Pick up at Skopje Airport. Accommodation in a hotel in Skopje. Orientation walk and time at your leisure. We will have a welcoming dinner in the restaurant of the winery Kamnik with wine tasting. Transfer back to the hotel. Overnight.
Breakfast. After breakfast, we will start a walking tour, from the old Kale – Skopje fortress. We will continue to the Old Turkish Bazaar, mingling with the locals, meeting different cultures and religions, and seeing old forgotten crafts. After that, we will go to the Museum of Macedonian National Struggle, with possibilities to visit the Archaeological Museum of Macedonia as well. We will walk across the Stone Bridge, the landmark of the city, and admire the biggest monument and fountain of Alexander the Great. The next stop will be the Memorial house of Mother Teresa. She was born in Skopje in 1910. In the afternoon, we will visit the monastery St. Panteleimon. For dinner, we will drive to the winery Chateau Sopot. There, we will taste wines from the Povardarie region and enjoy their perfect cuisine. The winery representative will take us through the cellars and the winery and give us a presentation of the different varieties of their wine. Transfer back to the hotel. The Chateau Sopot is located in the surroundings of Veles Lake, between the valleys and the fertile uplands of the wine region of Veles. This winery is one of the Macedonian chateaux, that is living its wine fairytale in the book called Macedonia.
Breakfast. We are driving to Kratovo (95 km), a small medieval town founded in the middle of a once-volcano crater. First, we will have a guided walking tour around the town, crossing many medieval bridges and towers. We will see a unique small museum with artifacts dating all the way back from the 20th century B.C. till nowadays. Then, we will have a chance to taste slowly-cooked food by the locals and a chance to taste the local homemade wine and rakija (Macedonian brandy). After that, we will drive towards Berovo (110 km). Accommodation in a hotel. Dinner in a local national restaurant. Overnight.
Breakfast. We will drive to the biggest archaeological site in Macedonia-Stobi. The oldest synagogue in Europe, from the 1 st century A.D. is found here. We will continue driving to the next winery that has the same name as the archaeological site, Stobi winery. We will take an organized tour around the winery, then we will have lunch and a possibility to taste some of the wines from this well-known winery. We will drive back to the hotel. Overnight in the hotel.
Breakfast. We will drive towards the biggest and the oldest winery in Macedonia, and one of the biggest in Europe, the winery Tikvesh. The professionals from the winery will take us through the cellars, they will tell us the history of the winery and the whole winemaking process. We will then have a chance to taste some of their wine in the winery restaurant in a beautiful atmosphere with some specialties cooked from their chef especially for us. We will continue to the town of UNESCO – Ohrid. Accommodation and overnight in a hotel.
Breakfast. Start of the Ohrid City Tour. Ohrid is one of the oldest towns in Europe, full of history with traces of four thousand years of civilization. We will visit famous medieval churches, the fortress of Tsar Samuel with a beautiful panorama, the ancient Macedonian-Roman theatre, sailing with small boats on the way back to the center. In the afternoon we will take a boat trip to the unique prehistoric settlement on water from the bronze age, the most visited site in Macedonia, Bay of the bones. We will have a guided tour through the place by the professional curator. We will continue sailing to the extraordinary monument of nature – the lake springs, and the monastery of St. Naum from the 9th century. One of the first inscriptions of the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabet was found in this monastery and the original tablets are still standing at the pillars there. Free time. Sailing back to the town. Dinner in a national restaurant. Overnight in the hotel.
Breakfast at the hotel. We will drive to the ethnically and religiously mixed town Tetovo to visit the unique Colourful Mosque, painted from outside and inside in different colors, presenting paintings of towns and cities from the 19th century, a kind of a Renaissance in the Islamic world. After that, close to the capital Skopje, we will visit one of the most beautiful canyons in Europe – Matka, with the river Treska. We will set sail by small boats 6 km upstream to visit the cave Vrelo, full of natural cave decorations. Accommodation in a hotel. Farewell dinner in a national restaurant with mixed types of wines.
Breakfast at the hotel. Free time. Driving to the International Airport Skopje, about 40 minutes from the hotel.