Balkan Explorer

It was interesting visiting countries that are not yet popular tourist destinations. Learnt so much about Albania, Slovenia , Bosnia and the other countries which totally changed my perspective of these countries . Friendly people and great food .

Would highly recommend this tour to see the highlights of the Balkans. Lots of included tours and meals. A real variety of places and countries visited and generally centrally located hotels.

Easy going and entertaining the tour was done in such a way that everyone was in high gear and looking for the next adventure to come.

Wonderfully busy and exciting tour program.. experienced all the major highlights and landmarks in the Balkan countries. With an awesome tour leader and coach driver team.

I have been with Expat Explore for 5 tours & this is one of the best. The places are just awesome. The only drawback is the very hectic schedule sometimes barely able to enjoy the place like in Zadar coming so late & wasn't able to see the place. Overall it's good value for money. Also I prefer to have been given a triple room.

Amazing experience Experienced 9 Countries in 16 days - amazing historical sites All done seamlessly your exceptional tour guide Martina and driver Ceno

It is my first time to go outside of Asia and some of the countries included in the itinerary are part of my dream destinations. Accommodations and included food are generally likeable, with some exceptional ones like Hotel Famissa in Meteora, Hotel Bellevue in Macedonia, and Hotel Capita in Serbia. Our tour guide Marty was more than proficient enough with the facts of the places we went to, not to mention her own personal experiences with the locations helped me appreciate the destinations better. She also extended an extra mile by being helpful with suggestions of restaurants and some other scenic spots we can visit during our free time. She made everyone feel included and like a friend or family, which helped raised the travel experience. Ceno, our coach driver, was phenomenal with his driving and navigation skills, and also was very helpful with the luggages. Overall, this first time in Europe and Expat Explore was a great first experience, and the company delivered what it promised, and more.

Fast paced, fantastic driver Cena, and excellent tour guide Marty. Great fun exploring new cities ( Marty has a map of every city in her head!!). Can buy cold drinks on the bus ( water). Seat rotation worked well.

Our tour guide Marty treats her guests fairly, friendly and perfectly.She is organized and very punctual.. The tour was scheduled well and on time.our driver Ceno was experienced kind and we Felt very safe. I was disappointed with the quality of the hotels rooms.but the locations were good.. The group members very friendly. I will absolutely recommend Expat explorer.

Pleasantly surprised with the countries we visited. Your leader and driver were outstanding

We got to see a lot in a short amount of time. The tour guide was absolutely amazing. The tour guide was so knowledgeable and was just overall great.

This tour was a great value. Hotels were comfortable, bus driver was excellent, and the food was, for the most part, very good. The local guides taught us a lot.

The tour was different from what I'm used to (first time doing a group tour). VERY GLAD I had Will and my group with me! Amazing people and team leader. Thank you Will for making the journey through the Balkans GREAT!

My teenage son and I really enjoyed the tour! Will, our tour leader was great, informative and able to answer all our questions. Ceno, our driver, was able to navigate through the tightest spots and keep us safe on the road! All in all a super tour!

Well, covering 10 countries in 16 days sounded ambitious from the outset - I never realised just how exhausted I would be by the end of this tour! If you like more relaxation, leisure and time to explore at your own pace, then an Expat Explore tour is not for you. But if you love the idea of visiting a ton of new countries you've never been to before and experiencing the highlights of each country with a group of like-minded travellers, then this tour will tick the box. It was great to get an overview of each country, but the tour is just that - an overview, with often only a couple of hours in the afternoon or short overnight visits in each country - not really enough time to explore in more depth and really experience the country's history, food and culture before you move onto the next destination, with this very busy schedule. However, this tour did give me a brief taste of each country so that I now know where I would go back to explore in much more detail with more time on my own in the future.

