CARAVAN ROUTES…

Following the old Ottoman caravan routes through the Balkans

Pre trip: SLOVENIA

Starting in the pretty Slovenian capital city of Ljubljana with an orientation walk to get acquainted with the neighborhood of your hotel. In the days to follow you’ll make friends with Ljubljana, its history and amazing architecture.

After Ljubljana you’ll take a short bus drive to visit lake Bled with all its beauties and get to know even more about Slovene culture and literature.

On the following day you will be visiting more of the Slovenian Alps including the famous Soča (Isonzo) river. Soča is infamous for the WW1 frontline stretching along its shores and described in Hemingway’s ‘Farewell to Arms’.

Walking: mostly light and occasionally a bit strenuous.

BASIC PROGRAM

Starting in the Croatian capital Zagreb, then down through Bosnia & Herzegovina to the capital city of Sarajevo, Mostar and further down to the Mediterranean and one of its brightest pearls, the city of Dubrovnik. All UNESCO protected sights.

Our adventure continues further to Montenegro’s wonderful bay of Kotor and its city of Perast where we’ll visit a manmade island of Our Lady of the Rock.

From the UNESCO protected city of Kotor we’ll follow the old caravan route inland to Cetinje, the capital of old Montenegro. After that we’ll visit Skadar lake continuing  to Kosovo via the city of Peć, a center of the medieval Serbian Patriarchate of Peć. Then Prizren, the cultural and intellectual center of Ottoman Kosovo.

Our next stop is Northern Macedonia. Destination Ohrid lake and Ohrid town, another UNESCO heritage site.

The last country on this exciting route is Albania and its capital city of Tirana, where we’ll end our basic program.

Post trip: ALBANIA

Four days trip from Tirana to Durres, Berat, Apolonia, Vlora, Saranda, Butrint, Gjirokastra ending back in Tirana. All the most beautiful and interesting cities of Albania.

ADRIATIC ROUTE

Starting in the pretty Slovenian capital city of Ljubljana with an orientation walk to get acquainted with the neighborhood of your hotel. In the days to follow you’ll make friends with Ljubljana, its history and amazing architecture.

After Ljubljana you’ll take a short bus drive to visit lake Bled with all its beauties and get to know even more about Slovene culture and literature.

On the following day you will be visiting more of the Slovenian Alps including the famous Soča (Isonzo) river. Soča is infamous for the WW1 frontline stretching along its shores and described in Hemingway’s ‘Farewell to Arms’.

Crossing to Croatian Istria via a narrow strip of the Slovenian Adriatic coast.

Istria is full of ancient Roman history, Venetian history and has views like pre-tourist Tuscany.

You’ll be visiting major Istrian cities and getting to know their culture and life.

Not to mention all the lovely and delicious foods, wines and olive oils you’ll be tasting.

After a couple of days of Istria we drive through the Opatija and Lika mountainous region to Plitvice lakes, one of Europe’s premier nature preserves.

After a night in the national park you’ll have a morning to hike and explore the lakes and after that you’ll drive to the Dalmatian coast, generally considered to be one of the most wonderful on all of the Mediterranean.

After getting aquainted with the city of Split you’ll board a ship that will take us to the major Dalmatian islands. Dalmatian Island hopping is known to be among the most beautiful on the planet.

After Hvar, Vis and Lastovo we’ll head back to the mainland and take a bus trip from port of Ploče to Mostar.

In Mostar you’ll be able to smell and taste the Orient, Orient in the very heart of Europe.

After a day of relaxation on the island of Korčula you’ll get on a bus from Ploče through the amazing vineyards of the Pelješac peninsula. Stopping along way to taste wines is a must. Also tasting wines of Korčula is something that cannot be skipped.

Our ship will take us to the port of Ston, the second city of Dubrovnikan republic, from where we’ll take a day’s nice and easy drive to rural areas of Herzegovina, the places where almost no tourist has gone before.

In Dubrovnik you’ll spend a night in a hotel after which we’ll have a day exploring the old city  ending with a delicious traditional Dalmatian dinner to crown the whole tour.

Next day transfers to the airport Dubrovnik to your flight.

CAPITAL CITIES OF FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

Or how such an interesting country managed to dissolve itself?

Starting in the pretty Slovenian capital city of Ljubljana with an orientation walk to get acquainted with the neighborhood of your hotel. In the days to follow you’ll make friends with Ljubljana, its history and amazing architecture.

After Ljubljana you’ll take a short bus drive to visit lake Bled with all its beauties and get to know even more about Slovene culture and literature.

On the following day you will be visiting more of the Slovenian Alps including the famous Soča (Isonzo) river. Soča is infamous for the WW1 frontline stretching along its shores and described in Hemingway’s ‘Farewell to Arms’.

On the 4^th day we head to Zagreb, capital of Croatia. After getting to know Zagreb we’ll depart for Plitvice lakes and the city of Bihać, where we’ll spend the night. On the next day we’ll head to Sarajevo the capital of Bosnia & Herzegovina.
In Sarajevo we’ll visit the most interesting sites from the last siege.
The following day we’ll head to Mostar with a city tour and a home hosted dinner.

Our adventure continues further to Montenegro’s wonderful bay of Kotor and its city of Perast where we’ll visit the manmade island of Our Lady of the Rock.
From the UNESCO protected city of Kotor we’ll follow the old caravan route inland to Cetinje, the capital of old Montenegro. After that we’ll visit Skadar lake continuing to Kosovo’s capital Prishtina and on the next day to Prizren, the cultural and intellectual center of Ottoman Kosovo.

The next day will take us to Ohirid in Northern Macedonia where we’ll spend the night and following day then move on to Skopje, Northern Macedonia’s capital city.

After a night in Skopje we’ll head to the capital of former Yugoslavia and Serbia,  Belgrade. After making acquaintance with the city we’ll end our program with a traditional Serbian dinner with live traditional music.