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- Day 1 Begin Your Balkan Adventure in Bucharest 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 travelers 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. Locations Visited: Bucharest RO.
- Day 2 Bucharest to Bran: Palaces and Legends 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. Locations Visited: Bucharest RO, Bran Castle RO, Brasov RO.
- Day 3 Journey Through Sinaia to Medieval Brașov 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 colors the rooms as you pass woven tapestries, paintings and displays of armor, 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. Locations Visited: Brasov RO, Sinaia RO, Brasov RO.
- Day 4 Cross the Danube to Veliko Tarnovo 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. Locations Visited: Brasov RO, Veliko Tarnovo BG.
- Day 5 Veliko Tarnovo to Sofia: Fortresses and Frescoes 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. Locations Visited: Veliko Tarnovo BG, Arbanasi BG, Sofia BG.
- Day 6 Enjoy a Leisurely Day in Sofia 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 center 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. Locations Visited: Sofia BG.
- Day 7 Skopje Contrasts: Riverfront Towers and Old Bazaar 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. Locations Visited: Sofia BG, Skopje MK.
- Day 8 Lake Mavrovo and Tirana 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 center 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. Locations Visited: Skopje MK, Mavrovo Lake MK, Tirana AL.
- Day 9 Montenegro’s Coast: Budva and Stari Grad 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. Locations Visited: Tirana AL, Budva ME.
- Day 10 Adriatic Highlights: Kotor and Fortified Dubrovnik 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. Locations Visited: Budva ME, Kotor ME, Dubrovnik HR.
- Day 11 Croatia’s Walled City: Dubrovnik at Leisure 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. Locations Visited: Dubrovnik HR.
- Day 12 Bosnia and Herzegovina: Mostar to Sarajevo 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. Locations Visited: Dubrovnik HR, Mostar BA, Sarajevo BA.
- Day 13 Explore Sarajevo Through Tunnel or River 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 traveled 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. Locations Visited: Sarajevo BA.
- Day 14 Bosnia to Serbia: Along the Drina 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 Locations Visited: Sarajevo BA, Belgrade RS.
- Day 15 Discover Belgrade’s Mosaics Rivers and Ramparts With your Local Specialist, you trace Belgrade from Terazije Street to Republic Square, where the National Museum and National Theater 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 color 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 travelers. Locations Visited: Belgrade RS.
- Day 16 Say Farewell to Friends in Belgrade 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. Locations Visited: Belgrade RS.
Name: Treasures of the Balkans
Brand: Trafalgar
Quality: Superior First Class
Tour Type: Escorted
Start City: Bucharest
End City: Belgrade
Location Summary: Bucharest, RO
Bran Castle, RO
Brasov, RO
Sinaia, RO
Veliko Tarnovo, BG
Arbanasi, BG
Sofia, BG
Skopje, MK
Mavrovo Lake, MK
Tirana, AL
Budva, ME
Kotor, ME
Dubrovnik, HR
Mostar, BA
Sarajevo, BA
Belgrade, RS
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Highlights
- Dining Summary - 9 Dinner (D). 15 Breakfast (B).
- Whats Included NOT IN USE - Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day..
- How You'll Travel - Business class coach with extended leg room. Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants. 4 & 5-star stays.
- Authentic Dining - Bucharest: Join your Travel Director and fellow travelers for your dinner.. Dubrovnik: You will be offered a varied selection of charming restaurants to choose from for your Dine-Around Evening.. Belgrade: Toast the culmination of your travels with dinner..
- Premium Experience - Bran: Learn about the story of the infamous Count Dracula during a private after-hours visit to Bran Castle, following a traditional dinner..
- Top Rated Highlights - Bucharest: During sightseeing with your Local Specialist see University Square and the former Communist Headquarters.. Bucharest: Walk the cavernous halls of the vast Palace of Parliament, learn about the history and listen to amusing tales from your Local Specialist.. Sinaia: Witness the opulent and sumptuous decor in Peleș Castle, the fairy-tale Royal summer residence, at the foot of the Bucegi Mountains.. Veliko Tarnovo: Ascend Tsarevets, the King's Hill, crowned by a ruined medieval citadel. Enjoy the views and imagine yourself back in the days of the Crusades when this was the capital of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom.. Arbanasi: At the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Arbanassi, visit a traditional 17th-century merchants' house and enjoy the acoustics in the Church of the Holy Nativity.. Sofia: Sightseeing with your Local Specialist takes you to St. Sofia Church, across the square from the golden domed St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and the archaeological complex, dominated by the church of St. George Rotonda.. Skopje: Visit the capital of Macedonia with your Local Specialist, explore Square Macedonia and see the Stone Bridge before walking through the Old Bazaar.. Tirana: Meet a local resident who will show you Skanderbeg Square and walk you through their home city as they explain what it's like to live in the Albanian capital.. Kotor: Visit the Stari Grad, also referred to as the Old Town, perfectly positioned on a beautiful bay.. Dubrovnik: Walk the limestone Stradun with a Local Specialist, stopping at Onofrio’s Fountain and St. Blaise’s Church. You’ll visit the cathedral and Franciscan Monastery and see how the compact, UNESCO-listed Old Town sits within its defensive walls beside the harbor.. Mostar: Learn the history and symbolic significance of Stari Most and explore the old town with your Local Specialist.. Belgrade: A Local Specialist will show you St. Sava Church, Terazije Street, the national museum, national theater, Republic Square and the Kalemegdan Fortress..
- MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® - Sarajevo: You are invited into a Sarajevan family home for a dinner and drinks. Savor the warm hospitality and authentic cuisine as you hear inspirational stories about their culture. This experience advances the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities..
- Trafalgar Choice - Sarajevo: Take a nature walk to the spring of the Bosna River, a protected park just beyond the city, led by a conservation guide. Your visit directly supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 15: Life on Land.. Sarajevo: Meet an expert on the Bosnian War for a visit to Sarajevo's Tunnel of Hope and learn about the 44-month siege of the city.Alternatively, take a nature walk to the spring of the Bosna River, a picturesque park just beyond the city..
- Choice Highlights - Choose between two carefully selected activities. Sarajevo: Take a nature walk to the spring of the Bosna River, a protected park just beyond the city, led by a conservation guide. Your visit directly supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 15: Life on Land.. Sarajevo: Meet an expert on the Bosnian War for a visit to Sarajevo's Tunnel of Hope and learn about the 44-month siege of the city.Alternatively, take a nature walk to the spring of the Bosna River, a picturesque park just beyond the city..
