Trip Report - Skopje to Lyon and back, by bus and train, in ~1 month

**About Me** - mid-30s male on summer break from a teaching job. I spent the first half of the summer traveling internationally before coming back to the US. **About the Trip/Disclaimer** - this was "part 2" of my first trip around the world, after 3.5 weeks in South Korea that I posted about [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/solotravel/comments/1lv3y0j/trip_report_35_weeks_in_south_korea/). My original plan for this "leg" of the trip was the MUCH MORE REASONABLE idea of visiting two or three Balkan countries, but I was invited to an event in Lyon that I really wanted to attend. Normally I'm more of a ✨slow traveler✨, but I thought, "what the hell, it'll be fun to try and cover so much distance by land." Even so, I know this itinerary is a bit bonkers in places lol so that's the disclaimer. **Itinerary** **Skopje (2 days)** - I'd heard kind of mixed reviews on Skopje before visiting, but I found it to be an interesting, fun, eclectic city, very affordable, some great food, and slightly "gritty" but not in a bad or uncomfortable way. Not hard to find local restaurants with live folk music oriented towards what seemed to be a mostly local audience, which was great. Also went in without really realizing how much of a Muslim community there is in Skopje, and it was really cool to hear so many calls-to-prayer, something I'd not heard in European cities before. **Lake Ohrid (2 days)** - because my original plan had been a "Balkans trip," I did want to spend a bit more time lingering in North Macedonia before heading off. Parts of Ohrid's old town felt slightly tourist trap-y but I didn't have to walk too far to get away from that, and it was a nice relaxing place. And the bus ride from Skopje to Ohrid and back was a nice way to see more of the scenery in the country **Skopje (with daytrip: hiking near Tetovo) (2 days)** From Skopje, I took a bus to Tetovo for the day. Tetovo itself didn't strike me as super interesting, though its "colorful mosque" was pretty. BUT the hiking nearby was gorgeous. I just picked a few random nearby mountain villages to walk to, and it ended up being a truly beautiful day, and one of the highlights of the whole summer. Some lovely farmland in the mountains, the villages themselves were gorgeous, and the mountain scenery was also beautiful. It was an absolute whopper of a hike, little over 14 miles, by far the longest distance I've hiked in a day. Partly for the kinda dumb reason that near the end I just walked for a while until a cab came by to take me back to the Tetovo bus station. **Skopje to Ljubljana via Belgrade** I originally wanted to take several days in Bosnia + Herzegovina en route to Slovenia, but I was having a hell of a difficult time finding public transit links to Sarajevo from Skopje. Maybe there are routes that I just couldn't figure out? Anyway, by contrast, it was easy to find Flixbus bus tickets to Belgrade, but I wasn't all that hyped about Belgrade. So I made the questionable choice of (1) early AM bus departing from Skopje to Belgrade, and then (2) another bus leaving that same night and running overnight from Belgrade to Ljubljana. Kinda stupidly this meant 7 hours on a bus from Skopje to Belgrade, about nine hours in Belgrade, and then another 7 hours of overnight bus ride from Belgrade to Ljubljana. This added up to...really a lot of time on buses, and one of the more grueling public transit days of the trip. IDK, it was kind of an adventure at the same time. Bus #1 from Skopje to Belgrade gave me a chance to see some Serbian towns in passing. In Belgrade I went to a random free classical music concert, which turned out to be a performance by some child prodigies, slightly odd but kinda fun. And I visited Belgrade fortress before going back to the bus station for bus #2. I managed to get some sleep for the second overnight bus from there to Ljubljana, but was fucking wiped out the next day. Worth it? IDK, maybe I could've done this part in a smarter/less masochistic way. But I'm glad to have spent more time in North Macedonia even if it meant rushing through Serbia afterwards **Ljubljana with day trip to Postojna (two days)** - I liked Ljubljana despite being pretty tired after powering through those back-to-back bus rides. Ljubljana was a cute, peaceful, walkable, approachable little city, kinda touristy but not in a depressing way. The day trip to Postojna cave was really cool even if very crowded, and the nearby cliffside castle was also beautiful if a bit logistically odd to get to without a car. **Milan (one day)** - I'd previously been to Italy for a month-long trip (and a more reasonably paced one than this lol), so this time I was just using Milan as a one-night stopover en route to Lyon. Milan honestly isn't my favorite place in Italy but I enjoyed having some Italian food again, and had more time to wander around compared to last time I passed through Milan. Last time I was in Milan was also in February 2020, right around the time that northern Italy's covid outbreak started, so I enjoyed passing through Italy in a less grim time. **Lyon (three days)** - this part of the trip was mostly non-solo, but I did do a bit of "tourist stuff" on my own including a nice walk through the old town and up