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Jewish Heritage
6 days / 5 nights tour. You will get acquainted with the history of Bulgarian Jews, with the religious tolerance of the people here and find out why Bulgaria is proud with saving its Jewish population from extinction during World War II.
Highlights include visits to the largest Sepharadic Synagogue on the Balkan Peninsula, to Arie's House in the small town of Samokov and to the Synagogue in Plovdiv.
BG for Archaeologists: Ancient History, written in Gold
8 days/7 nights cultural tour,designed for both professional or amateur archaeologists. Bulgarian lands boast an amazingly rich cultural and historic heritage. Frequently, artifacts and monuments from different ages create scientific sensations. The excavation of the chalcolithic necropolis near Varna back in 1972 was the first sensation. Here, archaeologists found the oldest gold treasure of the world (46000 – 42000 BC). The scientists exclaimed that the foremost pages of the history of the civilizations had to be rewritten. During the last decade archaeologists made new sensational discoveries - in the Valley of the Thracian Kings and in Rhodope mountains. We all expect new discoveries in archaeological summer 2008.
Highlights: Sveshtari tombs (4th – 3rd c B.C.), Thracian beehive tomb in Kazanlak(4th c B.C.), Starosel Cult centre , Neolithic dwellings and Roman mosaics in Stara Zagora and the National Archaeological museum in Sofia.
Rose Festival
The "Valley of Roses", extending more than 100 km along the Balkan mountain range, has been a centre of rose oil production and export for centuries. Bulgarian rose oil is an essential ingredient of high-quality perfumes. Rose oil is used by perfume-makers to fix other fragrances, and we have a competitive advantage because the Bulgarian rose attar has an especially strong, long-lasting aroma.
The rose bushes flower for about 25 days a year from mid-May to mid-June. The blooms are picked by hand early in the morning when the aroma is strongest, and transported in small quantities to the distillery. Seedlings come from the Rose Research Institute at Kazanluk, which has developed several Damascena rose varieties suited to conditions in the valley. International buyers pay for the Bulgarian product prices reaching Dollars 3,500-Dollars 3,800 a kilo.
Bulgarian Wine..... or How to Resist Old Age
5 days / 4 nights wine and dine tour
Archeologists prove that the motherland of the wine plant was in the region of the Black Sea, nowadays-Bulgarian lands. Wine-producing traditions here are centuries old, since the times of the ancient Thracians, whose mastership has been known even to the ancient Greeks and Homer had written about them in his Iliad.
You will taste the local cuisine and organic food. The only reason it is not marked as eco-food is because you'd have to label all foodstuffs like that.
Highlights: Wine tasting sessions in the region of Melnik, Plovdiv, along with some cultural and historic sightseeing.
Monasteries and Mediavel Art
Bulgarian monasteries are just one of the epitomes of the Bulgarian spirit. Founded in the Middle Ages, they guarded the national identity and Orthodox Christianity during the 5 centuries of Ottoman domination, when sovereign Bulgaria was wiped from the map of Europe. Throughout the centuries monasteries were spiritual, cultural and art centers. Bulgarian state was the first among the Slavs to adopt Christianity as its official religion. The icon, a vital part of the church rite, is particularly worshipped in the Eastern Orthodox Bulgarian Church. The Bulgarian icon has a thousand-year old history, real evidence of the Bulgarian contribution to the Orthodox Church art and culture. Masterpieces of mediaeval art are preserved in monasteries, churches and museums throughout Bulgaria. Boyana church and Ivanovo Rock churches are included in the UNESCO World’s Cultural Heritage List.
Highlights: Boyana church, Zemen monastery, Rila monastery, Rozhen monastery, Bachkovo monastery, Nessebar, Ivanovo Rock churches, Troyan monastery.
