East­ern Cen­tral Europe Tour

Itin­er­ary

Day 1: Arrival to BUDAPEST

Arrival to the cap­i­tal of Hun­gary. In the past Budapest was two sep­a­rate cities (Buda and Pest) and you will have a chance two explore both. After check­ing in to the hotel your local guide will take you to Buda Cas­tle were you will learn about the his­tory and enjoy the best panorama in the city. After the tour, your guide will take you to a nearby Ther­mal Baths where you will get to relax after a busy day. Overnight stay in a 4-​star hotel.

Day 2: BUDAPEST

After break­fast, your guide will take you on a pri­vate tour where you will visit the famous attrac­tions in the Pest part of the city: Par­lia­ment House, St Stephan Basil­ica, Vaci Street, Heroes Square and many more. In the evening, you will have a din­ner cruise down the Danube River. Overnight in a 4-​star hotel.

Day 3: LJUBLJANA

Arrival to the cap­i­tal of Slove­nia, a true Cen­tral Euro­pean gem with its own unique charm mix­ture of Baroque and Art Nou­veau archi­tec­ture. We’ll start the tour in front of the Town Hall and con­tinue through the his­tor­i­cal city cen­tre. The excur­sion includes a stroll around the medieval Old Town, vis­it­ing the New and Old Mar­kets, the Triple Bridge and the Dragon Bridge, Ljubljana’s trade­mark. The tour ends with a funic­u­lar ride, which departs from the Krekov square and takes us up to the Ljubl­jana Cas­tle to enjoy one final view of the city set along the banks of the emer­ald green river Ljubl­jan­ica. Overnight stay in a 4-​star hotel.

Budapest – Ljubl­jana (460km)

Day 4: BLED — LJUBLJANA

After break­fast, we will take a drive to the charm­ing lake resort of Bled, famous for its medieval cas­tle sit­u­ated on a cliff high above the lake and the amaz­ing sur­round­ing Alpine peaks. Cas­tle ter­races offer spec­tac­u­lar views of the lake and the tiny island in the mid­dle. After that, we will take a break to taste the deli­cious vanilla cus­tard and cream cake „kremšnita“ – one of the most famous Sloven­ian desserts. After the trip, we will return to Ljubl­jana to spend the night before pro­ceed­ing towards Zagreb in the morn­ing. Ljubl­jana – Bled (55km)

Day 5: ZAGREB

Wel­come to Zagreb, the cap­i­tal and the largest city of the Repub­lic of Croa­tia. Once you’ve set­tled down, we are tak­ing you on a tour of the city cen­tre where you will see the most famous sights of Zagreb. You can choose between two pos­si­ble routes for your visit of the city. The first is ded­i­cated mostly to the city’s his­tor­i­cal land­marks and the sight­see­ing starts at the Main Square, from where we move on to the Zagreb Cathe­dral and con­tinue through Tkalčićeva Street and the “Bloody Bridge” (Krvavi Most) to the Stone Gate and St Mark’s Church. We end our tour vis­it­ing the Lotrščak Tower and tak­ing a pleas­ant ride on the Zagreb Funic­u­lar. The alter­na­tive route is a panoramic one, as we will take you for a ride on the Zagreb horse­shoe: we will visit the Zrin­je­vac Square, the King Tomis­lav Square, the Botan­i­cal gar­den and the Croa­t­ian National The­ater. Later on, we will make a short visit to Mak­simir, Zagreb’s old­est pub­lic park and the Mirogoj ceme­tery. After the walk, it’s time for you to relax over a nice wel­come din­ner with spe­cial­ties of the local cui­sine. You will spend the night in a 4-​star hotel.

