Conqueror of the 7 Highest Peaks and Explorer of Over 50 Countries

Today is March 8th, an important day of the year for many of you. Every year, on this day, many questions arise, and discussions take place from various perspectives on the role of women in Macedonia and around the world. We wouldn't be Kajak if we didn't share a travel story that would inspire many women. 

Today, we will share the story of Ilina Arsova, whose journey is quite well-known, and can be considered a lesson we will repeat.

Ilina is the Macedonian woman who inspires many people to fall in love with active tourism. She is the first woman to have climbed the seven highest peaks on seven continents. She is one of the seventy women in the world to have achieved this challenge. This accomplishment motivated her to start raising awareness about women's mountaineering in this region. 

Ilina collaborates with the Macedonian in-coming agency 'Balkan Prime Tours,' which organizes excellent trips for foreign tourists in the country. Arsova says that she sees tourism as a connection between the natural and cultural values of our country, which she equally respects. Languages are her key tool for traveling the world and collaborating with foreign tourists. Thanks to the words of her mother, 'Learn languages, the world is yours,' she has managed to learn and speak six world languages and communicate in a total of ten. Her advantage in mastering languages comes from having traveled to around fifty countries and worked in most of them. 

Ilina says that she has had an interesting experience with Balkan Prime in recent years. As a tour guide for 15 years, she shares the beauties of our country with both domestic and foreign guests with great love. Balkan Prime is one of the few agencies where she enjoys working, and recently, she says she also wants to dedicate herself to private projects that make her happy. 

Arsova is satisfied with how foreign tourists view Macedonia. According to her, they are left speechless, simultaneously amazed by the natural beauties and shocked by the disregard for nature, waste, and the extremely low ecological standards in the country. 

What you may not have known is that painting is her primary profession. All her other diverse experiences accumulate and merge in direct connection with moderation.

What interests her the most is that some tourists have become so connected with her that they are still in contact to this day. She stays in touch with tourists she befriended back in 2003, when active tourism in Macedonia was on the rise.