Visiting Macedonia
Our daughter is serving in Macedonia with the Peace Corps and we are planning a trip in 2013. We are thinking of arriving by plane, renting a car and visiting Macedonia with a side trip to Dubrovnik. Has anyone done this and is willing to offer any advice or warnings?
Roger from Cincinnati.
Roger
Montgomery, OH USA 10/27/12
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I spend a little bit of time there over a decade ago, so I'm holding out the possibilities that things may have changed in the interim. Wasn't my favorite country. There's some nice mountain scenery- from a distance. Get a little closer, and you see a lot of poorly maintained infrastructure. The capital, Skopje, is the ugliest and most depressing capital city I've seen in Europe. I've heard that Lake Ohrid is nice, but I never made it there myself.
In June I met someone from Macedonia who works in the tourist industry. He said to wait 2-3 years to visit, they are working on infrastructure and tourist sites but they aren't "there" yet. Maybe daughter can take time off and meet you somewhere else?
BTW, when I was there, every effort was being made by what counted as a "tourism industry" to direct me towards the "Alexander the Great Palace Casino". Sorry, I didn't bite.
We visited Macedonia in 2011. I liked it because it wasnt touristy. We only stayed a few days, but enjoyed our stay. Lake Orhid was beautiful. They were and are still in the process of doing a lot of improvements to Skopje. I also found that the roads i travelled on were very nice and well kept. We travelled roundtrip by car from Montenegro (close to Dubrovnik) to Skopje and it took at least 12 to 13 hours, we were told it was only 6-7 hours. On the way there we went towards Kosovo and then over to Macedonia, the return trip we traveled towards Albania and then back over to Montenegro. I preferred the trip thru Lake Orhid and Albania.
I did a road trip through this region in late 2011. I would second visiting Lake Ohrid - that's really one of my favorite towns in the area. I drove to Dubrovnik directly from Ohrid, transiting Albania, Montenegro to get there, so it was a pretty long day. However, I would have liked to stop in Kotor, Montenegro, I just didn't have time. Once you are in Dubrovnik, there are just a ton of things near there, Split, Mostar, Sarejevo, western Serbia, etc. All depends on where you want to go. Another option is some sort of clockwise trip Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria. You could even go up into Hungary or Czech depending on how much time you have. It is all so close together in that area.
As far as renting a car goes that is going to be your biggest problem. It is highly unlikely anyone is going to let you take a rental car across borders. Especially into Albania. You are going to need to either fly, take the bus, or buy a car. The last option is in my opinion best - that is what I have done in the past. Especially if you have someone on the ground there already, you can throw several thousand dollars at buying a decent used car, get it registered and insured, drive it around for the duration of your stay, and then sell it at the tail end. I would be willing to bet this would be cheaper than renting and less hassle as you would get most of your money back. And I just cannot emphasize enough how much better it is to have a car - there are so many places to see and so much off the beaten path that you miss a lot without a car.
The only other warning I would have is this part of the world is driving is less forgiving of inattention than most parts of Europe, especially on rural roads and in big cities, and doubly so in Tirane. But if you drive with a high level of alertness and pay attention to things in three dimensions you will be fine. Also don't make the mistake of thinking the driving doesn't make sense - there are unwritten rules that vary from country to country which people are following. If you pay attention, don't immediately assume people are crazy, and look for the pattern you will pick up on the system quickly. Things that appear dangerous at first glance - e.g. passing at high speed down the center of a two lane highway against oncoming traffic - actually have specific rules that once you understand them all of a sudden you realize what looked haphazard and dangerous is predictable and relatively safe - in fact probably the most unsafe element is you as a novice driver.