Ljubl­jana – Zagreb (140km)

Day 6: PLITVICE LAKES – ZADAR

On the sixth day we will take a pleas­ant drive from Zagreb and visit the most beau­ti­ful and famous national park in Croa­tia — Plitvice Lakes NP, con­tain­ing a series of 16 lakes, caves and water­falls. We’ll enjoy the breath-​taking view of the waters flow­ing over the nat­ural dams which in turn have cre­ated a series of beau­ti­ful lakes, caves and water­falls. The forests in the park are home to some wild ani­mals such as bears, wolves and many rare bird species. We will take a 4 hour walk­ing tour of the park and con­tinue towards Zadar in the after­noon. Zadar is an extra­or­di­nary city — not too crowded, it isn’t over­run with tourists and its two unique attrac­tions, the sound-​and-​light spec­ta­cle of the Sea Organ and Sun Salu­ta­tion, need to be seen and heard to be believed. The mix of beau­ti­ful Roman archi­tec­ture, Hab­s­burg ele­gance, a won­der­ful seafront and some unsightly ordi­nary office blocks is what gives Zadar so much char­ac­ter. Overnight stay in a 4-​star hotel.

Zagreb – Plitvice (140km)

Plitvice – Zadar (133km)

Day 7: SPLIT

Today we con­tinue our tour of the Dal­ma­t­ian coast to intro­duce you to the ancient yet thriv­ing city of Split. The heart of Split is the city’s majes­tic cathe­dral that rises from within the 1700 year old walls of Diocletian’s Palace, a UNESCO World Her­itage site and one of the most sig­nif­i­cant and best pre­served struc­tures of the late ancient archi­tec­ture. Built upon the octag­o­nal base of a Roman Mau­soleum, the Cathe­dral of Saint Dom­nius (Sveti Duje) is a tes­ta­ment to many eras of Split’s his­tory, from Roman Times, through to the Mid­dle Ages and the Renais­sance. Our walk­ing tour takes us to the Peri­style in cen­tre of the palace, the Roman tem­ples, the famous Golden Gate and the big statue of Grgur Nin­ski. Overnight stay in a 4-​star hotel.

Zadar – Split (158km)

Day 8: MOSTAR

Today you will learn that Mostar is the city of con­trasts, where “the east and west meet”, as you will observe vis­it­ing the tra­di­tional Kujundziluk (old bazaar) and a con­tem­po­rary city cen­tre. Mostar is famous for its mag­nif­i­cent stone bridge Stari Most (Old Bridge), built in 1566 over the Neretva River. The city is divided by not only the Neretva River that flows through it but also by reli­gion and cul­ture from one bank to the other, as Mus­lims and Chris­tians live on oppo­site banks of the river. After an exten­sive tour of Mostar you will spend the night in a 2-​bedroom apart­ment in the city centre.

Split – Mostar (160km)

Day 9: SARAJEVO

Today we get to know the cap­i­tal of Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina, the delight­ful city of Sara­jevo. We start our tour on the Baščaršija square, the cen­tre­piece of Sara­jevo and the place where you can truly expe­ri­ence the city’s charm and atmos­phere. Dur­ing the stroll through Baščaršija you can seize the oppor­tu­nity to taste the authen­tic Bosn­ian cof­fee and local food or to buy a memento from one of the hun­dreds of street sell­ers. Later we move on towards Kazandžiluk street (Coppersmith’s street), the burned library — Vijećnica and Inat Kuća, con­tin­u­ing towards Sarajevo’s famous bridges, includ­ing Šeher-​ćehaja, the Impe­r­ial bridge and the infa­mous Latin bridge, best known for the assas­si­na­tion of Franz Fer­di­nand that took place there. We con­tinue our tour vis­it­ing the Impe­r­ial mosque, the Gazi Hus­ref bey’s mosque com­plex, the Old Ortho­dox Church, known for its uncom­mon design, being wider rather than longer. We end the tour vis­it­ing the Old Ortho­dox Church of St Archangel’s Mikhail and Gabriel, the Cathe­dral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Old Jew­ish Tem­ple before leav­ing Sara­jevo and head­ing to Mostar. Overnight stay in a 4-​star hotel.

Mostar – Sara­jevo (130km)

Day 10: Depar­ture from SARAJEVO

Enjoy a final break­fast at your hotel before you will be trans­ferred to Sara­jevo air­port, mark­ing the end of our Balkan tour!