Skopje North Macedonia, and Pristina Kosovo

It's been a few years now, but Skopje is a decent city and airport, and it has a McDonalds. I wasn't impressed with Pristina, much preferring the city of Prizren. Note that there is still an uncomfortable situation between Serbia and Kosovo. The northern area of Kosovo around Mitrovica has a lot of pro-Serbian sentiment so best to avoid politics.

I've been to Kosovo. But was long enough ago to be of no help. You realize it and N. Macedonia are in Europe, right?

I too would spend the limited time in Prizren rather than Pristina. Our trip there was in 2021, we flew into Pristina, spent 2 nights there before getting a driver to drive us to Prizren by way of two orthodox monasteries (one or both are world heritage sites if my memory is correct) and a very scenic gorge. Spent 2 nights in Prizren before taking a bus to Tirana, Albania.

Food was excellent and lots of good restaurants along the main drag of you stay centrally

If we did go to Serbia, it would be before entering Kosovo for the first time, so the border shouldn't be an issue, but I'm not sure if we really have time to be including Serbia.
I do get the impression from reading around that Prizen is nicer than Pristina, but as we are flying home from Pristina it's a lot simpler/cheaper to go there instead of Prizen. I guess we could hire a driver to go to Pristina via Prizen but I'm sure it would add on a lot of cost.
I do know North Macedonia and Kosovo are in Europe yes, but I couldn't find them listed in the Europe section, so I know this post is not quite in the right place.

I enjoyed Prizren, could easily have spent two days there. But then, its my sort of pace and my interests are not terribly common. I entered through Albania and there was no border check, no passort stamp, no evidence. But that was 2020 and things may have changed. It pairs well with a visit to Albnian Valbona river area in the mountains (which is among the more beautiful places I have ever visited in Europe ... but again, I dont get out much).

Just yanking your chain on the "in Europe" sorry......

Skopje is not all that big. We were there for one afternoon and that was enough for us. Lake Ohrid is very beautiful and Ohrid is a nice town. We also really enjoyed Krushevo, which is closer to Skopje.

I also liked Prizen better than Pristina. Just south of Pristina is Gračanica. Definitely try to visit Gračanica for its monastery. You could stay in Gračanica. Be aware that the traffic around Pristina can be bad. Take traffic into account when going to the airport.

You have more things to do than time for Kosovo and North Macedonia. I wouldn’t try to add Serbia too.

Thankyou for the responses everyone.
We would like to visit Nish in Serbia but it sounds like it could be too much to devote a day to it as well as travelling to Ohrid (which sounds like a must).

A further question I have is about the end of our trip... would leaving to go to Pristina the day before we fly home be enough to explore it? We would have the full day and night as our flight isn't until 11.50 the next morning.
We would plan to get the bus, but after all the positive comments about Prizen I'm wondering if it could also be a good plan to hire a driver and visit Prizen on the way?