Hike Bulgaria's Rodopi Mountains

I had a wonderful week in the rural wilderness of Rodopi. This was my first hiking trip and I found the walks to be very enjoyable and manageable. The pace was leisurely with lots of wildlife stops whilst still covering a good distance each day. The trip notes are very accurate, although accommodation is basic, it's clean, comfortable and exactly what is described and had wonderful staff and great home cooked food. The guide Julian was fantastic, very passionate and a great leader and wildlife expert.

A very underrated trip with a real focus on wildlife, and there is lots to see. The walking is spot on for a moderate trip but there is time to stop and take photos and learn about the area and the wildlife. Trails are good and very quiet. It's definitely a place to get away from the rest of the world but with a homely hotel with good food at the end of the day.

This was a holiday: good food, good weather, relaxing hotel, nice hosts , great group, well organised. An exploration, fabulous unhurried but exhilarating walks, wonderful scenery and an education. Our guide Julian seemed to know and love all the wildlife, the butterflies and birds, the geology, geography, mythology and the current social and political status of Bulgaria. An interesting , informative and stimulating trip for mind and body.

This was an excellent walking tour with, as described, moderate walking but with time to stop and enjoy the wildlife and great views. It was very well organised and the village hotel was a good choice for walkers with good rooms, excellent home made food and attentive staff.

This is a very relaxing hiking trip with lots of time to explore nature at its best in the Rodopi Mts!

Beautiful wildlife everywhere!

Beautiful wildlife everywhere you looked, really nice hikes and beautiful home cooked food!

Walking in the peace of thick pine forested mountains and grassy meadows, with cool crystal clear streams, but in the domain of wild brown bears and raptors. The legend of Orpheus never far away. Meticulously kept hotel, with good food.

An under-appreciated gem. The mountains are stunning, the walking is moderate and achievable in breathtaking scenery, and we saw very few other people on any of the walks. Lots of additional interest in terms of flora and fauna, and the tour guide (Svetla) was extremely knowledgeable on a wide range of subjects, patient and had a great sense of humour.

A lovely week in an undisturbed mountain environment. We hardly saw anyone else on our walks, and Yagodina village is completely calm. It feels such a healthy week - unspoilt and wholesome.

Great week walking in the environs of Yagodina, an isolated village in the Rodopi mountains. Super hotel, serving wonderful traditional food.

Just returned from an excellent week in the Rodopi mountains. Faultless organisation throughout, from the warm hospitality of the Family Hotel Yagodina, its excellent and plentiful local food, to varied walks through deep forests, sunlit meadows, mountain tops. The leader’s knowledge of the area is second to none and he is generous with his knowledge of the wildlife you may encounter and sharing his understanding of this mysterious landscape, its history and myths, its people and way of life. One of the best Exodus trips I’ve ever been on, highly recommended. Thank you.

We had a great group and superb leader. I echo everything that Susanne has written. Rodopi is just a magical place - it is lush and full of nature: insects, particularly butterflies, wild flowers, lichen and signs of bigger animals who were no doubt watching us. I felt extremely comfortable, more knowledgable and much more aware of my surroundings by the end of the week. The walks are varied and a good length; no rush in the morning and back in time to have a couple of quiet hours in the evening. Five days in a row is reasonably challenging, but it is also possible to miss the odd day; a couple of our group found plenty to do - maybe a short walk, glass of wine with lunch and then wander in the village. Yagodina Hotel is perfect for the trip - very friendly and comfortable, we had wonderful home cooked food - recipes local to the region, Maria could not do enough to help I have been on several Exodus Trips and this is my favourite so far.

This trip far exceeded our expectations in many ways! The area is unspoilt & very quiet-we only saw one other group of hikers during our week in the mountains! Every day was filled with lovely walks through stunning scenery & we enjoyed discovering all of the flora & fauna in the area as well as spotting traces of bears! The Family Hotel Yagodina was spotlessly clean with decent size rooms & the food was amazing-all locally sourced & freshly made! Nothing was too much trouble for Maria & her team & we felt truly spoilt!

New to Bulgaria, great week discovering the landscape, flora & fauna and culture of this unique region.

I am ashamed to say that until we started looking for our next trip I had never heard of the Rodopi Mountains. They are a wonderful place, spectacular scenery with vistas of ridge after ridge, after ridge, a week isn't really long enough, maybe we will have to return. The walking was very enjoyable and the accommodation just what you want on a trip like this; clean and comfortable with a happy, relaxed atmosphere, a good shower, lovely staff and well cooked, tasty, locally sourced food . There is an abundance of wildlife in the mountains, but it is just that, wild, so don't expect to see it all. I have come to the conclusion that the wall creeper is a mythical bird! We were the first group in after two and a half years and everything worked really well. If you haven't been you are missing out on a treat.

A memorable walking holiday. The walks were through forests, gorges and beautiful wildflower meadows. Lovely views! A very pastoral feel to the whole holiday - and very relaxing. Yagodina is a small friendly village in a peaceful location. The hotel was clean and comfortable. Food was good - lots of local produce was used.

