Lake Ohrid is more than a million years old, one of the oldest lakes in Europe: deep, clear and shared between North Macedonia and Albania. This private day takes you there by car from your hotel, and you choose how much of it to see: Ohrid old town and St. Naum Monastery on the Macedonian side, or the quieter Albanian shore.

Your driver picks you up at your hotel in Tirana, Durrës or Golem and follows the old Via Egnatia route east up the Shkumbin valley, with a coffee stop in Elbasan. Over the Qafë Thanë pass, the lake opens up below you. First stop is Lin, a fishing village on a narrow peninsula, where a short path leads to the hilltop remains of a 6th-century basilica and a view over the whole lake.

On the Ohrid & St. Naum options you then cross into North Macedonia. In Ohrid you have a little over two hours for the old town: cobbled lanes and old timber-framed houses, the Church of St. John at Kaneo on its cliff above the water, Samuel's Fortress and the old bazaar, with time for lunch by the lake. From there the road follows the eastern shore to St. Naum Monastery, where peacocks walk the courtyard and rowing boats glide over springs so clear you can see the bottom. You come back into Albania at Tushemisht for the Drilon springs and the Pogradec lakefront before the drive home. Bring your passport.

Prefer a shorter day with no border? Choose the Lin, Pogradec & Drilon options. After Lin you follow the shore to Pogradec, the lakeside town that Albania's poet Lasgush Poradeci wrote about, for the promenade and a long lunch of fresh lake fish. Then on to Drilon: spring water running through channels under willow trees, swans and small cafés. This shore joined the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Ohrid region in 2019, and the crowds thin out here.

This is a private trip, not a group tour. One car and one price for up to 4 people, the same from Tirana, Durrës or Golem. You decide how long to stay at each stop, and your English-speaking driver waits for you all day and knows where to eat.