Balkan Trails Reviews 127

The tour promised a wide assortment of churches, castles, monasteries, fortresses, cultural experiences, visits with craftsmen, and shopping opportunities. It more than delivered on its promises. We were blessed with exceptional driver guides who were eager to share their country with us. By share we mean not just the sights, but the people. Yes, we saw the sights that one would expect on a large group tour, but we did so at a pace that we determined and with more attention than would have been possible on a group tour. We also saw sites that could not have been reached on a group tour. More importantly, we saw Bulgaria and Romania sites and people in ways that would have been impossible on a group tour. For example, we were the only foreigners at a truly local folk music and dance experience in a small village and we experienced true authentic interaction with everyone including the local musicians who were the local farmers and tradesmen of the village. We call it a music and dance experience rather than a folk show, because it was in essence a local party in which we were privileged to participate. We met and talked with local craftsmen, Gypsies, farmers, and ordinary people. We experienced a glimpse of the true Bulgaria and Romania. It was much more that just a sightseeing trip.

We ran into people at some of our hotels who were taking other private tours. We compared notes and came away thankful that we had chosen Balkan Trails. That is not to imply that the tourists with other companies were not happy with their company. They were just not getting the same level of individual attention or variety of experiences that we were. We did not let on to them, but back in our room we expressed to each other how thankful we were we were traveling with Balkan Trails.

I would definitely recommend Balkan Trails for future travelers. Both guides, Catalin and Stoyan, went the extra mile to accomodate any request from finding hair conditioner to buying fresh flowers for our B&B Host. The hotels were very clean and met our needs. I chose to work with Balkan Trails because of the flexibility in creating an itinerary to fit my schedule. Also, Vlad was quick to respond to any question or concern. The option of utilizing Paypal for payment was also a convenient and safe alternative that I liked. Overall the trip from start to finish far exceeded my expectations.

We were very satisfy with the trip, which show us Bulgaria and Romania in every aspect.
The itinerary is great, the private guide and car is more then we expected.
The hotels/quest house were carefully selected near the sites visited.
We will encourage everyone who plan to do Bulgaria and Romania on this trip with Balkan Trails.

We went on a day tour to Bulgaria with our tour guide Val who is very friendly and very knowledgeable about the area. He arrived at our hotel on time, speaks great English and provided us a lot of history about Romania and Bulgaria. He always allows us to proceed with the tour at our own pace and always very polite and easy to chat with. We had a fantastic day touring with him!

Thanks again Val

We only had one day to tour Transylvania out of Bucharest. And, it turned out to be a combination of heavy rain (at times) coupled with periods of bright sunshine. Our guide, Mr. Florin Vladhu, adjusted our itinerary to accommodate the weather and turned what could have been a "bust" into a great day.

During the day, he provided many historical facts that made our tour stops much more meaningful and enjoyable. When there were lulls, he filled in with comments about Romania's on-going transition after the revolution that marked the fall of communism.

All in all, a lot packed into a one day private tour. Great value for the money.

A good drive with a very good and knowledgeable driver. Thank you for all the history and good care you took of us.

Dear Vlad,
We are back from long Balkan tour of 28 days, treasuring memories of Balkan people, customs, way of living and nature. These countries have unique culture and very long history of war and peace. Now that all things are politically stable, it is fascinating to visit and discover Balkan. We think it is very opportune time to visit for anyone.

Your tour company took us to six countries from Bulgaria to Macedonia, Albania, Romania, Republic of Moldova and Serbia. This required lots of planning on your part and it worked out very well. Going through immigration and customs , driving through roads and providing hotels and guide facilities, all were perfect. Only experienced tour guide company could plan so well. We must have seen countless beautiful churches, museums, Unesco sights, gardens and cities. Indeed these countries are like haven. Cultural shows and visit to Gypsy family was great.



Among all, I like to thank you for having great team of guides and drivers. They were not only excellent and defensive drivers but with great knowledge of each locations visited and they provided us with in depth history. Having excess to internet in the cars was very useful. Stoyan ,Catalin as well as Zlatan were very helpful and accommodative on all aspect of the trip. For such a long trip, they became like our family friends.
It was also indeed nice of you and your wife to stop by and meet us and take us out for lunch. Wine and chocolates, you left in the hotel shows your generosity and it represents how much you care for each and every client. This only happens when you love what you do and indeed you both do.

Now that we are spoiled by your services, we will only take private tours of the other countries. With tour company like yours it is so easy.

Thanks a lot for everything.

Best Regards,
Varsha and Jack Shah

Our Balkan Trail Tour guide/driver picked 6 up promptly. trip 111/2 hrs. he was very knowledgable about the destination and the Castles, Monastery and town of Brasov.
Was able to circumnavigate all crowds so that we had minimal delay times and sites.
Day was long but perfect. We were picked up at one hotel and dropped off at another with all luggage.
Thank you Florin , and, Thank you Vlad

Adrian was a terrific guide, we enjoyed meeting him and traveling with him. A good guide makes the difference between a great experience and a terrible one. We learned so much about Romania and enjoyed seeing all the sights.

