Bulgaria – With Breath Of Old Wine

Sofia – Veliko Tarnovo – Arbanassi – Etara – Kazanlak – Starosel – Plovdiv – Bachkovo – Sofia

6 days/ 5 nights

Price from: 499 euro/ person

If you love the good wine, we have for you the exact adventure tour guaranteeing the best wines on the Bulgarian market.

Highlights: 

• Fully escorted tour with a professional tour guide
• Limited group tour with maximum 15 participants
• Accommodation in First class and typical hotels with all service charges, taxes and porterage included
• Full board with lunches and dinners in selected and reputed restaurants.

Most important objects and attractions and activities included:

• Traditional meals in authentic restaurants including visit of a private rural house for lunch.
• Get to know about the Bulgarian contribution to the Slow Food movement.
• Visit of local markets and shops, where you will be able to taste some typical sweets and snacks from the region.
• Wine tasting in a two famous Bulgarian cellars. Tasting also in old house from the Renaissance period, which offers more than 450 wine labels from all over the worlds!
• Bulgaria’s capital city Sofia – one of the oldest cities in Europe
• UNESCO listed Thracian Tombs
• Old town of Plovdiv – 19th century houses and Roman ruins, including a Roman amphitheater in use today.

Day 1 – Arrive in Sofia – the capital of Bulgaria

Arrival to Sofia airport. Transfer to your hotel (Best Western Premier Thracia 4* hotel or similar). Panoramic tour of the 8500 years old town on your way to the hotel. Accommodation in the hotel. Dinner in “Chevermeto” or “Hadjidraganovite kashti” restaurant, providing Bulgarian national cuisine, traditional music and good services. Overnight.

Day 2 – Sofia – Veliko Tarnovo

After breakfast departure to the Capital of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom – Veliko Tarnovo. Visit to the historical hill Tsarevets with the Fortress, the Patriarchal church and the Emperor Baldwin’s Tower. You will walk along the old Trade Street – “Samovodska charshia”. Departure to Arbanassi- a small traditional Bulgarian village. Lunch in a private guest house. The hosts of the house are offering delicious homemade meals. You will be able to chat with the housekeepers and to learn more about history of their house, their present daily routine and also about their food habits. Next comes tasting of wines from Lyaskovets winery. The wines, which are going to be tasted, are typical for the Danubian Plain Region. The Lyaskovets winery is famous with its long traditions in producing of naturally fermented sparkling wines. Return back to Veliko Tarnovo. For dinner you will be at “Hadji Nikoli Inn” restaurant which won the Special award “Building of the Year 2010”. It is one of the most valuable specimens of the monumental public architecture of the late Renaissance in Bulgaria, built in the period 1862 year.

The restaurant of the Hadji Nikoli Inn offers a unique atmosphere of comfort and authenticity with perfect service, European and Bulgarian traditional dishes, a gourmet menu, a wide collection of high-quality Bulgarian wines and wines from all over the world which are carefully selected by a team of dedicated oenologists. There are several lounges in the restaurant located on two floors. The exhibition halls of the Hadji Nikoli Inn is are regularly a home for valuable exhibits and artifacts from Bulgarian history. It hosts museum exhibitions and displays where one can enjoy the best pieces of Bulgarian modern art. Overnight in typical hotel Gurko 3* (or similar).

Day 3 – Veliko Tarnovo – Kazanlak – Starosel

After breakfast – departure to Etara – a unique open air museum, recreating the way of life of the Bulgarians in the 19th c. It is a great attraction for tourists, one of the most visited places in the country. Here you will be able to taste various snacks and sweets from the Bulgarian national cuisine. These are for example Gevrek (small piece of bread with ring shape), Tseluvki (sweets made from glair), Pestil (local type of chocolate made from … plums), coffee on sand and ect.

Set off to Kazanlak – the capital of the Rose valley. The road to Kazanlak passes by Shipka peak, where is situated the monument of the Bulgaria liberators from the 19th C. In Kazanlak you will visit the replica of Thracian Kazanlak Tomb, dating back to the 4th C. B.C. It is listed in the world natural and historical heritage of UNESCO. Visit also  the local historical museum which keeps the treasures founded in the valley of the Thracian kings. Lunch in typical Kazanlak Mehana. After lunch departure to Starosel where you will have the possibility to taste the wine for this region of Bulgaria.  Accomodation in Starosel. Dinner in the hotel restaurant. Overnight.

Day 4 – Starosel – Plovdiv

After breakfast – departure to Plovdiv – the city of the seven hills founded by Philip of Macedonia – the father of Alexander the Great. Tour of the Old Town of Plovdiv with visit of the Ethnographical museum, the Roman Amphitheater, the Fortress walls, the oldest church in the city – “St. St. Constantine and Helena”, the Muslim temple Dzhoumaya Mosque and the Roman Stadium on the main street of the city, etc.

Lunch at the boutique Hotel Hebros – located in the heart of the old town of Plovdiv in a 200 years old hose. The restaurant of the hotel is one of the most renowned in the city. The first Slow Food club in Bulgaria called “Old Town Plovdiv” was established in November 2004 at Hebros restaurant. It’s a branch of the international Slow Food movement (www.slowfood.com) founded in 1986 at a small restaurant in Bra, Italy. You be accompanied with tasting of 4 wines from different regions of Bulgaria. Additionally you will be able to try also from the hotels finest selection of wines, which consists of more than 450 labels from all over the world.

Dinner at Wine House “Vinifera”. You will be able to taste specific wines of the region. Overnight.

Day 5 Plovdiv – Bachkovo – Sofia

After breakfast – departure to Bachkovo Village, where you will visit the second biggest monastery in Bulgaria – the Bachkovo Monastery.  It is established by two Georgian brothers in ХІ century. Here is located the wonder-making icon of Virgin Mary, and in the monastery dining room are preserved unique wall-paintings ХVІІ century.

Lunch at a restaurant located near a picturesque waterfall, very close to the Bachkovo Monastery. The tables are arranged around small lake with live fish, which could be caught by the clients themselves. A delicious charcoal barbeque is preparing here. After lunch – a tasting of wine follows in the Todoroff boutique wine cellar. The wine cellar has small hotel and SPA center, which offers procedures, based on the wine-therapy.

Departure to Sofia. Dinner in a restaurant which is located in the foot of Vitosha Mountain – Vodenitsata and is a replica of the traditional water-mill. Nowadays it is transformed into a center of Bulgarian national cuisine and folklore.

Overnight in Best Western Premier Thracia 4* hotel or similar.

Day 6 Departure from Sofia

After breakfast transfer to the airport.

Price:

Bulgaria – with a breath of old wine 6 days
Nmb of passengers	1	2	3 till 6	7 till 10
Price per passenger	790 euro	690 euro	590 euro	499 euro
The prices are in euro per person

The price includes:

• Accommodation for 5 nights in hotels 3* and 4*;
• Full board – starting from dinner on Day 1, ending with breakfast on day 4/5. Lunches and dinners are 4-course meals with drinks included – a glass of wine, mineral water, coffee or tea;
• A/C bus with driver during the whole trip;
• Parking fees and road taxes;
• All entrance fees for the museums, sites and churches;
• Wine tastings according to the program;
• Professional tour guide throughout;
• Porterage in the hotels.

The price doesn’t include:

• Airplane tickets to Bulgaria;
• Gratitues.