As always let's start off with a bit of history
Skopje is the capital of North Macedonia which you might only remember as Macedonia prior but since there is a Greek city with the same name, the country had to adjust and came up with North Macedonia (geographically clever because yes, North Macedonia is further north in Europe than Greece).
The country has been independent since 1991 after the breakup of Yugoslavia which used to be a region composed of several countries [insert here]
While it is located in Europe and is therefore a European country, it's not part of the Schengen Area which means that you will need to have a passport to get there and your SIM card will not allow roaming unless chosen specifically for North Macedonia or within a package including several Baltic countries e.g. from HolaFly.
This also means that the country has it's own currency which is not being issued in any other banks in the world (the demand simply wouldn't be there). Their national language is Macedonian and at the time of writing this, there are 1.8 million people living in North Macedonia.
How to get to Skopje
My first thought when we got there was: That's a beautiful city! Considering out route we also saw way more tourists there than in the last two destinations.Our host told us that they have direct flights from France and Spain now and that tourism has picked up due to that and I checked the airport website - there are several European countries offering flights to Skopje, as well as several Turkish cities. Turns out apart from the history, the airport is actually handled through a Turkish company hence the easy connection.
Apart from by plane, you can also rent a car (or take your own of course) and drive to North Macedonia. This is a great way to explore the countries in the area as well. As I mentioned in my previous post, if you happen to want to go to the Kosovo, just know that most car rentals do not provide insurance for the country and you wouldn't be able to go to Serbia through Kosovo. You can however drive through the rest of the surrounding countries without any issues.
There are trains but they are rather local lines - if you want to explore the country without a car, this would be a good alternative.
The most common mode of transport however is with buses. Given the average salary in this part of the continent, this is the most affordable way and often times bus drivers are flexible if you want to get off along the route.
Bare in mind that with either you will cross borders and need to have a valid passport to enter the country.
What we saw in Skopje
Skopje is fairly small - you can see the main attractions within one day.
For us, the first thing we noticed was an old (obviously abandoned) ship wreck which was really cool to look at. I looked it up later and it turns out it's not nearly as old as you would think. They were part of “Skopje 2014” project which means at the time of writing this in 2026, the ships are only about 14 years old! (They started building them in 2012)
They were intended represent galleons from the 18th century and older and to change the picture of the city a bit and being used as cafes (and one is still a hotel) but the others couldn't hold businesses alive (sadly). The Vardar River going through the city has never been deep enough for pirate ships but it's still a cool site and we tourists wouldn't know this of course & there are no signs correcting our assumptions either.
After this there are several beautiful bridges catching your eyes - the most stunning one for me is the one in front of the Archaeological Museum of the Republic of North Macedonia - it's called "The Bridge Of Civilization in Macedonia" and you will see several relevant people such as writers, singers or painters on and around the bridge. Some signs got lost over the years but the status also hint on their future professions.
In the newer part of the city, you can find the Mother Teresa Memorial House (this was her home town) and the Archbishop Cathedral „St. Clement of Ohrid” .
Along the Old Town, you can visit most of the museums such as the National Gallery, Museum of Macedonia or the Museum of Contemporary Art which - you're not a fan of museums you will likely skip, however you should still go and visit the Skopje Fortress. It's not as well maintained as you will know it from other places. What you see is basically what you get. There is no entrance fee and you can walk around (though I believe it does close at night as there is a gated entrance). You'll where you can and cannot go because certain parts are blocked off - apart from that it's like any other normal fortress you may or may not know by now. As there is no ticket counter, you also cannot book a tour directly there, however if interested, you will find providers who include it in the general history of past empires. Have a stroll around the Old Bazaar as well - that's were we got our souvenirs from.
As we didn't have a rental car but wanted to see a bit more of the country, we also booked the Matka Canyon, Millennium Cross and Etno Village Tour with GetYourGuide which wasn't too expensive price-wise (21€), however I wouldn't recommend it. On that day, they had a power outage and you couldn't go up the Millennium cross (which I read isn't super interesting either) but I'm not taking this into consideration. Where the canyon is a nice picture to look at, you really can't walk all the way down and back up in the 2h we had there. You can walk but the walk is pretty uneventful as once you passed the first 100m, you're basically just walking next to the rocks without an actual view, or (and that's what you're supposed to do and I'm sure the guides get commissions), you can go on a boat tour but you have to pay 40€ per person which given the price of the tour itself I wasn't willing to pay ("lower cost" options were "closed")
The other part was the Etno Village which we were told is basically a representation of how an old village looked like, however you literally only see 2-3 (gift) shops and then you're supposed to eat at the only available restaurant there which is fairly expensive (obviously touristic prices) and doesn't have a good selection either. You can walk through the "village" within less than 5 minutes. Both parts were fairly disappointing to us.
Where we eat
The first day we went to Zen Gusto which is right in the city center. Their food and drinks are decent but due to the location a little on the higher price range for locals (tourist prices). As a vegetarian, I enjoyed the healthy options though.Since we were on the road for a while I was also craving a burger and we went to Space Burger a bit further off the general city center. It wasn't anything special but they did have a vegetarian choice and the staff was very nice.
Though we haven't been, I read good things about Public Room, Кај Јоле, and Restaurant Skopski Merak.
As we were only in the city for a day and had the (half) day trip the next day, we didn't spend much time around food options, and casually selected a food spot around the Old Bazaar for on the go.
Where we stayed
We stayed at City Lux Apartments which was a great pick for us! We booked it on Booking.com and had to pay in cash upon arrival (as mentioned, due to the different currency this is sometimes just easier) but it also allowed us to meet our nice host - a Greek who's been living there for a while himself.
The apartment was right on one of the main streets (but it wasn't too loud at night) which allowed us to explore the city center easily by foot and also enjoy a lunch and dinner nearby.
The apartment itself was a one-bedroom apartment and had a small cooking corner in the room though it wouldn't be enough to cook a whole meal which was perfectly fine, a sitting area but best of all a small balcony overseeing a good portion of the street.
Would I book again? Definitely!
My recap for Skopje
I already mentioned I loved the city!! It's clean and very walk-able. Restaurants and shops are open fairly late (10pm) and there are a lot of cheap and good food for vegetarians which can be rare in Eastern Europe.Card payment are mainly allowed everywhere - only a few shops don’t e.g. where you can buy fresh fruit. This is great because it means you won't need to convert your money since you cannot use it in any other country.
The language is definitely hard to read since it's not the usual Latin alphabet but people are very nice and helpful.
Overall it rather feels more Greek influenced than the last few cities we visited.
Are two days enough for Skopje?
Absolutely! Skopje is not as big and two days are definitely enough! We even added a Day tour for the canyon experience via GetYourGuide BUT I personally wouldn't recommend it. While the initial view is great, you either don't have enough time to go all the way to the end (it takes a few hours as it's almost 10km one-way) or you have to pay a fairly expensive price for taking a boat tour (starting from 10€ p.P. but we actually were told to pay 40€ per person!) which also only brings you about halfway to the canyon.There are a ton of free activities as mentioned prior- I would rather stick to those.
Overall I wouldn't mind coming back though.
Travel breakdown for 2 days in Skopje
Skopje is quite affordable - just remember to bring some (Euro) cash with you as well.
Below is the breakdown of what we paid per person during our 2,5 day stay.
As we paid by card, this added a small amount of currency conversion to the mix, hence the quite uneven numbers.
Other included things like the SIM card I got for this part of our trip.
On average this means we spent about 55€/ per day in Skopje.
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