Galičica National Park

Galičica National Park tickets and tours: which one to book

Galičica is the limestone mountain that stands between the two great lakes of the southern Balkans, Ohrid and Prespa, in the south-western corner of North Macedonia, and it begins at the edge of the town of Ohrid, the country's chief tourist centre, so that visiting it is a matter of looking up from the lakeside promenade. The essential excursion is the road over the mountain, from the lakeshore at Trpejca up a long series of hairpins to the pass of Livada, at about 1,600 metres, and down to Lake Prespa on the other side: just below the pass, a short walk from the road leads to viewpoints from which, uniquely, both lakes can be seen at once, Ohrid a deep blue on one side and Prespa, 150 metres higher and paler, on the other.

It can be driven in a rental car, the road being narrow and sound, with a small park fee collected at the barrier, or taken as a jeep tour from Ohrid, or as part of the longer day trips that continue round Prespa to the town of Bitola and the Roman ruins of Heraclea. From the pass, a marked trail climbs to Magaro, the park's summit, three to four hours return over open limestone grassland, with the finest double view of all, and guided hikes from the village of Konjsko and elsewhere explore the quieter northern ridges. The park is also the most popular paragliding site in the country, with tandem flights launched from above the lake and landing on the beach. Along the Ohrid shore, which is part of the park, are the monastery of St Naum, the springs of the Black Drin, the Bay of Bones museum on the water and the cave church of Zaum, reached by boat or road.

Visiting Galičica National Park: what you will see

The park was established in 1958 and covers about 227 square kilometres: the Galičica range itself, some of the eastern shore of Lake Ohrid and the western shore of Lake Prespa, and the island of Golem Grad; about two thirds of it lies within the World Heritage Site of the Ohrid region, and the whole within the Ohrid-Prespa transboundary biosphere reserve, shared with Albania, whose Prespa park adjoins it to the south. The mountain is a horst, a block of Triassic limestone lifted between the two basins, rising to 2,254 metres at Magaro, on the Albanian border, bare, grassy and waterless on top because the rock is riddled with caves and fissures: the water of Lake Prespa, which has no surface outlet, seeps through the mountain and re-emerges, filtered, in the springs of St Naum and Biljana on the Ohrid side, some of it after a journey of years. Lake Ohrid, into which it flows, is one of the oldest lakes on earth, more than a million years old and nearly three hundred metres deep, with some two hundred endemic species.

Isolation between the lakes and the mixing of Mediterranean and continental climates have given the mountain a flora of extraordinary richness for so small an area, more than 1,600 species, of which a dozen or more grow nowhere else in the world. Its forests are of oak, beech and, on Golem Grad, ancient Greek juniper. Brown bears, wolves, the very rare Balkan lynx, chamois, roe deer and wild boar live here, along with a great variety of butterflies. Golem Grad, the big town, also called Snake Island, is an uninhabited, cliff-bound island of eighteen hectares in Lake Prespa, reached by fishermen's boats from the village of Konjsko or Stenje, thick with harmless water snakes and with tortoises, pelicans and cormorants, and scattered with the ruins of Roman houses and of half a dozen medieval churches. St Naum, founded about 900 by a disciple of Cyril and Methodius, with peacocks in its courtyard, stands above the springs at the lake's southern end.

Galičica National Park: best time to go, seasons and hours

The park is open at all times, with the road over the pass sometimes closed by snow from December to March. May and June are the best months, with the mountain in flower, clear air and comfortable walking; July and August are hot by the lakes, pleasant on the heights, and the high season of Ohrid, with crowds at St Naum; September and October are warm, quiet and clear.

There is no water or shade on the high trails, and summer thunderstorms build quickly. Paragliding runs from about April to October. Allow half a day for the pass by road, a full day for Magaro or for Golem Grad. Ohrid's old town and churches are at the park's edge, St Naum thirty kilometres south along the shore, Bitola an hour and a half east, and the Albanian border beyond St Naum.