Lake Ohrid is more than a million years old, one of the oldest lakes in Europe: deep, clear and shared between Albania and North Macedonia. Most visitors only see it from the Macedonian side. This day takes you to the Albanian shore, which joined the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Ohrid region in 2019, and where the crowds thin out.
Your driver choices 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, the quiet highlight of the day: a fishing village on a narrow peninsula reaching into the lake. Climb the short path to the hilltop remains of a 6th-century basilica for a view over the whole lake, then wander down between stone houses and fishing boats for a coffee by the water.
Then on to Pogradec, the lakeside town that Albania's poet Lasgush Poradeci wrote about. Walk the promenade, sit by the water, or take a long lunch of fresh lake fish.
In the afternoon, Drilon: clear spring water running through channels under willow trees, swans and small cafés, a few minutes from the lakeside village of Tushemisht. Then back to your hotel the same evening.
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.
Want to see both sides of the lake? Choose the Lake Loop option. After Lin, you cross into North Macedonia for Ohrid's old town and the Church of St. John at Kaneo, follow the eastern shore to St. Naum Monastery and its springs, then come back into Albania at Tushemisht for Drilon and Pogradec. Bring your passport.
Rather end the day in a city? Choose the Korça option. After Drilon, the road crosses the plain to Korça, about 45 minutes away, the cultural capital of Albania's south-east. You get about two and a half hours to walk the restored Old Bazaar, visit the Resurrection Cathedral and the 15th-century Mirahori Mosque, and sit down to lakror pie and a Korça beer before the drive home.
