It's worth detouring from the tourist trail just to stay at this utterly lovely village hotel, which offers four rooms in a chalet-style house and lip-smacking country food. Rooms are comfortable and elegant, with exposed stone walls and wooden floors, but it's the expansive mountain-backed garden, rustic picnic tables and a peeping view of Lake Prespa that make Raskrsnica so special.
And did we mention the food? In summer your stay will probably start with some homemade wine or sour cherry liquor; breakfast might include freshly baked mekici (fried dough); dinner could be homemade paprika-laced pork-and-leek sausage (a Brajčino speciality). The owner, Milka, tends an ambitious fruit and vegetable plot (which grows in the large garden) and tries to produce as much as she can herself, with the help of her son. Raskrsnica is famous for Milka's home-cooked Macedonian food, which people come from miles around to dine on: you'll feel pretty smug to be staying here.
Given enough notice, the family can arrange hiking guides and tours to pretty much anywhere you want to go around Pelister National Park. To get here, head for the larger village of Ljubojno and, from its central square, take the left-hand exit, then immediately veer left for the road to Brajčino. Once in Brajčino (there's a sign as you enter the village), the road will again deposit you at a wide open space/square: take the left-hand road, which will curve around to the right and lead you to Raskrsnica's door.