Loved the overall tour. This is my 7th Expat Experience and I loved getting to add new countries to my bucketlist. Each country was unique within itself. Wish we could have stayed for a longer duration in some stops over others as there was more to see and experience in the busier city centers versus the locations that were a bit more remote. The border crossings were a bit challenging due to bureaucracy but we always made it through. This is a must to experience if you've never traveled to this part of Europe. Will, our tour guide was very organized and knowledgeable about each location and made the trip run like clockwork.

Excellent experience, visited many places that were amazing. Balkan tour was one of my best ExpatExplore experience.People are very welcoming towards the tourist.I enjoyed most of optional, except the Game of Thrones. I could have gone for cable car. Most of the locals tour guides were knowledgeable. However, local tour guide should be telling both sides of the coin. As a local tour guide, they should have mentioned all the must visit places regardless their polical ideology or faith.Our tour guide was very informative and friendly. We had so much fun. Included dinner were average, should have give bit more options. got excellent bus driver too. Overall excellent experience and highly recommended.

The tour was great - we saw some places that we don't need to go back to -and some amazing places that we will definitely get back to like Ohrid, Dubrovnik and Budapest - Rogan was the best tour leader we have had with Expat - this was our 4th tour with Expat

I enjoyed my time on the tour and loved visiting the places which were a first time for me. The people on the group were amazing and I have great memories of this trip. Our tour leader, Rogan was fantastic. His passion for history and travel made the trip enjoyable and memorable for me. Our bus driver, Panagiotis was also great and professional through out the trip. It was my second time doing a tour with Expat Explore, I had never heard of them before and only did my first tour about 4 weeks prior to this tour. I enjoyed my time and would recommend them for tours and would book another trip with them.

Great experience and certainly recommend

Interesting and informative pieces of adventure. Experience and see the evolving geopolitical, economic and cultural landscape of these ancient kingdom countries from the Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, and Communist empires to independent sovereign states. The driver is outstanding and the tour leader is interesting and funny.

Expat Explore is very efficient with their tour arrangemwnts

This tour has been a deeply engaging experience, visiting both countries where tourism is only just developing and others which are already extremely popular tourist destinations. Hold ups with border crossings and a 100 minute wait for a 10 minute ferry crossing were the low lights but the tour leader Gabi modelled a fabulously positive attitude to these situations which were out of our control and the whole group remained buoyant as a result. Whilst Greece and Croatia were absolute stand outs, the discovery of the unknown in countries like Albania and Bulgaria and the charm and history of the many old towns and fortifications along the way made the whole tour deeply interesting and enjoyable. I have felt well looked after by Gabi, as a person with special dietary requirements, have felt that she has gone over and above to make sure I am well catered for, including buying me items out of her own pocket on 2 occasions. She is a genuine and extremely friendly and down to earth person whose warm personality has really added value to our experiences on this trip. Gabi is an asset to Expat, always professional and focused on getting the best outcomes for the group. Sincere thanks Gabi and thanks Expat for continuing to deliver on this , our 4th trip with the company.

This tour was amazing, saw lots of incredible sights and learnt so much from out Tour Director Filip, who fad an extraordinary amount of knowledge and had all passengers on the coach entertained. Kleantis our coach driver was also first class and drove us everywhere with ur most professionalism. We'll use Expat again!.

Filip on tour was full of knowledge, fun on the bus, I found the tour full of history and throughout the tour enjoyed getting to know the 10 countries we went through.

From the start of the trip all the way to Budapest was outstanding. A great mixture of culture, sights, and history was very entertaining. The distances between all the cities was not as long as a previous Western Europe trip we had taken. Our tour leader Karina was outstanding. She kept us entertained on and off the bus and genuinely wanted us to have a great trip where we felt comfortable anywhere we went. There were two downsides of this trip. Serbia and Bulgaria are not quite ready for tourism. The people were not too welcoming and the sights were not as great. One other downside were the included dinners were mostly chicken. I can have chicken anytime at home and I would rather have different choices at the included dinners or find dinner on my own.