to the hilltop cathedral. I took a "rest day" here as well given the pace I'd been moving at. I liked Lyon, it felt pretty down-to-earth and I'm a sucker for a place with a nice river running through a city. **Malbun, Liechtenstein (3 days)** - due to some screwups on my end and some public transit delays as well, getting here from Lyon was a bit of a mess, but once I arrived, I *loved* it here. And taking trains across Switzerland was a nice callback to my first-ever substantial international trip, which was a non-solo trip to Switzerland. Anyway, I loved Malbun in Liechtenstein! It's a small village up in the mountains, superb base for insanely beautiful hiking, and a lovely place to relax and read and unwind. Aside from the painfully expensive cost of food here, this was another highlight of the trip, and the hike I did in this area is one of the most beautiful experiences I've had when traveling, anywhere. **Hall-in-Tirol, Austria (three days)** - a kinda chill small town close to Innsbruck but a bit smaller and more relaxed. I did a bit more (short) hiking around here, enjoyed some food and sampled some Austrian schnapps with a drunk Austrian old lady, and took the "top of Innsbruck" cablecar for a kind of expensive but still cool look at the town (and the mountains) from above. It was refreshingly pretty easy to get here from Liechtenstein, and not as expensive an area as I was worried, at least compared to Liechtenstein. **Zagreb, Croatia (one day)** - I had non-solo plans to meet a loved one for a week in coastal Croatia, so I started making my way there. I took my first ever sleeper train from Innsbruck to Zagreb. I spent the extra money for a private car on the sleeper train and the novelty of it was fun even if the rocking of the train meant I didn't actually sleep that much. Still, the sleeper train felt pretty luxurious compared to the overnight bus from earlier on this same trip. Zagreb was sweltering on the day I was there, and more of a stopover destination for this trip, and other than a bit of wandering around I mostly took it easy here and rested. **Trogir, Croatia (one day)** - this town has a really beautiful if sometimes crowded old town, and is a nice place to relax and chill by the water. Sunset was gorgeous here and it was one of the last solo days of the trip so I enjoyed that. **Dubrovnik, Korcula, and Cavtat, Croatia (~1 week)** - this part was non-solo so I'll mostly skip it. But, after weeks of traveling on my own, it was great to spend some time with someone I've traveled with many times before, share some travel stories, and relax in some beautiful places. Nice to do some swimming and/or wading on the hot days too. **Dubrovnik to Skopje via Pristina** - this was another of my craziest transit days. It took me kind of a lot of time to figure out a reasonable way to get back to Skopje for my flight out, and this was the best I could come up with overland. The first bus was a long overnight ride from Dubrovnik to Pristina, Kosovo. I didn't sleep a whole lot but I enjoyed chatting with this ethnically Albanian guy from Kosovo who, among other things spoke about Bill Clinton's support for Kosovo in the 1990s. He handed out some snacks and drinks both to me and surrounding folks on the bus which was friendly of him. The bus passed through Montenegro by night, Albania mostly by night, and crossed from Albania into Kosovo by day. When not half-asleep, I enjoyed seeing more of the mountainous scenery, and enjoyed a very quick look at Pristina before catching bus #2 back to Skopje **Skopje to home, via layover in Frankfurt** - I didn't have a ton of time in Skopje again, but enjoyed a (small) breakfast for 2 Euros, a far cry from prices elsewhere on this trip. And had some Turkish coffee as well, before catching a cab to the airport. I had an overnight layover in Frankfurt, and stayed in a hotel near there, but didn't really explore Frankfurt much. But I did realize at this point that I'd been in, or at least passed through, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, N Macedonia, and Germany in ~48 hours, which by some measures at least on paper is one of the craziest things I've done on a trip **What went well** I saw a lot of beautiful places. North Macedonia was an interesting place which, at least in some areas, seemed mostly pretty distant from international mass tourism, and I'm really glad to have lingered there for a while. Liechtenstein hiking was another major highlight, and in general, I'm happy to have pushed more into hiking during my travels this year. The balance of solo time and time meeting with some friends/family was also nice especially on a longterm trip. I'm normally not inclined to move at this fast a pace, but I did still enjoy some really restful days. Even some of the long bus rides were kinda peaceful, I'd just read books or zone out and enjoy the scenery. Considering the distance covered, it felt doable, but it required some stubbornness and a bit of masochism. On the immediately preceding trip in South Korea I'd been ruminating a bit, on some days, about a painful social situation back home in Atlanta. Towards the end of this time in Europe, I surprised myself by choosing to pull the plug on that social connection completely, and it led to a brief and painful text conversation, but