Accommodation

See where are the best places to stay when you’re in Skopje.

In Macedonia one can find buildings built around the beginning of the new era and up to ones finished yesterday. Not too many of them are hotels or hostels, some are motels, and some are apartments or buildings to rent. Luckily, most of the ‘renting‘ ones were built later, especially in Skopje, Ohrid, Gevgelija, Bitola, Mavrovo and Polog area. In most of the other towns available accommodation was built mainly in the socialist period or shortly afterwards, so one should only expect basic standards.

Hotels have only relatively recently been marked according to the European standards, and on many of the hotels you will still notice the remnants of the old standardisation – with the letters from A to D. Only two hotels – one in Skopje and one in Ohrid hold the five stars, and the rest are below that level. Anyhow, most of the average hotels in the country are decent, safe and with friendly hosts that speak English or German or Italian, or have a friend or younger relative that can translate for them (and for you, of course). Prices per room range from 10 Euro to up to 200 Euro, depending on the hotel and the type of accommodation you need.

Due to the fact that the country is still much centralised, most of the apartments or houses to rent are in the area of capital – Skopje. Prices there vary from 50 Euro – for one bedroom apartment on the left bank of the River Vardar, to several thousand Euro – for a luxurious house in the exclusive parts of Vodno, Przino or Crnice, or the villages of Bardovci and Zlokucani. In the better, more normal parts of town, where most of the average expats rent apartments, one should calculate with around 500 Euro per month, for a decent two-bedroom apartment. Prices vary based on the size of the apartment, its furniture, location. But what is common for the accommodation for the expats – is that they are all safe, without problems with electricity, water or else, and there is always at least a small shop in the area. In Skopje you can also rent a small apartment for 1,000 MKD (around 16 Euro) per day.

The offer is also relatively big in the tourist centres – Ohrid, Prespa region, Dojran, Krusevo, and maybe the towns of Bitola and Tetovo but very limited in the rest of the country.