Bulgaria
Treasures of Bulgaria: Ancient Ruins, Roses and Revival
Program No. 19207RJ
If you are looking for a place to explore off-the-tourist paths, then join us in Bulgaria, a nation rich with ancient wonders, natural beauty and people eager to show you their land.
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We offset a portion of the emissions created by your travel. Learn more
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DATES
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12 days
11 nights
25 meals
10B 8L 7D
1
In Transit to Program
In Flight
5
Plovdiv
Plovdiv
9
Horse-Rider Rock-Cut Relief, Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari
Veliko Tarnovo
10
Veliko Tarnovo, Arbanasi, Bulgarian Cooking Class
Veliko Tarnovo
12
Program Concludes
Sofia
At a Glance
Home of the world’s most exquisite roses, Europe’s oldest civilization and seven outstanding UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Bulgaria is a land of superlatives in an unspoiled region of the Balkan Mountains of Eastern Europe. Join us for a special opportunity to experience a land unknown to outsiders and get to know the warm and hospitable people who have remerged onto Europe’s stage after decades of seclusion.
Activity Level
Keep the Pace
Walking up to 4 miles/4 hours per day, including periods of standing, on city streets, museums and sites, sometimes with uneven and hilly terrain, cobblestone, traffic and street noise. Get on and off the bus 3-4 times per day. Unavoidable stairs. Elevations up to 3,763 feet.
Small Group
Love to learn and explore in a small-group setting? These adventures offer small, personal experiences with groups of 13 to 24 participants.
Best of all, you’ll…
- Learn about recent breathtaking archaeological finds in the Kazanlak region, and Thracian culture at the replica site of the world-famous, fourth-century B.C. Thracian tomb — a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- Discover centuries-old traditions of rose oil production at a rose oil distillery in the Valley of the Roses.
- Take an expert-led field trip in the majestic city of Plovdiv, the oldest city in Europe.
General Notes
Give us a call to combine this learning adventure with select dates of "Treasures of Romania: Enchanting Castles and Painted Monasteries" (#19208) for even more learning in Europe!
Featured Expert
All trip experts
Kamen Metchkov
Kamen Metchkov is a group leader and translator who has been a part of Road Scholar programs since 2013. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Central Arkansas and his master's degree from Michigan State University. A fan of classical and jazz music, Kamen has worked as a clarinet instructor in Michigan as well as a stage manager for the National Opera and Ballet in his native Bulgaria. He speaks Bulgarian, English and Italian, and aims to hike all of Bulgaria's 40 mountains.
Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.
Kamen Metchkov
View biography
Kamen Metchkov is a group leader and translator who has been a part of Road Scholar programs since 2013. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Central Arkansas and his master's degree from Michigan State University. A fan of classical and jazz music, Kamen has worked as a clarinet instructor in Michigan as well as a stage manager for the National Opera and Ballet in his native Bulgaria. He speaks Bulgarian, English and Italian, and aims to hike all of Bulgaria's 40 mountains.
Rossen Potzkov
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Rossen is a freelance group leader focusing on specialized cultural heritage, convention and wine in Bulgaria and abroad. He received his master's degree as a Fulbright Fellow in tourism administration from George Washington University, after which he spent two years as an event manager at the Tasting Society International in Washington, DC. Upon his return to Bulgaria, he worked in tourism marketing, interpreting at wine events and translating and interpreting for tourism investment seminars and familiarization trips.
Suggested Reading List
(22 books)
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
Treasures of Bulgaria: Ancient Ruins, Roses and Revival
Program Number: 19207
The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe
The changing borders and complex history of Eastern Europe as told through 52 maps and accompanying essays, organized chronologically. An excellent reference, the book shows the rise of Poland, changing borders of the Ottoman Empire, Hapsburgs and fate of Yugoslavia in admirable clarity.
Bury Me Standing
This marvelous portrait of the Roma, also known as the Gypsies, offers insight into their music, foods, religions and folk traditions and also examines their influential but complex relationship with Eastern Europe.