This was an excellent trip in a relatively unspoilt and bucolic part of the world. The Rodopi mountains in southern Bulgaria, near the Greek border, make for relatively gentle but sublime walking. We ambled along easy trails through deep gorges, natural forest and woodland, and, best of all, high alpine meadows, with carpets of wild flowers. The hotel in Yagodina was excellent - clean, with plenty of hot water after a day out. The food, even as a vegetarian, was varied, using a lot of local produce, and generally excellent. At the hotel, local beers were cheap, about £1.25 a bottle, though the wines were less so - think UK supermarket prices. It even had fairly good wifi!

Having travelled extensively but not to Bulgaria previously I was very interested to see what I would think of the country and I wasn't disappointed. I flew direct from Ireland on Thursday and spent two days in Sofia before I joined a group of 15 others on the Saturday. I am not surprised that our trip was full/sold out. We spent a great week enjoying all aspects of rural Bulgaria. The walks averaged out at ten miles a day based in Hotel Yagodina that is ideally situated and very well run. The weather was perfect, despite many forecasts that predicted otherwise.

We had five strenuous but not exhausting days walking through really beautiful gorges, meadows and mountains and came back to a welcoming and comfortable simple hotel each evening. Our guide was exemplary in her local knowledge of flora and fauna so there was much to learn as well as to enjoy. Highly recommended if you want to be out all day amidst a fascinating landscape.

This trip provides a great introduction to a very special, unspoilt part of Europe which maintains traditional practices in agriculture and food production. Yagodina is a real find and I hope its uniqueness can be retained; the local people were friendly and the Yagodina Family Hotel offers a genuinely homely atmosphere, including comfortable accommodation and plenty of interesting and well presented food. Maria, the proprietor, runs an impressive operation and is always available to ensure that guests' needs are met. The walks were well chosen and the week's itinerary gave an excellent overview of the Rodopi mountains, including insights into the history, culture, flora and fauna of the area.

A superb holiday in beautiful countryside, staying in an excellent local hotel with walks that make the most of what the region has to offer.

It was a very enjoyable trip in a remote part of the country. I didn't hear about Rodopi mountains before so didn't know what to expect. The scenery is absolutely stunning - mountains, forests, gorges, caves - all so untouched and beautiful! I enjoyed all the walks and we never saw any other walkers - it was amazing to have it all just to ourselves. We also had a chance to see how local people live. It was a nice, relaxing week and the group bonded pretty quickly!

Good walking in the Rodopi hills -Derbyshire on a larger scale (but with a lot more trees).

Excellent trip walking in the mountains and meadows of the Rodopi mountains. Lovely family run hotel with exellent food - very welcoming. We had a very peaceful and relaxing time in Yagodina and the walks were lovely - especially the time spent in the beautiful wildflower meadows.

A good week's walking in a rural location hosted in a great locally run hotel. This week was everything that I expected based on the detailed trip notes, the walks and the hotel were as described and ticked all the boxes for me. I spent a couple of additional days in Sofia which was a good balance.

A very enjoyable holiday with a good mix of people. Good hotel and food ,service was excellent.

Lovely part of the world with stunning scenery. The wild flowers were at their best when I visited in May. A very different pace of life to home but interestingly even the cow herds on the upper meadows had their smartphones. My son loved the first and last days best with climbing under/over all the fallen trees and fording the fast running river - such a contrast to the ridge walks and alpine meadows. Our guide Neli was very knowledgeable about the area, flowers and birdlife, and very patient with all our questions. It would have been very difficult to find some of the paths on our own. The walking pace was accurately described as leisurely. The accommodation was comfortable, the wifi better than at home, the food excellent and the beer just so cheap!

A great week in a lovely unspoiled area. Gorgeous meadows. Lots of spring flowers, including rare orchids. Varied walks which give a good overall feeling for the area. The pace gave plenty of time to enjoy the surroundings & wildlife.

A really nice week's walking in the rarely visited Rodopi mountains in Bulgaria - I'd never heard of them before! All the walks were pretty gentle with around four hours walking each day. The walks are in deep, step-sided gorges or up on open mountain pastures. There's plenty to see with butterfly, bird and orchid spotting being particularly popular.

Lovely scenery at a relaxed pace.

It was a very enjoyable trip in a remote part of the country. I didn't hear about Rodopi mountains before so didn't know what to expect. The scenery is absolutely stunning - mountains, forests, gorges, caves - all so untouched and beautiful! I enjoyed all the walks and we never saw any other walkers - it was amazing to have it all just to ourselves. We also had a chance to see how local people live. It was a nice, relaxing week and the group bonded pretty quickly!

This trip was delightfully different from other European trips that we have enjoyed. The local people were warm and friendly and appeared content to work in the fields or sit with the cows in a high pasture all day. The difference between our fast paced life style and their post communist lives was marked. The scenery was beautiful, very 'vertical', with rare pre-ice age flowers. Even the long drive from and too Sofia was interesting and our driver surely the most competent in Bulgaria.

Excellent trip walking in the mountains and meadows of the Rodopi mountains. Lovely family run hotel with exellent food - very welcoming. We had a very peaceful and relaxing time in Yagodina and the walks were lovely - especially the time spent in the beautiful wildflower meadows.

A good week's walking in a rural location hosted in a great locally run hotel. This week was everything that I expected based on the detailed trip notes, the walks and the hotel were as described and ticked all the boxes for me. I spent a couple of additional days in Sofia which was a good balance.