Balkan Highlands

The trip begins at 2 pm, so please arrive in Sofia before then. From there we transfer southeast to the eastern part of the Rila Mountains. If you plan on arriving the day before, see the airport question in the FAQs below.

If time allows, we make a quick stop at Besapari Hills, a limestone hilly and mostly treeless area at the foot of the Western Rhodope Mountains, with typical continental steppe vegetation. Here we can also see the European Souslik.

Overnight in the Yundola area, a mountain pass between the Western Rhodope Mountains and Rila Mountains.

We spend the morning in the coniferous forests and mountain meadows of the eastern Rila Mountains, between Belmeken Reservoir and Yundola Pass, reaching about 2,000 m. Part of this area belongs to Rila National Park, established to preserve the unique biodiversity of the highest mountain range on the Balkan peninsula.

The afternoon is for the pristine coniferous forests at the core of the Western Rhodopes, where we search for the Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker and the White-backed Woodpecker.

In the late afternoon we transfer for about an hour and a half to the Trigrad area, where we stay for two nights.

Trigrad Gorge comes first: a canyon of vertical marble walls enclosing the Trigrad River, which plunges into the Devil's Throat Cave and emerges half a kilometre further on as a large karst spring. The gorge is the realm of the Wallcreeper, one of the most sought-after birds in Europe.

We then explore the conifer forests and meadows around the gorge, with very good chances of seeing the Balkan Chamois.

In the late afternoon we head to Shiroka Laka, an architectural reserve village of white-walled Rhodope houses and home to the National School of Folklore Arts. It is a casual 45-minute drive from Trigrad. We enjoy a gaida (Rhodope bagpipe) demonstration with a delicious local dinner.

We start with a four-hour transfer east to Madzharovo, broken up with several birding stops along the way. The Eastern Rhodopes are much lower, hotter and drier than the mountains we have left behind, and the wildlife changes significantly.

In the afternoon we visit the Vulture Conservation Visitor Centre in Madzharovo. A representative of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, the country's leading bird conservation organisation, tells the story of the vultures' successful comeback to Bulgarian skies.

Dinner is a local meal prepared by our hosts at the guest house.

There is no transfer today. We spend the whole day in the Madzharovo area, which is extremely rich in birdlife, with Egyptian Vultures and Golden Eagles riding the thermals above rocky scrub and river bends. Staying in one place suits the pace of the trip: time to stay with a bird and give everyone a proper look.

Today we visit the Sakar Hills and the Maritsa River Valley. Our first stop is the area around Levka village, where our main target is the Eastern Imperial Eagle and the breeding colony of Lesser Kestrels, reintroduced here by another Bulgarian conservation society, Green Balkans. We may meet them and hear about the effort to reintroduce several bird species in Bulgaria over the last two decades.

In the early afternoon we visit the Mezek Thracian beehive tomb, from the 4th century BC, and the medieval fortress above Mezek village, both within the Sakar Hills. We then stop for a wine tasting around Mezek, before a local dinner prepared by our hosts in Madzharovo.

We transfer to Greece, about three hours of driving in total, via Krumovgrad, where we stop for some birding in the morning.

On the other side of the border we visit Ismarida Lake in the afternoon, where our targets include the White-tailed Eagle and the Eurasian Spoonbill.

We start the day at Maronia, from where we explore the Thracian Lagoons and Lakes, an extensive coastal wetland surrounded by hills of Mediterranean vegetation and olive-tree plantations. Here we can see Dalmatian Pelicans and Greater Flamingos, and offshore we can expect the Yelkouan Shearwater and Audouin's Gull.

In the early afternoon we visit Ancient Maroneia, right on our doorstep: the Hellenistic theatre, the sanctuary of Dionysus and the city walls running down to the sea, with the Cave of the Cyclops on the shore below.

Lagoon birding is at its best at dawn and dusk, so the visit to Ancient Maroneia fits into the midday heat with no additional driving.

We start early to try to find the Rock Partridge in the spectacular Nestos Gorge, a 20-kilometre gorge popular with hikers and kayakers and excellent ground for breeding birds.

Later we transfer two hours along the motorway to the Kalohori Lagoons near Thessaloniki, part of the Axios Delta National Park and an excellent site for waders, gulls and terns. At the end of the day we have another hour's transfer north to Lake Kerkini.

This is the longest day of the trip, running 13 to 14 hours door to door.

Nestled between two mountain ranges, Lake Kerkini is one of the true jewels of European birding and the core of a nature reserve that is a relatively unexplored wonderland of beauty and biological diversity. Riverside forests and panoramic views from the Belasitsa and Krousia mountains give it a characteristic atmosphere.

We spend the whole day at the lake, including a boat trip that takes us close to the breeding colonies of Dalmatian and Great White Pelicans and other waterbirds. A virtually traffic-free track around the lake makes it ideal for birding and bird photography.

We head back into Bulgaria with birding stops along the way, including Kresna Gorge.

In the afternoon we visit Rila Monastery, the most important spiritual and cultural site in Bulgaria and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, set in the forest of the Rila Mountains. We spend the night close to the next day's birding, away from Sofia traffic.

We spend the whole day around Ponor Mountain and the Dragoman Marshes, west of Sofia, a unique combination of marshes with extensive reedbeds and karst hills and mountains.

We wrap up the trip with a traditional Bulgarian dinner.

Enjoy your last breakfast and say goodbye to your fellow birding friends. Then transfer to Sofia Airport for your further travel.