Charming lake Prespa

In the most beautiful environment, everything light blue, sun shining, happy children running around, people laying under shadows avoiding the burning sun, taking cooling brakes in the sparkling, crystal clear water. Only astounding nature where ever your eyes can see.

Our small friend group went on a weekend trip to lake Prespa. Because of the unusual circumstances with the pandemic we preferred to choose a place that is in Macedonia, so we decided to drive to Ljubojno, which is a lovely small village in southern Macedonia, close to Greece border, where we stayed over the weekend.

The place is in higher altitude, so it is a fantastic change in the weather compared to Skopje, fresh, cooler air in the middle of the nature. Our plan was to go to a beach nearby called Slivnica because our local host recommended it to have less people than in other beaches and social distancing would be easier to implement. Once we arrived there, it was quite clear that other people were probably thinking the same because the parking lot was full of cars. After finding a proper parking spot our mission was to find sun beds, which proved to be harder than the parking because the beach was full of people and all the sun beds were already taken. The beach area was divided in two sides from which the other one was clearly too full to have a safe distance from people. But finally, we managed to find space for us to sit down and enjoy the day.

The beach is amazing, I think that I have never swam in such a beautiful place. The water is light blue and crystal clear, temperature just right to give a nice cool brake from the hot summer weather. In the shore the water is low, you need to walk quite a bit to get to deep enough to swim but at the same time the beach is very child friendly in that way, especially when there is no life guards in sight. What is making the view perfect, is of course the mountain surroundings, which keep on amazing especially us who are not used to them. The mountains are not so high but there are so many of them, everywhere you turn your head there is more mountains. The sand is smooth like being by the seaside, which apparently is exceptional in here. “This is much better than the rocky and crowded beaches in lake Ohrid” said our friend from Skopje while we were drinking ice coffee in the beach restaurant. Happy surprise was also that there was not too much garbage around. The atmosphere of the whole place was pleasant despite the too loud and not so good playlist the restaurant was playing.

In addition, the area is great for hiking, there you can find monasteries and rural sights, a night sky full of stars, charming old stone houses in small villages with beautiful gardens, surprising restaurants, and friendly people. Definitely a place worth visiting if you want a peaceful and not so touristic experience. There are some organized tours to the area, if you got interested, check them out.

Kirsi Suomi