Wander Across The Balkans

Jun 7

Highlights: Arrival day, welcome dinner

Included: Dinner

Upon arrival at Sarajevo International Airport (SJJ), you’ll be met by our local representative and transferred to our hotel in the city center. Once everyone has arrived, we’ll meet for an evening orientation to review the journey ahead, followed by a welcome dinner featuring Bosnian dishes and our first chance to get to know the group!

Jun 8

Highlights: Sarajevo landmarks, Bosnian food tastings and local markets

Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Sarajevo is a city you can taste as you walk, and today its food will guide us through more than 500 years of history. We’ll begin in Bascarsija, the Ottoman market quarter, where narrow lanes echo with the tapping of coppersmiths shaping coffee pots and serving trays by hand. In the main square, we’ll see the Sebilj, a carved wooden fountain that has become a favorite meeting place, and pass the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, built in the 1500s and still central to religious life in Sarajevo. Along the way we’ll try burek filled with seasoned meat, cevapi served in warm flatbread with onions, syrup-soaked baklava, and Bosnian coffee slowly brewed in a copper pot. At Markale Market we’ll see where residents shop for produce, cheese, and other everyday foods before continuing to the Latin Bridge. It was near here that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in 1914, setting off the chain of events that led to World War I. We’ll also visit Sarajevo City Hall, a grand Moorish-inspired building that once housed the National Library and was restored after being badly damaged during the siege of Sarajevo. As we move from Ottoman lanes to Austro-Hungarian streets, our guide will show us how centuries of faith, conflict, food, and family life have shaped the city we see today.

Jun 9

Highlights: Tito’s Bunker, traditional lunch, burek-making

Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

The road to Mostar first takes us to Konjic, a riverside town surrounded by Herzegovina’s forested mountains. After the 1.5-hour drive we’ll enter Tito’s Bunker, a once-secret command center built far inside a mountain to shelter Yugoslavia’s leaders during a nuclear attack. Its preserved offices, sleeping quarters, map rooms, and communication systems reveal the scale of the operation and the fears behind it. Following lunch we’ll continue for about an hour to Mostar. If timing allows, the day will change pace with a hands-on burek lesson. We’ll learn how this crisp, coiled Bosnian pastry is prepared and shaped before tasting the results together! After checking in, there will be time to settle into the hotel before dinner.

Jun 10

Highlights: Mostar Old Town, Blagaj spring, family picnic in Pocitelj

Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Mostar is best explored on foot, so our morning begins among the stalls and stone-paved streets of its old town. We’ll reach Stari Most, the 16th-century Ottoman bridge over the Neretva River, and hear how it was destroyed during the war and later rebuilt piece by piece. A 20-minute drive then brings us to Blagaj, where the Buna River bursts from a cave beneath a towering cliff. We’ll walk beside the water to the Ottoman-era Dervish lodge set at the river’s source and explore its rooms. From there it’s another 30 minutes to Pocitelj, a fortified village built into the slope, with stone homes, garden walls, and paths rising toward the ruins above. Here, a family from Pocitelj will welcome us for a picnic lunch. We’ll share the meal, hear about life in the village, and get to know our hosts before returning to Mostar for the evening.

Jun 11

Highlights: Trebinje, journey into Montenegro, dinner in Budva

Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Our route south winds through Herzegovina’s limestone hills, vineyards, and villages before reaching Trebinje after about two hours. Shaded cafe tables, a market square, and broad plane trees give the center its easygoing Mediterranean feel. We’ll have time to look around, settle in for lunch, and perhaps join the locals for coffee beneath the leafy canopy. Then we’ll continue toward Montenegro, allowing roughly two and a half hours for the drive plus any time needed at the border. Beyond the crossing, the rocky countryside opens toward the Adriatic and Budva’s red roofs appear beside the water. That evening, we’ll sit down to our first dinner in Montenegro and discover how the country’s cooking draws from both its coast and mountains.

Jun 12

Highlights: Kotor Old Town, Bay of Kotor views, free time

Included: Breakfast, Lunch

The trip to Kotor crosses the coastal hills before descending toward a bay that narrows between rugged mountains. After about 45 minutes the walled town appears at their base. We’ll enter through the Sea Gate and follow our guide into a tangle of lanes, cafe-filled squares, Venetian houses, and courtyards where cats nap in the sun. Along the way we’ll see the Clock Tower and St. Tryphon’s Cathedral while hearing how sailors, merchants, and foreign powers shaped life here. After lunch, Kotor is yours to enjoy. You might browse its shops, visit the Maritime Museum, linger over gelato, watch the boats from the harbor, or settle at a cafe in one of the squares. Travelers looking for a challenge can use the free time to tackle part of the steep, exposed trail toward San Giovanni Fortress, weather permitting. We’ll head back to Budva in the late afternoon.