Am so happy to experience the EU Autumn specially my DUBROVNIK Walking Tour

Tour Guide: Karina, grt tour leader Tour Driver: Yiannis, full marks. This tour operator is great. go ahead with them Coach: No WiFi, No charging ports, Toilet use highly discouraged and only to pee. Itinerary: Very stretched long days. Almost half of our days were around 10-12 hours driving, border crossing & toilet breaks. After a rushed breakfast at 6:30, you get on bus around 7-7:30 morning & often reach hotel around 6-7:30 pm. In between you see your places where you get 1-2 hours time for lunch, sightseeing & toilet break. You are always rushed on this trip. Often when u reach your destination city, u hv to go walking tours or dinners & check in to hotel later. There's no free time except the 3 free day's given in major cities. We had to wrap up Montenegro & few other exciting places in 1-2 hours. This is very tiring & exhausting itinerary & all my trip mates were over tired, fed up and wanted to get over with the trip. This trip involves lot of walking too so if you are senior citizen & have mobility issues, don't do it. One such lady cried on my trip. The coach doesn't have WiFi or charging facilities. You have to supersave your mobile & camera batteries with such long hours of journey. It's a big headache. I recommend the tour operator to revise the itinerary from 10 countries to 7 countries, reduce the no of places, keep max travel time of 6-7 hours & give people more time. Other tour companies are offering better itineraries. I have traveled with other co's but this was too much to handle. Having said all that I recommend to travel with this tour operator. They are really good & caring people and trying their best to squeeze & return the maximum value of your money. Cheers

I recently travelled with expat on the Balkan Explorer tour. This was my 5th tour with Expat. This is a very ambitious tour that reaches many unique destinations. It is very fast-paced with long days and long bus rides. But the destinations were ones I wanted to see and it was definitely worth it for me. If you want to see the destinations this route offers, I found this to be an excellent value.

My friend has previously done same tour and like myself felt it was too many countries in timeframe .Perhaps breaking the trip into two segments with option for longer tour with mote time to appreciate.Instead much of the group got viruses from being run down and practically living on coach. Also my preference would be to have guides who reside in those areas as they are truly invested in their homeland. Much of the group noticed the obvious sell for guide receiving top score and top daily tip if 6euro a day. I don't appreciate the sell and English based guides are doing it as a lifestyle,also said blank lovenotes in tip envelope would only encourage people to feel obliged to give more.Perhaps there needs to be a fairer system in place as many travellers cannot afford the said almost 100 euro each to guide and driver. The driver however was incredibly competent and professional,perhaps his feedback would be helpful.On the trip however, I suggest a two week trip that ends in Budapest with option for three nights in Budapest and add on week for remainder of tour ending in relaxed location before ending in Athens

Great value for money. A lot of travel in a short time, but you expect that when you see so many tours. Great tour guide and driver. This is my second expat tour, and it won't be my last.

Everything about the tour was amazing, the tour itinerary, the hotels, the meals, the tour group and the coach. The coach driver Giannis was brilliant and interacted with the tour group well. Our tour leader Erin deserves a special mention, she was marvellous in keeping us informed and made the whole experience that much better. She is a wonderful ambassador for Expat.

Great locations and excellent tour leader and driver. Would recommend to everyone, especially those wanting to see some of the less travel places which aren't overcrowded by tourists and still feel authentic.

