VELIKO TARNOVO 2 DAYS TOUR

  Our tour starts in the meeting point in Sofia – behind St. Alexander Nevski Cathedral at 09:00 o’clock. After 175 km driving the first stop in our programme is Troyan Monastery – the third biggest monastery in Bulgaria. It’s located in Central Stara Planina and the complex is very beautiful with its green yard and with the interesting iconostasis and icons in the church as well as with the museum discovered information of the Bulgarian history. Our tour will continue with visitation of “Etar” ethnographic museum where we will take our lunch first in some of the nice restaurants around the complex. In the “Etar” you will see a unique collection of the old-times water-driven machinery in Bulgaria, and small workshops where local people will show you traditional Bulgarian crafts like furriery, pottery, woodcarving. În our way to Veliko Tarnovo we will make our last and short stop in Dryanovo monastery – one of the main centers of Hesychasm and a shelter to many monks in the 14th century. Our arrival in Veliko Turnovo will be between 17:30 and 18:00 o’clock. Check-in in 3 stars hotel, free time and overnight in Veliko Tarnovo.

  After a nice breakfast in the hotel we will start our walking tour in Veliko Tarnovo city. We will visit Tsaravets Fortress – the most popular and attractive place in the city. We will walk around the ancient ruins, will enjoy the views onto the surrounding hills of Sveta Gora, Momina Krepost and the overgrown Trapezitsa, at the foot of which is the picturesque old artisan’s quarter of Assenova Mahala, and will enter in the patriarchal church of the Ascension surprising with its stark modern interior and the dramatic murals. We will make a walk in Samovodska Charshia – a square where the people of nearby Samovodene village came to sell their home-grown produce in the second half of the 19th century. You will have free time to buy some souvenir or to drink coffee in some of the coffee shops in the city. At 12:00 o’clock we will meet again at the bus parking lot so to continue to Arbanasi – it‘s a picturesque open-air architectural museum which includes 80 houses – there we will visit the oldest church – the Nativity Church covered in paintings and frescoes dating back to the 17th century. After taking our lunch we will start our way back to Sofia. We can make a short break around Yablanitsa town –particularly well known because of the local halva and lokum production (Turkish delight), so here you can buy some sweets. The expecting time of arrival in Sofia is 18:30 o’clock.