Jun 13

Highlights: Montenegrin wine pairing, scenic drive, Albanian Alps

Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Today we’ll travel from Montenegro’s Adriatic coast toward the Albanian Alps, a remote mountain region in northern Albania known for high limestone peaks, deep valleys, and villages surrounded by forest and pastureland. The roughly five-hour journey, including the border crossing, will take us inland through changing scenery as the road climbs toward the mountains. Along the way we’ll stop at a Montenegrin winery for a relaxed food-and-wine pairing. We’ll taste several regional wines alongside local cheeses, cured meats, and seasonal dishes, while learning how Montenegro’s vineyards and climate shape the character of its wines. After this pause we’ll cross into Albania and continue through mountain passes and narrow valleys toward Theth. We’ll check into our hotel with views toward the surrounding peaks whilst we enjoy a delicious dinner.

Jun 14

Highlights: Theth village, nature walks, local family visit

Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Morning in Theth begins with streams running through the valley and limestone peaks framing the village. We’ll explore through short walks and unhurried stops, following village paths beside fields, water, and wooden fences. The route will pause at viewpoints where clusters of homes sit below the surrounding mountains, with no long or difficult hike planned. We’ll also visit Theth’s church and the Lock-in Tower, a simple stone building connected to the region’s former blood-feud customs. A family from the valley will welcome us and share what everyday life in the highlands is like. We’ll stop for lunch during the day, with time afterward for coffee or photographs before returning to the hotel for dinner.

Jun 15

Highlights: Mountain drive, farm tour, northern Albanian lunch

Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

From the highlands, the road descends through wooded slopes and river valleys until orchards and farmland begin to replace the peaks. After roughly three hours, we’ll reach Fishte and visit a working farm and restaurant built around northern Albania’s food traditions. We’ll tour the gardens and production spaces where cheeses, cured meats, jams, and preserves are made. Along the way we’ll learn how the project works with area growers and keeps regional recipes in use. Then comes the best part: a farm-to-table lunch built around ingredients from the property and neighboring producers. After the meal, a 1.5-hour drive brings us to Tirana, where painted buildings, busy streets, and cafe terraces feel worlds away from the mountains. We’ll check into our hotel and meet again for dinner.

Jun 16

Highlights: Bunk’Art, Tirana sightseeing, free time

Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Tirana is filled with color and movement, a sharp contrast to the years when Albania was largely closed to the outside world. At Bunk’Art, a Cold War-era bunker turned museum, we’ll explore photographs, objects, and original rooms that show what life was like under the country’s communist government. Back above ground, our guide will take us through Skanderbeg Square and past the Ethem Bey Mosque, Clock Tower, bright buildings, and cafes that now fill the center. After lunch, we’ll continue into a neighborhood beyond the main landmarks to see another side of Tirana. Later, you can follow whatever catches your attention. Browse the stalls at the New Bazaar, find a terrace in Blloku, visit a gallery, order a glass of Albanian wine, or try trilece, the soft milk-soaked cake found in pastry shops across town.

Jun 17

Highlights: Berat Castle, countryside lunch, farewell dinner

Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

The final day of our tour takes us two hours south to Berat, a UNESCO-listed town known as the “City of a Thousand Windows.” Rows of white Ottoman houses climb the hillside above the Osum River. With our guide, we’ll explore the historic neighborhoods and continue to Berat Castle, a hilltop stronghold where families still live within the walls among homes, churches, and narrow lanes. Next we’ll visit a farm in the countryside for lunch made with seasonal ingredients grown or sourced from the area. After returning to Tirana, we’ll come together for our farewell dinner. Over one last Balkan meal, we’ll look back on the places, conversations, and experiences shared across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Albania.

Jun 18

Highlights: Departure day

Included: Breakfast

After breakfast and check-out, your included transfer will take you to Tirana International Airport (TIA) according to your departure flight time. For those who would like to continue, an optional five-day extension continues through North Macedonia and Kosovo, including Skopje, Gracanica Monastery, and Pristina. Complete extension details are available upon request.