Overview of our upcoming Balkans trip

In my first post about our big 2015 trip to the Balkans I thought I would just give some basic info about where we are going.  Look for more blogs before we leave that give me specifics if you are interested.

Our trip this year is to the Balkans with a stop in Paris on the way home.
For those of you who are thinking where is the Balkans a map is below

Note that some people also consider Greece and Slovenia in the Balkans.  While we are not going to Greece we are going to Slovenia.

Now how did we pick the Balkans you might ask?  Three simple reasons
1. It is relatively inexpensive
2. It is someplace we probably want to do before having kids (as in it isn't totally kid friendly yet)
3. Lots to see for both nature and culture

We leave Minneapolis on June 23rd and return on July 20th.  The countries (and cities) on our trip are
1. Slovenia (Ljubljana, Lake Bled, salt mines)
2. Croatia (Istria, Plitvice Park, Zadar, Split, Hvar, Korcula, Dubrovnik)
3. Bosnia (Mostar, Sarajevo)
4. Montenegro (Kotor and 1 crazy long day entire country tour)
5. Albania (Tirana, Berat)
6. Macedonia (Ohrid, Skopje)
7. Kosovo (Pristina and countryside tour)
8. Serbia (Belgrade and Danube)
9. France (Paris and Champagne country)

I will post more details later about each place and some updates while we are there.

As you can see this trip is long and has lots of things to do.  To try to combat fatigue I tried to mix up nature/outdoors activities and culture activities.  We will be doing lots of hiking/biking/kayaking and lots of looking at historic places.  Hopefully this mix of things will keep us sane, although for those who know me you know my vacations are never really sane.  I say work hard, play hard and totally mean it!

Some highlights of why this will be an amazing trip

Lake Bled Slovenia.  We spend 2 nights here and have 1 long day of hiking, rafting swimming and otherwise exploring the countryside

Pula Croatia.  We spend 1 night here and it is our base for a car trip exploring Istria for 2 days.  This picture is the Roman Amphitheater which is probably the best preserved example in the world.  Happens to be right next to our hotel!

 

Plitvice Lakes National Park is a 1 night 2 day stop.  Can't wait to hike those waterfall trails (and yes this is the actual colors, no photoshop here!)

Hvar Island Croatia.  One of the two island stops.  Here we are planning a full day biking through the island and its vineyards

Dubrovnik Croatia.  Historic and beautiful.  We have a full day of biking and kayaking around the area planned plus we are going to get up earlish and climb the town walls before the cruise ships come in for the day

Sarajevo Bosnia.  This place has so much history both new and old and we are excited to soak some of it in.  I am currently reading a few books about the seige of Sarajevo and it is fascinating to me that such a terrible war happened so recently in Europe

Kotor, Montengro  It is supposed to be like the Norwegian Fjords but in the Mediterranean

Berat Albania our stop for our one night in Albania.  This picture above is from the historic fortress we will be visiting

Lake Ohrid Macedonia.  Here we will do some hiking and explore historic Ohrid for a day

Kosovo This is the Gracanica Monastery near Pristina that we will visit as part of a local countryside tour.  Kosovo might be the most interesting in terms of travel arrangements.  We are just doing it as a long daytrip from Skopje and the border crossing might be tricky since the war just ended in 2008 and they still have some tensions with Serbia

Iron Gate Danube Serbia  We are doing a long daytrip here.  This picture is of the Golubac Fortress which will visit

Zagreb Croatia is our last stop in the Balkans before heading to France.  We are doing a 4 hour bike tour of the city here that sounds super interesting

Paris France one of my favorite places!

Epernay France (Champagne Country)  Should be a fun filled day as we bike to the different champagne vineyards visit some historic sites in the area

If you managed to read this far now you have the highlights of the trip.  Obviously these pictures are all stolen from the internet, but we look forward to getting our own wonderful pictures on the trip (if South America was any indication we might come back with over 10000 pictures!)

In the next few weeks as we pack and get ready I will do a few more posts about specifics of each country, and then of course look for updates we go.  We always welcome comments and suggestions if anybody has experience in this part of the world.  

This should be another exciting trip and we can't wait!