Treasures of the Balkans

On arrival in Bucharest, broad, tree-lined boulevards lead you past Belle Époque façades and modern city blocks. As you make your way through Romania’s capital, you may notice ornate balconies overhead as traffic hums along the avenue. You join your Travel Director and fellow travellers for dinner at a local restaurant. As the evening settles in, you take your place at the table and begin your sixteen-day adventure across the Balkans.

With your Local Specialist, you'll move from University Square to Revolution Square, pausing below the balcony of the former Communist Party headquarters. Inside the Palace of Parliament, crystal chandeliers scatter light across polished Romanian marble as you cross vast halls lined with carved wood and heavy drapes. At Bran Castle, a private dining experience awaits you in Queen Marie’s Tea House, the timber-framed retreat once used for receiving guests and afternoon tea. You wander through the castle’s heavy doors and follow narrow stairways into whitewashed chambers and dark timber corridors. The air cools against the thick stone walls as you examine medieval torture instruments, learn how Queen Marie transformed the fortress into a royal residence and hear how Bran became linked with Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula.

Along the Prahova Valley, you follow the Carpathians to Sinaia, where the steep roofs and turrets of Peleș Castle rise above the trees. Inside, jewel-toned stained glass colours the rooms as you pass woven tapestries, paintings and displays of armour, each space reflecting the tastes of Romania’s royal household. Your route continues through the mountains to Brașov, established in the 13th century after the Teutonic Knights fortified the region in 1211. In Council Square, you follow a ribbon of red-roofed houses with your Local Specialist, their painted façades surrounding the Black Church, with its dark stone and slender Gothic windows.

Crossing the Danube, you enter Bulgaria and continue to Veliko Tarnovo, the medieval City of the Tsars. The Yantra River curls through the gorge below as you take in tiers of terracotta roofs and painted houses scattered across the wooded slopes, with the faint rush of water echoing from the valley below. At your hotel, the murmur of the dining room and the clink of glassware accompany dinner on your first evening in Bulgaria.

With your Local Specialist, you climb through the weathered gateways of Tsarevets Fortress, former stronghold of Bulgaria’s medieval rulers, before looking across the old capital and the Yantra Valley from its hilltop walls. In Arbanasi, you tour a 17th-century merchant’s house enclosed by high stone walls, exploring rooms that preserve details of the prosperous trading families who once lived here. Inside the Church of the Holy Nativity, ochre, crimson and blue figures fill the walls and vaulted ceiling as you linger over centuries-old frescoes. After crossing the Balkan Mountains, you explore Sofia with your Local Specialist, moving from St Sofia Church and the gold domes of St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral to the red-brick Rotunda of St George, the city’s oldest preserved Roman building. This evening’s Optional Experience invites you to dine as Bulgarian folk music fills the room and dancers turn in richly embroidered costumes.

With the day at leisure, you may choose to leave Sofia for Rila Monastery, set high in the Rila Mountains between the Rilska and Drushlyavitsa rivers. Black-and-white arcades sweep around the courtyard as you look up at saints, angels and biblical scenes painted in scarlet, cobalt and gold. Founded in the 10th century by St John of Rila, the monastery has remained a centre of Bulgarian Orthodox faith and learning for more than a thousand years. You can linger beside its striped arches, follow the fine detail of the frescoes and breathe the clear mountain air before returning to Sofia.

Beyond the border, you explore Skopje with your Local Specialist beside the Vardar River, where tall glass towers catch the sky above broad squares, fountains and monumental statues. Crossing the centuries-old Stone Bridge, you trade the sweep of glass and open space for the Old Bazaar’s narrow stone lanes, lined with Ottoman inns, mosque domes and small workshops. The scent of mountain tea and dried herbs escapes from spice stalls, fine filigree glimmers in shop windows and cafe voices drift through open doorways.

At Lake Mavrovo, you stop beside blue water stretching towards the mountains, with the soft lap of water along the shore. The lake is also known for the old Church of St. Nicholas, which can emerge from the water as levels fall. After crossing into Albania, you continue to Tirana, where boldly painted walls break up the capital's angular city blocks. In Skanderbeg Square, your Local Specialist shares the city's history. You might look from the bronze horseman at its centre to the Clock Tower and the portico of Et'hem Bey Mosque, where painted cypress trees, waterfalls and arched bridges weave across the portico in delicate landscape scenes.

Along Montenegro’s Adriatic coast, you travel towards Budva as dark mountain slopes fold around blue coves and the sea flashes between bends in the road. Inside Stari Grad’s 15th-century ramparts, you slip through narrow limestone lanes, beneath arched passages and into small squares framed by shuttered stone houses. You may pause at a cafe table, listening to voices drift between the old walls, before setting out again to explore the churches, courtyards and waterfront at your own pace.

As you reach Kotor at the innermost curve of its bay, the water flows between high rocky slopes and centuries-old fortifications. Within the UNESCO-listed old town, you thread through stone-paved streets that open onto intimate squares, passing medieval churches and former palaces of captains and shipowners. You may catch the chime of church bells over the tiled roofs before continuing along the Adriatic to Dubrovnik, where pale stone walls curve around the fortified port.

With your Local Specialist, you begin beside Onofrio’s Fountain, where water streams from sixteen carved stone masks within Dubrovnik’s fortified old city. Along the polished limestone of the Stradun, you reach the Gothic-Renaissance Rector’s Palace, then study the Franciscan and Dominican monasteries, where cloistered arches and carved capitals are patterned with leaves and animals. The afternoon is yours, perhaps for an Optional Experience to Cavtat, where you may follow pine-shaded paths beside the Adriatic, catch the resinous scent of the trees and visit a local winery. This evening, your Dine-Around experience lets you choose from a selection of restaurants for dinner in Dubrovnik.

As you approach Stari Most with your Local Specialist, its single pale arch crosses the Neretva, painstakingly reconstructed using traditional techniques after the original bridge was destroyed during the 1990s conflict. Along Kujundžiluk, the 16th-century bazaar, you browse polished copperware and woven carpets while the tap of a hammer may sound from a nearby workshop. In Sarajevo, a local family opens their home to you for a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience. At their table, you taste dishes prepared by your hosts as they speak about family life, Sarajevo’s resilience and the customs they are preserving for those who come after them.

For your choice experience in Sarajevo, you may visit the Tunnel of Hope with a Bosnian War expert or join a conservation guide at the spring of the Bosna River. At the tunnel, you duck beneath low timber supports and hear how food, medicine and people travelled through this hand-dug passage below the airport runway during the siege. Alternatively, your MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience leads to Vrelo Bosne, where you cross small bridges over spring-fed channels and watch the water slip around wooded islets at the foot of Mount Igman. The rest of the afternoon is yours to spend in Sarajevo as you wish.

Following the Drina towards Serbia, you trace the natural border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, watching its green current curl below wooded ridges and pale canyon walls. Through breaks in the forest, you may catch sight of the river deep in the valley, dark green in shadow and silver where the light reaches it. The mountains gradually open into gentler country as you continue towards Belgrade

With your Local Specialist, you trace Belgrade from Terazije Street to Republic Square, where the National Museum and National Theatre face one another across the square. Inside the Church of St Sava, you step beneath the vast dome, where gold mosaics glow above cool marble, their rich colour unfurling across the great curve overhead. At Kalemegdan Fortress, you follow the old ramparts to the point where the Sava flows into the Danube, their currents widening beyond the city. With the afternoon free, you can enjoy Belgrade in your own way before finishing the day over dinner with your fellow travellers.

Your time in the Balkans comes to a close as you exchange a warm doviđenja and say farewell to the friends who have shared these sixteen days with you.