Crown of Thorns, The Reign of King Boris III of Bulgaria, 1918-1943
A biography of the famed Bulgarian monarch, who ruled from the end of World War I to the middle of World War II, when he defied Hitler's wishes for expelling Bulgaria's Jews.
The Turkish Gambit
Detective Erast Fandorin is caught in Bulgaria in the middle of the brutal Russo-Turkish war in this thriller set in 1877. The third book in the series.
Black Sea
In this skillful regional portrait, Ascherson weaves his own travels and impressions with a fascinating account of the Black Sea's history. From ancient mythology to modern politics, he admirably never loses sight of the sea itself.
The Romani Gypsies
Matras delves into the history of the Romani, an ancient and misunderstood European culture that has survived through modern times.
Eyewitness Guide Bulgaria
This visually rich guide features outstanding maps, essays and travel information.
Bulgaria Map
This detailed, single-sided fold-up map shows the country at a scale of 1:400,000. Place names are usefully shown in both Cyrillic and Latin script and the multilingual legend includes English.
A Concise History of Bulgaria
A highly readable, illustrated introduction to Bulgaria's history from medieval empire to Ottoman rule, revival and modernization to the fall of Communism.
Stork Mountain
A stunning debut novel that takes readers high into the Strandja Mountains. A young immigrant returns to Bulgaria to find his grandfather. He traces his grandfather's footsteps to the giant oaks where black storks nest, bringing a hidden past to life.
Lords of the Horizons
Goodwin artfully combines his modern travels with scholarship, history and reflection, capturing the outrageous personalities, events and vagaries of the 600-year-old Ottoman Empire.
The Balkans: Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 1804-2011
Longtime central European correspondent for the BBC based in Vienna, Glenny (The Fall of Yugoslavia) poignantly challenges the role of the Great Powers in this survey, newly revised and updated to cover developments in the region through 2011.
The Danube
Thorpe travels against the current on a year-long journey from the Black Sea to the Black Forest, mixing accounts of his daily morning swims with environmental research, archaeological observations and, especially, tales of the ferrymen and fisherman, shopkeepers, activists and others he meets along the way.
Street Without a Name, Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria
Born in 1973, Kassabova traces her coming-of-age in Communist Sofia and bittersweet return to a land transformed over the last 30 years in this captivating, candid memoir and travelogue.
Blue River, Black Sea
By bicycle, boat and on foot, British adventurer Andrew Eames (The 8:55 to Baghdad) weaves entertaining tales of his travels and the people he meets along the Danube from the Black Forest to Romania and the Ukraine into an insightful contemporary portrait of the region.
The Balkans, A Short History
With eloquence and clarity, Mazower addresses issues of geography, nationalism and nation in this indispensable survey.
The Broken Road, From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos
Assembled from Leigh Fermor’s manuscripts by friend and biographer Artemis Cooper, with the travel writer Colin Thubron, this is perhaps the most personal of all Leigh Fermor’s books, catching up with young Paddy in the fall of 1934 and following him through Bulgaria and Romania to the coast of the Black Sea.
Bai Ganyo, Incredible Tales of a Modern Bulgarian
An award-winning English translation of the 19th-century Bulgarian classic. The interlocking short stories, which are, by turns, humorous, satirical and dark, feature the folk hero Bai Ganyo. A solid literary introduction to Bulgaria. Translated by Aleko Konstantinov, Victor Friedman, Christina Kramer, Grace Fielder and Catherine Rudin.
In Search of Dracula
This history of Vlad Tepes (AKA Vlad the Impaler), the Romanian warrior prince and inspiration for Bram Stoker’s infamous blood-drinking count, draws on oral histories and archaeological evidence and also examines Dracula’s many incarnations in film and literature.
The Fragility of Goodness, Why Bulgaria's Jews Survived the Holocaust
A reconstruction of what happened in Bulgaria during World War II, detailing how Bulgaria became one of two countries not to turn over its Jewish population.
All Along the Danube: Recipes from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania, & Bulgaria
A cookbook full of classic recipes from Central Europe, with some valuable morsels of culture.
Balkan Ghosts, A Journey through History
Kaplan interweaves history, art and culture with his travels through Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania and Greece in this regional portrait.
