COLOSSAL ruins of fallen UTOPIAS
May 01 ⇾ May 12
September 01 ⇾ September 12
In addition to our regular group departures to the Eastern Balkans, we also offer tour services for private travel parties and lone wolves alike. As a traveller-oriented boutique operator, tailored trips and bespoke adventures are our bread and butter. Get in touch for more info on our customised journeys to the Eastern Balkans!
DAY 1– TIMISOARA
Meet-and-greet with your tour guide in the lobby of our hotel of choice in Timisoara (exact hotel address and meeting time will be communicated well in advance per email; private airport pickup and shuttle service is available for an additional fee).
We'll spend the day touring Timisoara, the main cultural and economic hub of Western Romania and the birthplace of the anti-regime protests that led to Nicolae Ceausescu’s tragic downfall in 1989.
Our visit will be mainly focussed on the impressive architectural heritage of the RSR (Republica Socialistă România - Socialist Republic of Romania), but we’ll also have time to admire the well-preserved elegant palaces, houses, churches and monasteries dating back to the pre-communist years.
Overnight in Timisoara.
DAY 2 – JIU VALLEY
From Timisoara we’ll move deep into the mining heartland of the country and head for the Jiu Valley, the nitty-gritty basin of Romania’s once prosperous coal industry.
Travelling across a somber landscape of abandoned pits, decaying industrial architectures, and half-empty mining towns such as Lupeni, Petrosani and Petrila, we’ll eventually reach Târgu Jiu, a rather charming provincial city housing a striking sculptural complex by renowned Romanian polyhedric genius-artist Constantin Brâncuși.
Overnight in Târgu Jiu.
DAY 3 – CÂMPINA
Early start and transfer to Scornicesti, birthplace of Nicolae Ceaușescu, and further on towards Pitesti, the notorious site of the Pitesti Prison, best remembered for its barbaric reeducation experiments (also known as the "Pitesti Phenomenon") carried out between 1949 and 1951.
From its most feared prison we’ll then head for the city where the regime met its end: Targoviste, the very place where the death trial against Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena was carried out on Christmas day of 1989.
In the afternoon we’ll eventually reach the mining village of Doftana, home to an imposing fort where the fascist wartime Romanian regime under the leadership of Conducător Ion Antonescu used to lock up commies, anarchists, and other political prisoners.
We’ll spend the night in nearby Câmpina, a rather unassuming piedmont town harbouring an unexpectedly glorious masterpiece of socialist architecture and public art: the superb Casa Tineretului, inaugurated in 1982 as “House of Culture of Science and Technology for Youth”.
Overnight in Câmpina.
DAY 4 – BUCHAREST
After an early breakfast in Câmpina, we’ll descend south towards Bucharest, the sprawling capital of the country, where will devote the rest of the day to the exploration of its socialist-era architectural and artistic heritage.
Our gallivanting around Bucharest will also include a visit to both the grave of Nicolae Ceaușescu and the Soviet Heroes’ Cemetery, austere sites of pilgrimage for Romanian hardcore nostalgics.
Overnight in Bucharest.
DAY 5 – CONSTANTA
We’ll depart from Bucharest in the late morning and head east towards the classy seaside city of Constanta, the main Romanian port on the melancholic Black Sea coastline.
We’ll then spend a relaxing afternoon in Constanta, touring its diverse architectural and monumental treasures — the Ottoman-era mosque, the Art Nouveau casino, and the Victory Monument being our personal favourites – and strolling around the lively marina.
Overnight in Constanta.
DAY 6 – VARNA
From Constanta we’ll head south towards Bulgaria, a southern Slavic nation once famously known as “Sixteenth Soviet Republic” due to its close cultural, political and linguistic ties with the former USSR.
We’ll travel along the Black Sea Riviera visiting little fishing villages, rusty marinas and modernist resorts along the way, before eventually reaching Varna, the third-largest city in Bulgaria.
We’ll spend the rest of the day touring Varna, a true architectural paradise by the sea, in which Ottoman, Neo-Renaissance, Neoclassic, and Zhivkov-era shapes blend, more or less harmoniously, together.
Overnight in Varna.
DAY 7 – VELIKO TARNOVO
From Varna we’ll head west into the Bulgarian heartland towards the historical city of Veliko Tarnovo.
