Bulgaria self-guided hiking and spa vacation

Planet

This walking vacation in Bulgaria’s Rhodope Mountains is, by its very nature, slow and sustainable, with guests walking 5-24km per day, in ancient forests that provide a vital carbon sink for this Balkan region. The Rhodope Mountains are considered of great importance for biodiversity, with Rewilding Europe earmarking them for preservation and restoration because of their bird, bear, wolf and jackal habitats. Most recently, they introduced 14 black vultures, which disappeared from the region in the early 1990s.

With all of our tours, we offer a facility for our guests to travel to Bulgaria using bus and train. When possible, we recommend public transport transfers on our hiking and cycling vacations, but as this is not viable on this particular tour, we use our local driver to transfer customers from place to place.

People

Only breakfast is included on this walking vacation and so we encourage our guests to buy lunches and snacks in local shops. As this vacation takes guests into some 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 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 Rhodope Mountains 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.

This walking vacation includes a visit to Shiroka Laka, famous for its 17th-century traditional stone and wooden houses, which line the riverfront here. This village is not only in the heart of trekking land, it is also an important architectural and cultural artery, and we are proud to contribute towards sustaining it. Folklore is fundamental here, and The National School of Folk Arts was established in Shiroka Laka in 1972. Every first Sunday in March, there is a mummers festival, which is a cultural eye opener for visitors.