I took this tour in early August, it was my second expat tour and I would definitely use this company again mainly due to the great prices, good itineraries and variety of countries covered. I enjoyed the tour but the interpersonal part dampened it a little. To begin with mostly retired people, families, couples and friends made up most of the group; same with the last. I am under 35 and travelled alone so I shared a room with another solo female traveller a few years younger. We were roommates during the entire trip and I felt she was a bit inconsiderate. While the tour leader spoke about seat rotation and being considerate of others on the bus nothing was said to the solo travellers who were virtually sharing rooms with strangers. My roommate would grab the key before me, enter the room first and choose the side with the window/balcony and/or more space, it wasn't until the last leg of the trip that I told her we should take turns choosing our side. Although she agreed, it dampened our relationship. Overall though she acted like she was in the room alone for instance, on our free day in Bulgaria she stayed in the hotel while I went on the optional excursion, on my return I noticed a 'do not disturb' sign on the door. According to my roommate she doesn't trust hotel cleaners so she didn't want them to clean the room, and our bathroom was left dirty and without toilet paper. When I told my roommate about this she said I should use facial tissues...apparently, for all our free days the room was not cleaned. Another thing she did was use the hairdryer in the night when I wanted to sleep to dry her clothes, there were other little things that were a bit inconsiderate too but one of the worse happened in the morning when the tour ended in Athens. She finished breakfast before me, went to our room to get her stuff and left the door to the room wide opened. All of my belongings were inside unsecured. The tour leader was curt, unhelpful and and a bit standoffish.

The tour was very well organized and the accomodation was comfortable and clean. The breakfasts in all the hotels had a wide variety and was fresh. The schedule was quite tight but I enjoyed every visit although the visit to Novi Sad could have been skipped. I would have loved more time in Mostar and Croatia. I think more informative advice could be given sbout money withdrawals at ATM's. Information I only received after the tour on how to not pay extra money as a result of the conversion made by banks, in different currencies. Our team leader, Erin and driver, Yiannes, made the tour even more enjoyable.

Erin was a great tour leader! She set the tone from day one and managed to keep it upbeat throughout the tour! She really was sms one!

Amazing Tour. The operator is very professional as always, good job !!

The best tour the Balkan explorer

I loved having to be 10 countries in a such a short time

An interesting tour combining long days in the bus, short visits to many interesting cities and towns, 2 star accommodation and a couple of destinations that were not worth the extended time in the bus - namely Tirana and Mostar, especially as we then backtracked from Mostar to the accommodation, a real waste of a day for 1.5 hours to walk over the bridge and through the markets with people shoulder to shoulder. Driving along the Adriatic coast to overnight in Split with then a shorter drive to Plivitice Lakes the next day would have been far preferrable. Again overnight in Thessloniki? another unattractiive dirty city. Could we not have stayed at Karmen Vourla and enjoyed some time along the seaside for one afternoon and one morning before departing for Athens. Glad I've seen it and overall enjoyed the tour but I have to ask what I got for my $1270 single supplement. Maybe a change of route would also reduce the number of border crossings therefore more time to spend at destinations and save lost time.

The Positives Yannis our tour driver was Excellent.. He was such a skillful driver, very helpful and gentlemanly as he would also help us alight from the bus. And he treated our luggages with care unlike during my Northern Explorer Tour last Septmeber 2017 where my luggage broke because of rough handling by the tour driver. The hotels that were good were Kosco Hotel which had complete amenities, Hotel Belvedere in Macedonia were the linens were excellent and the place had several grand pianos where one of my travel mates played the piano. Sky2 Hotel in Albania was also nice. Hotel VIS in Dubrovnik had a nice. location beside the water and breakfast.was good, Hotel Park in Slovenia was centrally located and walking distance to the the center of the city. Ibis Hotel in Budapest had a nice location since it was walking distance to Heroe's Square and a park but the airconditioning in most of the rooms were not working and since we were there on holiday, the place did not have the needed maintenance personnel. The food at Hotel Vicko in Northern Croatia was good and the owner very helpful but our room assignments were confusing although the apartel were we were assigned was nice. Ramada Blue in Sofia had complete amenities but the floor were we were assigned ( 4th floor) still needs renovation. I understand that hotel is still undergoing renovation. In general, the sights we saw during the trip were nice and the included dinner was okey but the one in Athens Greece on our first night was excellent I was wondering though if the included dinners in the other places reflected the actual local food of the place. THE NEGATIVES Since most of the tourists are seniors, I think all the shower areas of all the hotels should include a MAT inside the shower area and grab bars because the shower areas were always slippery and one had to be careful about slipping. The Hotel EL GRECO was terrible. Please skip MOSTAR. It is not worth the 6 passport checks.