On our way to Veliko Tarnovo, we’ll stop in Shumen, home to the impressive Monument to the Founders of Bulgaria, and at the Zhivkov-era park of Soviet fighter jets in Omurtag.
Once in Veliko Tarnovo, we will spend the rest of the afternoon touring its interesting urban landscape, wherein Eastern European neoclassicism meets traditional Bulgarian architecture and socialist modernism all at once.
Overnight in Veliko Tarnovo.
DAY 8 – BUZLUDZHA
Leaving Veliko Tarnovo early in the morning, we’ll drive south to the ancient city of Gabrovo, home to an impressive Soviet-style modernist town-hall-cum-clock-tower.
From Gabrovo we’ll head to the Shipka Prohod, a scenic mountain pass through the southern Balkan Mountains, part of the Bulgarka Nature Park and historical theatre of a series of conflicts collectively known as the Battle of Shipka Pass, fought between Bulgarian freedom fighters, aided by Russian volunteers, and the Ottoman Empire.
The battle is remembered by the Pametnik Shipka, but the real highlight of the area lies just a few kilometres further east: travelling down a serpentine side road, we’ll find ourselves in front of what is arguably the most famous socialist-era landmark of the country: Buzludzha, the impressive Monument House of the Bulgarian Communist Party.
Having paid our respects to Buzludzha and the history it represents, we’ll move further south to Maglizh to visit the monument to the September 1923 Anti-Fascist Uprising and the nearby WWII memorial.
After crossing the eastern fringes of the Rose Valley, a relatively wide dale famous for its rose-growing industry, we’ll then reach the historical Thracian town of Stara Zagora.
Overnight in Stara Zagora.
DAY 9 – STARA ZAGORA
We’ll spend the entire morning in and around Stara Zagora – a concoction of Thracian tombs, Roman ruins, Ottoman mosques, Orthodox cathedrals, Soviet sculptures and Zhivkov-era monuments and architecture – and pay a visit to the striking Stara Zagora Defenders Memorial located in the north-eastern industrial outskirts of the city.
After lunch we’ll then tour Dimitrovgrad, founded in 1947 by the recently established People's Republic of Bulgaria as a socialist model city and named after the country’s first communist leader, Georgi Dimitrov.
In the late afternoon we will eventually reach Plovdiv, the cultural capital of Bulgaria.
Overnight in Plovdiv.
DAY 10 – PLOVDIV
We’ll spend the day touring Plovdiv and its many historical, architectural and monumental sights, such as the touching Bratska Mogila memorial complex and the glorious Alesha Statue, a larger-than-life stone sculpture that dominates the entire city as a poignant reminder of the war-time sacrifice made by the brotherly Soviet people.
Our tour around Plovdiv will also include a sortie to either Stolipinovo, the second-largest Romani neighbourhood in Eastern Europe, or Krumova, home to a vast open-air Aviation Museum with hundreds of helicopters, planes and miscellaneous aircrafts from the glorious days of the People’s Republic.
Overnight in Plovdiv.
DAY 11 – KOPRIVSHTITSA
After an early breakfast in Plovdiv, we’ll take a circuitous route through the Rose Valley cities of Karlovo and Kalofer – home to monumental memorials and eye-catching Zhivkov-era mosaics – and slowly head for Sofia, the no-nonsense capital of the country.
On our way to Sofia, we’ll make a final de rigueur stop in Koprivshtitsa, a lovely little town known for the authentic Bulgarian architecture of its mansions.
Koprivshtitsa also has its own socialist-era gem in store for us: the gorgeous equestrian Monument to Georgi Benkovski, a local revolutionary and leading figure in the organization and direction of the 1876 uprising against the yoke of the Ottomans.
Overnight in Sofia.
DAY 12 – SOFIA
After breakfast, we'll spend the first morning hours touring Sofia’s communist-era architectural and monumental heritage, before concluding our journey with a last sumptuous Bulgarian luncheon.
Free afternoon at your own leisure in Sofia.
End of the tour.
1990 €
INCLUSIONS
Double/twin-room accommodation (breakfast included), private transport in Romania and Bulgaria (car/minivan), all entrance fees, English-speaking guiding service, 24/7 on-site and remote assistance.
EXCLUSIONS
Single supplement, international flights, main meals (lunches and dinners), extra drinks, visa fees (if required), tips, travel insurance.