a lot of relief afterwards, because the dynamic there had been confusing and weird and ultimately not great. I probably wouldn't have made that choice without all this time on my own to think. Looking back on that whole situation, I think I've learned quite a bit from it. The other person could've communicated a lot better but I also could have done some things better, both for the sake of my own peace, and in terms of communication with the other person. IDK, it's nice to feel like I actually learned something from all that, and again I think the time alone helped a lot. I enjoy trying different types of alcoholic spirits (within reason) and the Balkans in particular love their fruit brandies, so sampling some of those added some extra liveliness in the evenings sometimes. Though normally I wouldn't cross so many countries back-to-back, the "cross section" of so many different parts of Europe all in one trip was really cool, and just seeing the contrast in culture and "vibe" between all these different areas was really rewarding. **What didn't go well** A few of the longest public transit days were pretty grueling. Especially the Lyon to Liechtenstein day: I missed the first train by like 5 fucking minutes, then the next train was substantially delayed, so I got to Liechtenstein much later than expected, and once I arrived I realized I hadn't brought the right kind of power adapter for Liechtenstein. These little things can pile up and feel demoralizing when on your own so that day in particular just sucked. There was a pretty intense heat wave coming through Europe for parts of this trip, which didn't necessarily ruin things, but it did mean I spent less time outdoors in some areas. With more time I could've done this same itinerary and just taken more time to chill out along the way. I had a concrete commitment back in the US that constrained the timing a bit, and made the trip more intense than it would've been otherwise. **Safety** Never really felt any danger of robbery or scams or whatever. But one thing did happen that actually could've had pretty serious consequences: I hike a lot, but it's been a long time since I've hiked in a place where tick-borne illness is a major concern. Because of this, I honestly just didn't think to research it, but I ended up getting a tick bite in a VERY UNFORTUNATE PLACE while hiking in Austria. Austrian ticks have decently high rates of tickborne encephalitis, a disease I'd never even heard of because it hasn't really reached the US. Tourists hiking in Austria are advised to get vaccinated for that disease, but I wasn't vaccinated since I hadn't even thought to research this. The tick bite was ~2 weeks ago, and I still have no symptoms, which means I'm *hopefully* not gonna get any disease, but I feel kinda dumb and tbh a bit irresponsible for not even thinking about this in advance...so this is your PSA: if hiking in Europe, do your research about tick safety in the countries you're visiting!!!! One other more minor hiking note: if planning to hike in Liechtenstein as I did, and especially if wanting to do routes higher in the mountains, I'd advise not jumping into it unless if you're a reasonably experienced/sure-footed hiker. The only other safety "incident" was when my cab driver in Milan almost got into a road-rage brawl with a cyclist :| they actually did exchange a few blows through the open window and the cyclist was trying to pull the driver-side door open. I guess direct risk to me was low, but it was still something I've never experienced before. Never had anything like that happen on my prior trip to Italy, probably the sort of thing that could happen anywhere with some bad luck. **Logistical stuff** Some of the buses especially in North Macedonia varied in comfort level and amenities at least by European standards. One of the local "buses" was more a sort of cramped van, and even some of the long-distance international buses in the Balkans didn't have bathrooms, though they made bathroom stops at least (Serbian bus stop bathrooms win the prize for grossest I've seen in Europe) Also, even with fully prepaid bus tickets, in North Macedonia and iirc Serbia, I had to pay a small extra fee to print an extra "ticket" just for access to the bus-boarding area. Kinda weird? Flixbus, Omio, and Girafa Travel were the websites where I found and/or booked most of the international bus and train routes. The normally reliable Rome2Rio didn't always line up with the bus routes that are currently running, at least for a few legs of this trip. In North Macedonia, I booked a cab that barely worked. The cab driver had me literally get out and push to get the cab started. Not a huge issue, but it was funny and honestly kind of amazing. Ultimately, covering this much distance by land was a fun "adventure" even if it was honestly a bit grueling at times. I'm glad to have done it and felt legitimately proud when I got back to Skopje at the end. That being said, I think next year I'll spend the summer in two or three countries instead of ten. --- **Post Details:** - **Subreddit:** r/solotravel - **Author:** u/WalkingEars - **Score:** 6 upvotes - **Upvote Ratio:** 81.0% - **Comments:** 3 - **Posted:** 7/13/2025 - **URL:** https://reddit.com/r/solotravel/comments/1lz3u2r/trip_report_skopje_to_lyon_and_back_by_bus_and/