Your Guide To Pelister National Park, North Macedonia — Our Wanders
Pelister National Park is the oldest one in North Macedonia. Set between the valleys of Prespa and Pelagonija, it’s home to Baba Mountain and its 2k peaks, the highest one wearing the same name as the park: Pelister (2601 m). Its most famous hike is to Pelister’s Eyes, two beautiful alpine lakes, and it’s an alpine wonderland. If you’re sold after this teaser, read on to figure out the best things to do in Pelister National Park.
What makes Pelister National Park worthy of a visit?
Do you like mountain hikes? That’s it then. National Park Pelister has an alpine character, unique pine species of the Cenozoic age (called Molika trees), two famous alpine lakes called Pelister’s Eyes, millions of wildflowers, lush green meadows and evenly ascending, technically easy mountain trails.
Of all the places we hiked in North Macedonia, Pelister has the most well-marked trails. While we lost trails on several occasions in Mavrovo National Park, the trail markings were obvious in Pelister. It’s a popular mountain getaway from nearby Bitola, the second-largest city in North Macedonia, and we met many local hikers on the trails (who were so kind to give advice about places to visit in the park). In winter it’s a popular ski resort.
The wildlife is rich, you might encounter bears, deer, wolves, chamois, deer, wild boars, rabbits or several species of eagles. Don’t worry, it’s not that easy though, wild animals avoid humans. You’re most likely to see chamois or deer if you’re lucky.
Mountain vegetation is also very diverse in the park, and the greatest treasures are the Molika trees. They grow up to 40 meters and some are older than 230 years. This five-needle pine was discovered by a German botanist in 1839, and it was the main reason for the park to obtain national park status.
There are 35 peaks that are higher than 2000 meters in the park, the most famous ones being Pelister, the highest peak (2601 m), Steve (2468 m), Veternica (2420 m), Muza (2351 m) and Vrteska (2010 m).
Hiking in Pelister National Park
Without a doubt, the best thing to do in Pelister National Park is exploring the beautiful hiking trails. Whether you choose short and easy or longer and more challenging trails is up to you, but get started on that trail. We brought you great choices.
The most popular hike: Pelister’s Eyes
If you only have time for one hike, make it this one. Pelister’s Eyes are two stunning alpine lakes, the Big Lake sitting at 2218 meters and the Small Lake at 2180 meters. Different routes give access to them, and hiking with an almost-2-year-old, we chose the one that’s technically the most easy.
It starts from the village of Nizhepole, and it’s a long, evenly ascending hiking trail that’s perfectly safe when carrying a kid. (Online research didn’t help us much with choosing hiking trails in North Macedonia. We got advice from local hikers — and now we’re making things easier for you. 🙂 )
How to access the trailhead?
There’s a paved road all the way to Nizhepole (not an obvious thing when it comes to Macedonian mountain villages), and we left our car in an empty paved parking lot towards the end of the village. Look for signs that indicate the ski slopes and its parking. If you don’t have a car, Nizhepole is about a 15 minutes cab drive from Bitola.
A word of caution: browsing Instagram and even reading about Pelister’s Eyes online, you might get the impression that it’s an easy hike, close to the road. While the hike is technically easy, it’s long and the lakes are not accessible by car. Visiting these lakes is not a scenic walk, but a full day hike.
The hike to Pelister’s Eyes
Then we hiked out of the village. The beginning of the trail runs on a gentle slope among trees and bushes. The vegetation gets more scarce as you get higher, and that means amazing views on your way up. We soon noticed patches of snow (it was mid-June), and the rushing streams were fed by snowmelt.
The trail is evenly ascending all the way to the mountain shelter at Big Lake (Golemo Ezero). However, this shelter is usually closed, with the exception of summer weekends. The Small Lake (Malo Ezero) is still 2.5 km away. Since the trail was covered in snow, and we also got caught by a sudden snowstorm, we rather turned back.
On a nicer day you might even get to Pelister peak after Small Lake. It adds extra length and elevation, but still doable as a day hike on a long summer day.
Read this, too: Your Everything-To-Know Guide To Lake Ohrid, North Macedonia
How hard is this trail?
It takes a bit over 3 hours to reach the first lake from Nizhepole. The terrain is steadily ascending, occasionally with loose rocks, but all in all, it’s not a challenging trail, just a long one. Anyone can do it who has the stamina for a ~18 km return hike.
The shortest hike: Rocky Trail to a wooden viewing platform
If you’re looking for a short and easy hike, this is for you. It has a bit of everything: a trail in the pine forest, rock boulders and a wooden viewing platform with peak views at the end. It lacks alpine lakes, but so do most trails, except the one to the Pelister’s Eyes.
How to access the trailhead?
It starts from Hotel Molika, which is about a 25 minutes drive from Bitola. It’s also a ski center in winter, and your benefit from that in summer is the large parking lot. You need to look for the sign “Rocky Trail”, and make sure to follow the walking trail, not the one for bikers. (You’ll soon notice the difference on a nice summer weekend. Downhill biking is popular there.)
