Kosovo, Albania & Macedonia Explorer

14 breakfasts, 1 lunch, 2 dinners

vegetarian, vegan, halal, kosher, meat

All Intrepid group trips in Europe are accompanied by one of our local European group leaders. ’Local’ in this context means a leader who is European or lives in Europe. The aim of the group leader is to take the hassle out of your travels and to help you have the best trip possible. Intrepid endeavours to provide the services of an experienced leader however, due to the seasonality of travel, rare situations may arise where your leader is new to a particular region or training other group leaders. Your leader takes care of logistics, will provide information on the places you are travelling through, offer suggestions for things to do and see, recommend great local eating venues and introduce you to our local friends. While not being guides in the traditional sense you can expect them to have a broad general knowledge of the places visited on the trip, including historical, cultural, religious and social aspects.

At Intrepid we also aim to support local guides in the individual cities or locations we travel to. If you are interested in delving deeper into the local culture at a specific site or location then your leader can recommend an optional local guide service in most of the main destinations of your trip.

Lake Koman - Private boat ride

Valbona Valley - Village Tour

Valbona Valley - Tea House

Dečani Monastery - UNESCO World Heritage Site

Rugova Valley - Hike including Lunch

Gjakova - Sufi Tekke of the Halveti Order

Gjakova - Hadumi Mosque

Prizren - Kalaja Fortress Visit

Kosovo Polje - Field of the Battle of Blackbirds & Tomb of Sultan Murat

Prishtina - Day Trip

Gracanica - Gracanica Monastery

Prishtina - Bear Sanctuary

Skopje - Matka Canyon visit and Boat Ride

Ohrid - Lake Ohrid Boat Cruise

OCCASIONAL ALTERNATIVE ACCOMMODATION:

The style of accommodation indicated in the day-to-day itinerary is a guideline. On rare occasions, alternative arrangements may need to be made due to the lack of availability of rooms in our usual accommodation. A similar standard of accommodation will be used in these instances.

TWIN SHARE BASIS:

Accommodation on this trip is on a twin/multishare basis. We pair up solo travellers with another traveller of the same gender as per the gender marker on each of their passports. Please note there may be times where facilities will be shared rather than ensuite and rare occasions when you share a room with passengers travelling on different Intrepid trips than your own.

CHECK-IN TIME:

Throughout the trip we request that our hotels prepare rooms in time for our arrival, especially if we're arriving prior to normal check-in time. However this isn't always possible which means we won't be able to check-in immediately on arrival at some hotels. Instead, we can store our luggage and explore our new destination.

PRE/POST TRIP ACCOMMODATION:

If you've purchased pre-trip or post-trip accommodation (if available), you may be required to change rooms from your trip accommodation for these extra nights.

FACILITIES:

Your accommodation may not always have private en suite facilities or air-conditioning. European hotels generally don't provide kettles or fridges.

Hotel (10 nights), Guesthouse (4 nights)

hotel: 10 night(s), guesthouse: 4 night(s);

PRIVATE VEHICLES:

The main mode of transport on this trip are locally sourced private vehicles. Not all have air-conditioning. On some days we will be covering long distances, which will make these days feel longer, however spectacular views and interesting stops along the way make up for it.

PUBLIC BUSES:

This trip covers some distances by public buses. Buses in the Balkans can range from high standard coaches with reclining seats and air-conditioning to Yugoslav era vehicles for shorter distances.

ROAD CONDITIONS:

Please note that some of the roads in the region are of poor quality, which makes for a bumpy ride in places. The mountainous topography of the region also means that roads are windy. If you suffer from motion sickness you may want to bring along some medication.

Public bus , Private vehicle , Boat , Taxi