Pelister National Park

Glacial lakes — the Mountain Eyes — above Bitola

Pelister, above Bitola, is the country's oldest national park — protected since 1948 for its forests of molika, a five-needle pine that survives almost nowhere else in the world. Baba Mountain rises out of it, and near the summit lie the park's crown jewels: two glacial lakes known as Pelister's Eyes.

This is the Macedonia of mountain huts and marked trails, of shepherd paths and stone villages like Malovište on the park's flanks. The hike to the lakes is a genuine day out; gentler paths through the pine forest start just above the park entrance.