1 destination · 10 things to do

North Macedonia

North Macedonia packs two very different cities and one deep, ancient lake into a country you can cross in a morning. Skopje is the capital: an Ottoman bazaar of stone hans and mosques on the east bank of the Vardar, a hilltop fortress above it, a river of bronze statues in the new centre, and the vast Millennium Cross lit above the city on Mount Vodno, with the green walls of Matka Canyon a short ride upstream. About three hours south-west, Ohrid sits on one of Europe's oldest lakes, a UNESCO World Heritage town of terracotta roofs, lakeside walkways and Byzantine churches, from the cliff-top chapel of St. John at Kaneo to the hilltop walls of Samuel's Fortress and the springs of Sveti Naum at the Albanian border. This guide books the useful things properly, from a Matka Canyon morning and a Skopje street food crawl to a lake boat trip and a day on the Sveti Naum road, and tells you honestly what is seasonal in November. It then matches you to a hotel in the right neighbourhood, from the Marriott on Macedonia Square to a lakeside guesthouse a couple of minutes from Ohrid's old town.