Bulgaria self drive vacation

Planet

This self-drive walking vacation around Bulgaria’s UNESCO sites not only supports the protection of the country’s important cultural heritage, but also invites guests to walk the environs of the Pirin and Rila Mountains. Both ranges are considered of great importance for biodiversity and conservation and the Pirin Mountains are, consequently, also protected by UNESCO, except for the ski resorts.
Responsible travelers can, therefore, explore a very highly protected area, where important flora includes coniferous forests of Macedonian Pine and Bosnian Pine and many species of ferns, and fauna in both parks includes brown bears, wolves and pine marten.

The accommodation on this vacation is mostly in small locally owned guest houses where breakfasts are included. As lunches are not included in the cost of the tour vacation, we encourage our guests to buy lunches and snacks in local shops, and our local representative Katya will make plenty of recommendations for dinners in local eateries.

People

The accommodation on this vacation is mostly in small locally owned guest houses where breakfasts are included. As lunches are not included in the cost of the vacation, we encourage our guests to buy lunches and snacks in local shops, and we make plenty of recommendations for dinners in local eateries. As this vacation takes guests into rural areas, this directs tourist spend directly into local Bulgarian’s family coffers, a world away from the mass tourism of Bulgaria’s all inclusive coastline resorts. All of our host accommodations can provide picnic lunches too, paid for locally, and we work closely with them to avoid single use plastics when packaging them. We always advise our guests to bring their own reusable sealable lunch box, and refillable water bottles of course.

Directing guests to local food in the Pirin and Rila Mountains regions is important to us, not only so that they have an enjoyable cultural experience, but because they are also supporting the local gastro-economy. Katya, our tour manager, knows all the best places to find local specialities such as patatnik potato dish, cheverme or slow cooked lamb, smilyan beans and kapama, a spicy hearty mountain stew. In addition, our daily trip notes direct guests to good local eateries. Katya also reminds guests to always practise Leave No Trace throughout their vacation.