Balkans Rail Adventure

Full on 2 weeks. A lot of highlights. Guided tours were excellent. Not enough time in some cities to properly explore what wasn't covered on the tour. Particularly hard to explore where it was not possible to get a map. Scenery was wonderful; trains and buses were all very comfortable. Everywhere felt safe and water was safe to drink in all places.

The tour was put together perfectly. Communication and itinerary was first class. Filip ( our guide ) was fantastic. Informative with a genuine passion for what he does.

I enjoyed the tour , it is an all encompassing ride through the former Yugoslavia , My tour highlights - I had an extra day prior to the tour staying in Ljublijana , I'm glad I did. If you go to the castle get there for 9am , before the crowds arrive. Walking around Lake Bled , visiting Plitvice National Park walking on well established trails not difficult to do Sarajevo - The Tunnel Of Hope and going up on the Trebevic cable car, the views are fantastic Mostar Novi Sad - compared to Belgrade this city is very relaxed situated by the Danube Skopje - Amazing public statues Lake Ohrid Pristina - not the most attractive city but interesting to walk around , I stayed an extra night and went to the Bear Sanctuary , which looks after rescued and traumatised brown bears , well worth supporting. I thought all of the hotels were of a good standard , only one did not have a lift. I enjoyed the local food and beer. I used a debit card extensively, didn't use much cash. Food and drink were reasonably inexpensive, Dubrovnik was expensive , 40 euros to walk the city walls. I was impressed with the rail service , fully electrified , comfortable . The train from Belgrade to Nis was interesting , 7 hours and 43 stops going through the heartland of rural Serbia , this train had Wi-Fi ( it worked ). The sleeper train was interesting , good fun. There are lots of stairs at rail stations and some trains have high steps , if you cannot lift your bag you need to repack. This tour would not have been as enjoyable and interesting if it had not been for the hard work of our tour guide - Ana Medesi. Ana went out of her way to make sure everyone had a good time , always well organised and good humoured.

This is a full on trip with some early starts and long travel days. But we thoroughly enjoyed travelling through all 7 countries of the former Yugoslavia. The hotels are all reasonable (all had fridges, a couple had kettles in the rooms) but there usually was no elevator so pack light as you need to carry your luggage upstairs. The guides we had (Filip and Ana) were excellent and managed all the logistics brilliantly.

Really interesting trip. Seven countries. History, politics, beautiful landscapes. Excellent, friendly, knowledgeable tour leader.

Great trip Did and saw lots

Having done so many stops and different hotels, I am finding it hard to fully remember each place we visited but have tried to recall as best I can. I may have got some of the places confused though. Our guide, Lazar, was lovely and really helped to bond the group together and was fun to be with. He looked after us all really well and gave us a lot of useful and interesting information. All of our drivers and local guides were also good, although there were a lot of dates and information to take in and by mid week two, we were all cultured out. Our group was mixed but we all got on well and had a lot of fun together. I did feel a bit sorry for one of the solo ladies who was a lot younger than the rest of us. There was no problem with getting on with everyone but I think she would have had more fun with at least one other person nearer to her own age. Overall the trip was very good but I did feel some of the places we went to were a box ticking exercise and not necessarily the best places to go. The journey itself didn’t always flow well and we seemed to travel big distances going backwards and forwards. Ljubljana was nice as was the visit to Lake Bled. There was only a half day scheduled in Zagreb as the 2nd day was a planned visit to Plitvice Lakes. We were not able to go on the Plitvice trip as my partner wasn’t able to walk the distance suffering with a bad knee, however this did give us more time to explore Zagreb which we found worthwhile. (A half day wasn’t really enough time to see the city). We had also seen the lakes last year so didn’t feel we had missed out. Hotel was nice but would have been better to have stayed closer to the centre as it was a 10 min taxi drive to the centre. Really like Sarajevo and Mostar, time was tight to explore fully but had 2 good guided tours. Hotel Hecco was quite basic and we had to carry suitcases up 3 flights of stairs which wasn’t easy, (Lazar helped us all with our cases). Good location though. Dubrovnik – we have been before so we were happy to have a chilled afternoon but for everyone else there was not a lot of time to explore and would have been good to have a city tour as there is a lot to see and learn about its history. Tivat was lovely. We only had half day in Kotor which was enough and we had to catch the overnight train. We were lucky as most of us only had 2 people in a 3 berth cabin. I would not have wanted to be in a cabin with 3 people as not enough room and hard to get up to the top bunk. Otherwise the train journey was more comfortable than I thought it would be. It was a shame that the train trip is listed as being one of the most beautiful, as we were not able to benefit from the scenery as it was dark for the majority of the trip. Belgrade needed more than one day. The 2nd day was an optional trip to Novi Sad which I would have liked to have done but we didn’t feel we had seen enough of Belgrade so the 2nd day gave us more time to get trams and find our way around. The train journey to Nis was scenic but very slow. Nis was ok for half a day but a long way to go for such a short time. Would like to have gone to the Creveni concentration camp but there was not enough time as it closed at 4pm. Skopje was nice and one day was enough to see the main sights Ohrid was lovely but unfortunately we had torrential rain and got soaked through on the tour and could not do the boat trip. No one’s fault. The hotel in Ohrid had a function on in the evening with loud music playing to the early hours of the morning. There was no warning of this and not acceptable to be going on so late. The last day’s drive to Pristina was very long. We passed through some beautiful scenery and I think we would all have liked to do a few more stops to take photos and to enjoy the National Park. Basically we had a very long drive to arrive in Pristina late afternoon, giving us just over an hour to look round before having dinner. Our flight the next day was early as otherwise we could have spent the morning exploring. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of the Kosovo. Overall a very interesting and enjoyable trip.