The tour was very informative about the heritage and culture of each Balkan country. I was fortunate to come this far and learned that our country Philippines is not that far from attaining exemplary development terms of economics and government management. I love Dubrovnik for its magnificent Old Town and similarly red and white colored houses which made the place awesome. Montenegro and Budapest likewise were amazing. Kalambaka, Meteora gave us the wonderful view of St Stephen Monastery on top of a huge rock.!!!! The tour guide Shae and Driver Yanis were truly fantastic which made the tour enjoyable.

A Great Way to see the former Yugoslavian countries and Eastern Europe!

10 countries in 16 days ! .... Making friends with some most amazing people ! Awesome

For the traveller on a budget, this service does it all. They take you all over, at quite a fast pace, to see cities, castles, rivers and more! They provide nice hotels, that are clean and usually quiet. Lots of food, the breakfasts were full of food, and the dinners, although not always the traditional food of that country, were plentiful and filling. We even had a grande finale, we stayed at a 4 star hotel, with a luxurious pool! The included dinner at a local traditional restaurant was the highlight of the trip for me, because it had live Bulgarian folk music, and I even got to dance! I wish the customer service was better, I ended up leaving a dress behind, and a special water bottle, and tried for days to contact someone at expat, and I never got any help. They did provide me with a phone number to call the hotel, but the hotel never answered. I was really hoping expat would take care of this for me, and they did not.

I was pretty aware of what I was getting into when I signed up for this tour with my whole family, what I did not anticipate was that my legs and feet will not be able to take it all in but I still give this tour 5 stars rating. We went home with tons of memories and pictures. The tour was fantastic and what made it even more exciting and truly worth the time and expenses we put it in is the that we got an EXCELLENT tour leader in Filip! His knowledge of the history, literature, culture, food, language and the locals of the places we've been to is impeccable. He was very generous on these aspects and not only that, he made sure to check in on us all the time. He was very organized and kept us all informed, which includes the weather, what to expect and watch out for as well as suggestions on what shoes to wear. There were some tour members who were quite challenging especially in terms of seating arrangement and time management but Filip tackled these all with flying colors.This is my third tour with Expat and I have done tours with other companies as well and I say this without batting an eyelash, Filip is the BEST so far! He is truly a gem for your company! Our driver Klianthis was also remarkable. He knew the places we've been to like the back of his palm. I've never seen him use GPS or stop to ask for direction at any point. He was not very interactive with us the first part of the tour but started to warm up towards the end. We took naps here and there, to me this is very important so I could gather more energy but at the same this time meant that I felt safe with Klianthis on the wheel. Looking forward to my 4th Expat tour...

Tour leader(Filip) and our driver are both experienced and easy to go with.

Pilps excellent and the driver too

Really enjoyed the trip. Great bunch of fellow travelers. Some hotels could have been a little better. But then others were better than expected! Tour guide Erin is a lovely young lady. But not the best tour guide. Far to repeating. A little annoying towards the end. When talking about tips, not very professional to then say she had worked very hard suggesting she deserved a good tip! We all work hard and paid a lot for the trip. (I was not the only one who thought this) Saying that I would certainly recommend the trip. And will certainly use the company again!

Overall it was a good tour but there are certain aspects that I would change. On the first day when we went to dinner in Athens we took the metro to Syntagma square and walked to the restaurant. Instead of walking in the park we should have gone for a tour of the Plaka which would have been so much more interesting and had more shops. Our tour leader did take us down one main avenue but that wasn't where most of the quaint shops were. Also I do recommend she use some sort of flag or umbrella so we can spot her in a crowd. I also would arrange the tour so we can spend more time in Slovenia as Lubljana was delightful.