Hike to the viewing platform
You can skip the first section of the uphill with the ski lift — if it’s in operation. Otherwise take the forest trail and marvel at the tall pine trees. Your first rest stop could be the upper station of the ski lift, there’s a grassy meadow with some picnic benches there.
As the forest disappears, you find yourself on a narrower trail at the side of the mountain with scenic views. Finally, after crossing a lush meadow with bushes and flowers, you end up at the wooden structure of the viewing platform.
You either return the same way, or make it a loop through the rock boulders. Be ready for some rock scrambling in that case.
If you continue further, you can hike to Pelister peak from here, as well, but locals haven’t recommended this route. It was said to be very steep.
How hard is this trail?
It’s an easy hike, but still a hike, with uphills and downhills. The trail is well-marked, and it’s the busiest one we’ve encountered in Pelister National Park. You can comfortably do the hike to the viewing platform there and back in half a day.
The best mountain panorama: St Salvation and Vrteska peak
While the trail to Pelister’s Eyes offers nice views, the real highlight there are the alpine lakes. For the best mountain panorama, hike the trail to St. Salvation (Sveti Spas), and a bit further to Vrteska peak (2010 m) for spectacular views of Lake Prespa. This was our favorite trail in Pelister National Park, thanks to the magnificent mountain views and the colorful wildflower meadows (and a perfectly sunny day).
How to access the trailhead?
The trail starts from the village of Malovishte — which you can access on paved roads. However, you can’t rely on online trail maps, we found none of them 100% accurate for this trail. On the bright side, this trail is well-marked and easy to follow. It’s only the trailhead that’s a bit tricky to find.
There’s no “trailhead parking” in the village, and the street becomes very narrow as you drive, so leave your car somewhere at the beginning of Malovishte. We found a large grassy area between two houses, and we parked there.
Then walk to the upper end of the village, and keep your eyes open for a small signpost that says “Sveti Spas” in Cyrillic. Okay, okay, here’s a picture, and you need to follow the lowest signpost to get to Sveti Spas (Csaba can read Cyrillic — a useful skill, hah?):
Hike to Sveti Spas, then further to Vrteska
From then we hiked a constant uphill, sometimes steadily, sometimes more steeply. We got occasional views and found some pretty viewpoints on the way up, and we hiked through amazing wildflower meadows.
There’s a small chapel, benches and a wonderful mountain view at St. Salvation. From there we did the steep ascent to nearby Vrteska peak, and it was very much worth it! From the top of Vrteska, views of Lake Prespa open up, and you get a 360-degrees panorama.
We hiked back to Malovishte on the same path.
How hard is this trail?
Again, it’s a technically easy trail. You need to hike uphill, sometimes steeply uphill, but if you have the stamina, you’ll be fine. We did it with a toddler who partly walked and was partly carried. It can be done in half a day there and back.
Trailhead: upper end of the village of Malovishte
Length: 3.5 km (2 hours) one-way
Find a trail map here! (not 100% accurate — the first section is missing, but you can connect to this trail from the village of Malovishta, it’s just not on the map)
How to access Pelister National Park?
The trailheads in National Park Pelister can be reached on a 20–40 minutes drive from Bitola. There’s no access by public transport, but a taxi ride from Bitola costs a few euros. If you plan to visit other national parks and more remote areas in the country, we recommend renting a car.
Check the best rental car rates here!
The main roads are of decent quality, and even though the driving culture is not our favorite (whoever the faster is has the right of way), it’s manageable, especially if you’ve already driven in the Balkans.
Where to stay?
Bitola is the most straightforward choice to stay when visiting Pelister National Park. It’s the second-largest city in North Macedonia and it’s worth a bit of your time, anyway. It’s famous for traditional music and food, and indie cinema. Walking the main pedestrian street, Shirok Sokak, allows you to see most sights in Bitola. The trailheads in Pelister National Park are about 20–40 minutes drive away from the city center.
Hotel Theater is only a few minutes walk from Shirok Sokak. It has excellent guest ratings and is known for its enchanting atmosphere, friendly staff and delicious breakfast. ZARO Apartments are just as close to the main street, in case you’re looking for your own apartment with a fully equipped kitchen and dining area. Stylish N95 apartmentis directly on Shirok Sokak.
If you’d prefer staying closer to the entrance of the national park, there’s a few choices, like Hotel Sumski Feneri, Hotel Molika or The Green Apartments. But beware, they are close to the trailheads at Hotel Molika, but just about the same distance from Nizhepole or Malovishte as Bitola.
Pelister National Park trail map
While we didn’t necessarily find online trail maps accurate in the country, the Maps.me and mapy.cz apps have very accurate trail maps for Pelister National Park.
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Originally published at https://ourwanders.com on October 16, 2022.