We have a friend who's working with the UN in Kosovo for a couple of years and are curious if any posters or lurkers have any reasonably recent experience with travel to Skopje and/or beyond. Accommodations? Conditions? Our pal's in Pristina and can get to Skopje with relative ease, so we thought we'd head in that direction (late April probably) for a rendezvous. Sally Fowler, don't you go to that neck of the woods fairly often? Any advice will be appreciated. We're not overly nervous about travel in troubled areas, BTW, but we're not going out of the way to find excitement.
Macedonia & Kosovo
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I hope Sally doesn't mind me touting her fabulous Skopj pages on Virtual Tourist. Take a look: http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/21927/6e596/ All the info (and pictures) you could ever want.
Sorry I missed this. I'd also recommend my Pristina pages -- also at Virtual Tourist. My user name there is shrimp56
Between Pristina & Skopje is fine -- but beyond that you are better off with someone local. By "fine" I mean in the daylight and as things are now. I've had delays at the border and delays in traffic but it seems to take about 1 1/2 hrs by car no matter where the delays are!!
We'll be back there this summer. I'll update then.
I returned home in June after living in Kosovo for a year and the road conditons can be dangerous. I drove all over the Balkans and saw many accidents. You will encounter military checkpoints and police roadblocks while driving so carry proper id and paperwork.
The border can be tedious, so be patient. There are excellent restaurants in Skopje to dine and the food is very cheap. The area by the river is really scenic with many shops, bars, etc. to bide your time.
There are a few historical sites in Skopje but I would head to Northern Greece. I got from the Macedonia border to the Greek border in under 2 hours. Head to Pella and Vergina if you love history. It's the area where Alexander the Great was born and it's interesting, for sure.
I spent a weekend in Thessaloniki and it's a great place to unwind. There are many Roman sights to see and some decent museums. I stayed in a holiday inn for under $75, so rooms aren't too costly.
Other options from Skopje are Sofia, Bulgaria, a nice city with a rich communist history and the Northern Greek isles such as Corfu.
Have a good trip!!