Lazr so knowledgeable about all seven countries he should be teaching upper level university courses. He’s dedicated and streetwise, particularly to your benefit when it comes to getting low prices for tour expenses. He should be given an immediate raise and be considered for future promotion.

Four star rating because the explore trip description was out of date. Whilst advertised as a rail adventure we had very few train journeys (even counting in the rail trip that had to be cancelled due to landslide flooding and earthquake). The train stock described as ex soviet union had apparently been for some time replaced by more modern carriages. Other itineries were also different, but all of the changes were good. Our tour leader Filip was beyond excellent. Always cheerful and completely unfazed. For example, by the sudden cancellation of the train journey form Sarajevo to Mostar,. He very quickly reorganised transport arrangements with the bonus that we also travlled through an extra nationl park. Very knowledgeable about a vast range of Balkan related topics. Kind and considerate, especially to those of us whose speed of walking was slower than the rest of the group. The guides were all good with the standout being the guide to the Sarajevo tunnel. Suggest you include this as an integral part of the future tours. I booked with the complete knowledge that the tour would be full on but, like other group members, would suggest that the intinerary should be relaxed a bit. Hotels OK but breakfasts were standard 'continental' so, unless this is what people in the Balkans eat, lacked any local flavour.

Well organised with lots of variety. Fast pace but lots to see and learn about. History of all the different countries was extremely complex .Beautiful scenery and good weather.

Full on, busy, enjoyable trip. I wouldn’t describe it as a rail adventure as mostly we travelled by bus. Worth noting that towards the end of the season some train routes do not run. Jammed packed itinerary and a great way to see so many countries. The city guides were excellent, in particular, Sarajevo, Zagreb and Mostar. A couple of times a felt we could have left earlier in order to arrive at our next destination a bit earlier. Very varied. For me the highlight was definitely Sarajevo. Would really recommend the optional tunnel tour; an absolute stand out. Accommodation was poor at times - particularly in Sarajevo. Food options limited for vegetarians. Smoking is everywhere in the region, even inside restaurants. Also worth noting that there is a lot of carrying bags on/off trains/buses and many hotels don’t have lifts. Tour leader was knowledgable, friendly and helpful. One slight negative for me was the pressure to attend optional group dinners.

Our group Explore Leader, Filip Kolic, is highly professional in ensuring our trip is as comfortable and enjoyable as possible. He's quick in problem-solving and forward thinking for example he's on top of organising alternative transport back-to-back for our group when early news of regional floodings and landslides had caused disruptions of the railway and road connections to our next destination. Great job there as we were able to reach our next city to continue our planned guided city tour, although quite short. We managed to celebrate our trial & tribulation at a lovely quick dinner next to our hotel! All went well with extra National Park sceneries and travel experiences!