This corner of South West Bulgaria is full of cultural, historical and beautiful places to visit. Full and half day trips from the hotel include riding the narrow gauge mountain railway, visiting the Dancing Bear sanctuary, admiring the ornate monasteries at Rila and Rozhen, wandering round the picturesque old town of Bansko sampling the wine from Melnik and trying out the local mineral spa baths. Slightly further afield but also worth visiting are the Trigrad Gorge with its spectacular caves,  Plovdiv with it’s Roman ruins and Byzantine fortress and even Greece is only a 90 minute drive away.

Narrow Gauge Railway

You can ride the narrow gauge railway which runs from Bansko to Septemvri taking you through some of Bulgaria’s most spectacular mountain scenery and passing through the highest railway station in the Balkans. The whole journey will take a full day or alternatively you can drive over the picturesque mountain pass at Yundola and down into Velingrad. Here you can explore the town and then ride the final and most spectacular part of the railway to Septemvri.

Dancing Bear Park

The Dancing Bear Sanctuary at Belitsa, is well worth a visit. The park covers 12 kms of forest terrain, in an environment similar to the bears’ natural habitat. Created as a refuge for bears rescued from a life of captivity, the park is now home to 25 former dancing bears. Unfortunately these bears will never be able to return to the wild but the seven enclosures containing forest, pools and dens are a world away from their previous lives in towns and a haven of peace and security. A visitor centre at the top of the park provides information about how the bears were trapped and trained and about how they were rescued. Above the visitor centre is a viewing platform with fabulous views over the park and the surrounding mountains. A trip from the hotel will take half a day.

Melnik and Rozhen Monastery

Melnik is the smallest town in Bulgaria and famous as a wine producing area. Nestled among sandstone cones in the southern foothills of the Pirin mountains, it is a marvellously picturesque town, with whitewashed stone houses on timber props festooned with flowers and vines overhanging cobbled alleys and courtyards.

At the top end of the meandering main street is Kordopulov House, a large National Revival style house, now open to the public as a wine museum. From the upper windows there are fabulous views in all directions and the basement is a wine cellar created from vast caves cut into the hillside. The admission price includes sampling the local wine.

The Rozhen monastery lies a further 6km down the valley and can be reached from Melnik by car or by either of two footpaths. A shorter, steep track takes 1hr 30mins or a longer but gentler route takes 2hr 30mins both walks have lovely scenery.

The monastery itself is much smaller than and not as ornate as the Rila monastery. The exterior is quite austere but the two-tier living quarters are interesting and the church is richly decorated inside with frescoes and an impressive iconostasis. Down the hill behind the monastery is the burial place of famous freedom fighter, Yane Sandanski.

Mineral Springs

This area is famous for its hot mineral water. In nearby Banya you can see the water bubbling out of the ground at 68 degrees centigrade, the streams along the side of the road have steam coming off them! The villagers use the naturally hot water to do their washing as well as to heat their homes. Locally there are many different styles of mineral baths, they vary from the local ‘Turkish’ bath house, to various mineral swimming pools. Each pool has a different temperature and mineral content, we will be happy to advise you about our favourites.

Rila Monastery

At an altitude of 1,147 metres, the monastery sits high in the Rila mountains, a scenic hour-and-a-half’s drive from the hotel. From the outside, the sheer size of the monastery complex is impressive but the inside is breathtaking.

The most impressive building is the Church of the Virgin Birth with its distinctive Byzantine striped exterior, five brightly coloured domes and murals depicting the apocalypse. The church’s interior is decorated with a plethora of frescoes and golden icons. An hour’s walk northeast from the monastery will bring you to the cave where St John, the monastery’s founder, lived most of his life.

Bansko

The heart of Bansko’s old town is a maze of narrow cobbled streets which wind between traditional wood and stone-built houses. Don’t try and keep your sense of direction, just amble aimlessly through the streets soaking up the timeless atmosphere and enjoying the quaint beauty of the town. At some point you will stumble across the old church, pop inside and admire it’s beautiful frescos and cool, peaceful interior. The main square with its statues, fountains and trees is a lovely place to stop for a while. Visit one of the pavement cafes and watch the world go by with a coffee and an ice-cream.

Trigrad Gorge and Devil’s Throat Cave and Yagodina Cave

The Trigrad gorge is one of the most stunning in all Bulgaria with sheer walls overhanging the River Trigradska. Part way along the gorge is the spectacular Devil’s Throat cave. A 150-metre tunnel leads to a thundering waterfall which you can hear long before you can see. The cave itself is enormous, allegedly the size of two cathedrals. Above the cave is a viewing platform where you can see the river disappear underground, in legend the entrance Orpheus used to reach the underworld.

The neighbouring Buzhnov gorge is home to Yagodina cave, a guided tour will take you through 1km of the 10km labyrinth, the largest cave system in Bulgaria. The stunning chambers are full of stalactites and look out for ‘cave pearls’, formed by water dripping on pebbles over a period of years and leaving them with a lustrous coating. The tour ends at the top level of the cave which was a stone and bronze-age dwelling. The kilns and pots discovered here have been left in situ.

Plovdiv

For those who want to venture further afield we are just three hour’s journey from Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second biggest city which boasts a Roman amphitheatre still in use today, a ruined Byzantine fortress and wall and a Roman stadium discovered below one of the modern day public squares. The city is home to a fabulously preserved old town full of winding cobbled streets, restored National revival style houses very different from the traditional architecture of Bansko and an ethnographical museum.

The city has a modern and vibrant feel with wide pedestrianised shopping streets and cool leafy parks. When you’ve had enough sight-seeing, you can idle the hours away sitting outside a café in one of the city’s many tree-lined squares,  watching people go by.

Greece

The hotel is only an hour and a half from the Greek border so a trip into Drama or Serres for a lunch of seafood and freshly stuffed vine leaves is quite easy, or in two and a half hours you can be at Kavala on the Mediterranean coast where you can catch a ferry to the island of Thassos. However, if you are intending to take a hire car into Greece, you need to mention it when you book the rental as you will need extra insurance.

All of these destinations are easily accessible with a hire car, alternatively we can arrange guided trips with transport and lunch included.