclea Lyncestis is just outside town and it is the better of the two Roman sites. There are floor mosaics made of thousands of tiny coloured tiles, some of them still sharp enough to make out the animals, and a theatre with the stage still there. Stobi, further north, is bigger and gives you a whole street plan rather than a set of buildings.

Both have information boards with QR codes that play a proper audio guide in your own language. That is the difference between looking at some Roman ruins, similar to what we have seen in a few places including St Albans, and learning a bit more about those sites and why they mattered within the Roman Empire.

Fergus: “I liked being able to walk through it and see how much of the Roman city was still there, rather than only looking at things in a museum.”

Lunch in Bitola was two large pizzas and three drinks for 820 denar. Under £12.

The last night, and getting home

The final apartment in Skopje was a modern high-rise about ten minutes out of the centre, with a pool, sauna and steam room, shops and restaurants downstairs and free parking, for about €55. After a week of driving it was the right way to end. The host showed us round and left drinks and fruit out for us.

We watched the Champions League final in a bar downstairs.

On the last morning we went back into town for the Archaeological Museum, which had been shut on the Monday. It is much better at the end of a week than it would have been at the start, because by then we’d been to Heraclea, Stobi and Bay of Bones and could connect it all. Then we drove up for the Mount Vodno cable car and it was shut, with a notice overriding the published times.

At roughly the same moment the hire car put an amber engine light on the dashboard and briefly refused to reverse.

Fergus: “That made me a bit uncomfortable, but we’d allowed enough time.”

We went to the airport early just in case of problems with the car. Normally there would have been time for something else. We washed the car on the way for about £2 so nobody could argue about marks on it. That was fun, a really modern power wash where you do it yourself. The warning light cleared after a few restarts. Interways took it back without a word.

Out was direct. Back was via Frankfurt Hahn, landing at Stansted at ten to one in the morning. That wasn’t an accident. It was a good deal cheaper, and it was the only way to get the day home we wanted, because there are not many direct flights to pick from. But the connection felt uncomfortably tight while we were standing in the passport queue. We weren’t expecting to make it in time, and were realising there were no other options that night. It was fine in the end. If your dates and your budget both allow a direct flight home, take it. If they don’t, this is a reasonable trade rather than a mistake, but we’d put up with a longer wait for the transfer over the stress of a tight one.

Dad: “Out of curiosity, we checked the price for the same three of us to stay at great resort we’ve stayed at before in Turkey, for comparison. Two weeks later, away from school holidays, it was showing about €7,990 for the week, and that was the accommodation and dining on its own, before flights.”

Practical things worth knowing

Get an eSIM before you go. One was enough for three of us, because Fergus and I tethered to Dad’s phone. Constant data is the thing that makes loose planning possible.

Use a card that converts automatically. There are a lot of small tolls, often well under £1 each. On a normal card the foreign transaction fee can be bigger than the toll.

Cards work almost everywhere, including for tiny amounts, but two decent cash withdrawals covered the apartments paid in cash, most meals and the paragliding.

Buy cereal and milk for the apartments. Cheap, and it means you are not tied to a hotel breakfast time or hunting for somewhere every morning.

Everything is written in Cyrillic, so give yourself a minute with signs and menus.

People smoke a lot, inside and on outdoor terraces too. Sitting outside it’s fine, but you still notice the smell.

Late May is a very good time to go. Everything was open and operators still had enough slack to sort things out at a day’s notice. In July or August you’d probably need to book activities in advance.

Don’t trust the map app completely. The submerged church is the obvious one, but Ana also had to come out and guide us through the last few streets in Ohrid.

Planning your own week

Leave the activities until you get there. Book the flights, the car and the beds as normal, then sort the paragliding, the diving and the kayaking a day or two ahead, once you can see the weather. In late May everyone had room to fit us in at short notice. It is what got us the paragliding at all, and it is why a cancelled dive turned into three hours of kayaking instead.

Give Ohrid three nights if you can. We did two in Mavrovo and two in Ohrid, and the slow days in Mavrovo were worth having after two days of travelling. If you would rather be doing things than looking at things, take one night off Mavrovo and put it here, because Ohrid is where everything is.

Keep the Bitola night even though the town doesn’t need a full day. It puts Heraclea within twenty minutes in the morning and Stobi on the road north afterwards, and it was the cheapest bed of the week.

Take the Galičica road from Ohrid to Bitola rather than the fast one. Ten minutes for a mountain pass and a second lake is not a real decision.

Buy cereal and milk on the first day. It sounds like nothing. It is the difference between a relaxed morning and a hunt for breakfast in a town you don’t know yet.

Would we recommend it?

Go, and go to the lake instead of the coast.

You get the swimming, the paddling, the boats and the sun. You also get a Roman city an hour inland, a monastery in a mountain valley, a church standing in a lake with horses round it, and a steak I am still thinking about. It cost us about a quarter of a resort week and none of it involved sand.

Do the paragliding. Do the kayaking. Give Ohrid three nights.

One last thing…

Dad put the whole week into a reel. It does the colour of the lake better than I have managed to, and it is a lot quicker than reading all of this.

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