I would highly recommend Balkan Trails to anyone! We spent two months travelling, and these 5 days with them were without hesitation the best part of our trip! They were helpful right from the first email we sent enquiring about their services and continued to work with us to customize our trip to help us find out more about our ancestors. They went above and beyond what we expected, sending us information they could find on where we wanted to go and even set up meetings with the mayor and local priest to help us search through records. We saw many historic sites that we didn't know Bulgaria had, and our personal guide went to great lengths to accommodate any request we had.

This was an excursion which we really wanted to take & Balkan Trails - in particular their guide Adrian - managed to fulfil our wishes.
I'm so glad I took a private tour, it was really tailored to meet our needs & as such was flexible in where we went, how long we took at each venue & so on.
The guide, Adrian was very knowledgeable & informative & this made our tour all that much more special.
The only down side to our tour was the weather - raining at times - but even Balkan Trails & Adrian couldn't change the weather.

We can just highly recommend the day trip to Transylvania with Balkan Trails. Booking went smoothly. Tour was just great - excellent guide who was very friendly and provided us with a lot of Information - not only about the sights but also about the Country.

Balkan Trails was wonderful to work with and our guide Adrian couldn't have been better. He was professional and also friendly and interested in making the day trip to Veliko Turnovo and Abarnassi as interesting as possible for us. We not only enjoyed his guiding skills and knowledge of the area, we also enjoyed our conversations with him. We highly recommend the company and our guide Adrian.

We had a hectic but wonderful week seeing three types of ancient romanian chuch buildings- painted wooden churches in Maramures, externally painted churches in N.Moldova and the fortified saxon churches in S.Transilvania. A great way to see a lot of Romania with a fantastic driver/guide and splendid local hotels/accommodation and food.
Well done Vlad for organising it and thank Val for being a great guide and companion.

I contacted Vlad of Balkan Trails, and he promptly replied to all of my questions over a series of emails. He had great suggestions on how we could best use our limited time in Romania, and we were able to decide on an itinerary with a price that fit my husband's and my budget. I can happily say that the value of our tour far exceeded what we paid.
We had a fantastic time! The knowledge of our guide, Florin, about Romania's history, architecture, its churches (fabulous!), etc. was first rate. The hotels where we stayed were very well located, especially the two in the historical areas of Sibiu and Sighisoara. We were able to see so many interesting places with Florin's help, even a few that we would have not thought of on our own.
We were pleasantly surprised by all the extras - great breakfasts, a visit to a local market, Florin's keen sense of humor, the ease at which we entered the places we toured, not to mention door-to-door transportation (even to the hotel where we stayed our last night in Romania). Florin also reserved places for us on an English-speaking tour of Bucharest's Parliament Building, a must-see.
We typically sight-see on our own, renting cars and booking our own hotels. We decided to work with a travel agency because we knew we would have a challenging time making reservations and getting from town to town with the language difference (the drivers are really aggressive, too). I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate the work that Balkan Trails put into planning all of the details for us. And I can't imagine having a better experience while visiting Romania.

We've seen what we meant to see, and got a lot of useful information. Perfect timing too during the day. Recommended.

We had the best 2 days touring Bulgaria and Transilvania.
Our guide Adrian could not have treated us any better than how he did.
He was full of interesting information about the places we visited. He felt like a friend from the very beginning of the 2 days we spent with him.
We would recommend Balkan Trails to anyone. Organising the tours and dates was very easy.
We felt we got great value for money and had a memorable 2 days visiting interesting places.
Well done Adrian & Vlad
Joyce & Dave Halls

I was travelling to Bucharest with 2 colleagues and we wanted a day out during our stay. We chose to visit Transylvania - Peles Castle, Bran Castle and Brasov. Balkan Trails were flexible and fitted in with the times we wanted - we had a late night so wanted a later departure. The trip itself was done in a very clean car with an excellent guide who discussed with us how we would arrange the day. In all a great day out.

1. Interesting and well planned itinerary in Bulgaria & Romania;
2. Very knowledgeable,well informed, friendly, obliging and helpful
drivers / tour guides, [Name] for the Bulgarian
Sector and [Name] for the Romanian Sector;
3. Well chosen accommodation (except for Hotel Berthelot in
Bucharest where we experienced very rude service during our
breakfast from a waiter by the name of [Name];
4. Happy to travel with Balkan Trails again in Bulgaria and Romania
at other seasons but will not want to be accommodated in Hotel
Berthelot in Bucharest;
5. Will not hesitate to recommend Balkan Trails to friends and
anyone wishing to travel to Bulgaria and Romania for holidays, but
no accommodation in Berthelot, Bucharest please.

I would thoroughly recommend (and have already done so) Balkan Trails to anyone wishing to explore Bulgaria and Romania with a well organised company which offers experienced guides, lots of local knowledge and safe and comfortable travel. They are willing to be flexible and tours can be organised to suit anyone.