Budapest to Istanbul: Belgrade, Sofia, Plovdiv and Edirne

1. Day 1: Arrive in Budapest

   Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport to your hotel in Pest

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Dinner
   • Stay in Budapest
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD), about 20 km southeast of the centre. A driver meets you in the arrivals hall whatever your flight time and takes you to our central hotel in Pest, 30 to 45 minutes depending on traffic. If you land early, walk down to the Danube embankment and look across the river at Castle Hill, or sit in one of the old coffee houses on the boulevards. In the evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing on the days ahead: four countries, four currencies, three border crossings by road, a fast train in Serbia, and which days start early and why. Then we walk to a welcome dinner of Hungarian food: goulash soup, paprika chicken with dumplings, and a glass of wine from Eger or Villány. Plan to land by about 5 pm for the briefing; later arrivals are still met and join us at dinner or at breakfast.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   Activity: Plan to land by about 5 pm for the briefing.

2. Day 2: Castle Hill and the Parliament

   Castle Hill in Buda, across the Danube to the Parliament in Pest

   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Budapest
   Day 2 details

   We start at 8:30 am on Castle Hill, before the tour coaches arrive, with a licensed local guide. Walk the medieval lanes to Matthias Church and the Fishermen's Bastion, built at the end of the 19th century as a viewing terrace, and look down on the Chain Bridge and the dome of St Stephen's Basilica across the river. From the Royal Palace terrace we ride the funicular down to the Danube and cross to Pest. At midday we go into the Hungarian Parliament on a booked group slot, through the grand staircase to the domed hall where the Holy Crown is kept under guard. Lunch is your choice near the Parliament; your guide points out a few places. The afternoon is free, and it is the right moment for a thermal bath: the Széchenyi baths in City Park, with outdoor pools that steam in the cool air, or the Gellért baths under the hill. In the evening, the bridges and the Parliament are lit up along the river.

   Included

   • Castle Hill walk with a licensed local guide: Matthias Church, the Fishermen's Bastion and the Royal Palace terrace
   • Budapest Castle Hill Funicular down to the river
   • Hungarian Parliament tour on a booked group slot (entry included)

   Optional experiences

   • Széchenyi or Gellért thermal baths
   • Evening Danube boat trip
   • Great Market Hall (closed on Sundays)

   Easier option: Take the bus up to Castle Hill and skip the walk down; meet the group at the funicular.

   More active option: Climb Gellért Hill in the late afternoon for the view over both banks, about 30 minutes up from the Liberty Bridge.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 3 hours on foot on cobbles and some steps. The Parliament can close for official events; we rebook the slot if it does.

   

3. Day 3: Across the border to Novi Sad, then the fast train to Belgrade

   Budapest by road to Novi Sad, then by train to Belgrade

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Belgrade
   Day 3 details

   We leave Budapest at 8:30 am and drive south across the Great Hungarian Plain, about 300 km on the motorway, into Serbia at the Röszke and Horgoš crossing. This is where the EU's Schengen area ends, so passports are checked on both sides; we go mid-morning, after the early queues, and allow time for it. We reach Novi Sad for lunch in the old centre, where the Catholic Church of the Name of Mary faces Liberty Square. After lunch we cross the Danube to the Petrovaradin Fortress, built by the Habsburgs on the river bend, for the view back over the town and the clock tower whose hands are said to be reversed so boatmen could read the hours. Late afternoon we take the high-speed train from Novi Sad to Belgrade, under 40 minutes on recent timetables, while our driver takes the luggage by road. The drive today is about three and a half hours, broken by the border and the lunch stop. The evening in Belgrade is free.

   Included

   • Drive from Budapest to Novi Sad with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch in Novi Sad
   • Petrovaradin Fortress and the view over the Danube
   • High-speed train from Novi Sad to Belgrade (tickets included)

   Easier option: Stay at the riverside below Petrovaradin instead of climbing to the upper fortress.

   Free time: Evening free in Belgrade

   Activity: Border waits at Röszke and Horgoš vary; in summer they can be over an hour. If the train timetable does not fit on your date, we drive the last 95 km, about 1 hour 15 minutes.

4. Day 4: Belgrade: the fortress and the Church of Saint Sava

   Belgrade on foot: Kalemegdan, Knez Mihailova, Saint Sava

   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Belgrade
   Day 4 details

   A licensed local guide walks us through Belgrade, a city fought over for two thousand years, about three hours on foot. We start on Kalemegdan, the Belgrade Fortress, on the ridge above the point where the Sava flows into the Danube: Roman, Byzantine, Serbian, Ottoman and Austrian walls stand one on top of the other, and the view takes in the old Zemun shore across the water. From there we walk down Knez Mihailova, the pedestrian street, past the 19th-century houses to Republic Square and the National Museum. After a coffee break we take a short ride to the Church of Saint Sava, one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world, whose dome is lined with a gold mosaic finished in recent years. The afternoon and evening are free. Skadarlija, the old bohemian street, serves grilled meat to live music, and the riverside bars of Savamala and the floating restaurants on the rivers fill up after dark.

   Included

   • Belgrade walk with a licensed local guide: Kalemegdan fortress, Knez Mihailova and Republic Square
   • The Church of Saint Sava and its crypt

   Optional experiences

   • Museum of Yugoslavia and the House of Flowers, Tito's tomb (closed on Mondays)
   • Evening boat trip on the Sava and the Danube

   Easier option: Ride with our driver from Kalemegdan to the Church of Saint Sava and skip the walk down Knez Mihailova.

   More active option: Walk the riverside path from the fortress across the Branko Bridge to Zemun, about 1.5 hours, and climb the Gardoš Tower.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 3 hours on foot, with a steep walk up and down the fortress.

   

5. Day 5: Niš and over the border to Sofia

   Belgrade to Niš, then across the border to Sofia

   • Drive about 5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Sofia
   Day 5 details

   This is the longest driving day of the trip, about 400 km and four and three-quarter hours on the road, because there is no practical daytime train between Belgrade and Sofia and no town between them that would make a better night than either capital. We split it in two. We leave Belgrade at 8:30 am and drive about two and a half hours south down the Morava valley to Niš, the birthplace of Constantine the Great. Your guide walks you through the Ottoman fortress by the Nišava river and out to the Skull Tower, built into a wall after the 1809 battle on Čegar hill and now kept inside a small chapel. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Niš, famous in Serbia for its grilled meat. Then it is about two and a quarter hours east through the Sićevo gorge to the Bulgarian border at Gradina and Kalotina, back into the Schengen area, and on to Sofia, where we arrive in the late afternoon. The evening is free.

   Included

   • Drive from Belgrade to Niš and Sofia with your guide
   • Niš Fortress and the Skull Tower (entry included)
   • Sit-down lunch in Niš

   Free time: Evening free in Sofia

   Activity: About 4 hours 45 minutes of driving, in two legs of about 2.5 and 2.25 hours with the Niš visit and lunch between them; border time is extra.

6. Day 6: Rila Monastery and Sofia's old centre

   Sofia to Rila Monastery and back, then central Sofia on foot

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Sofia
   Day 6 details

   We leave Sofia at 8 am and drive about two hours south, up the Rilska valley, to reach Rila Monastery by about 10 am, before most day buses. Founded in the 10th century by the hermit John of Rila and rebuilt after a fire in 1833, it is a UNESCO site of striped arcades on four floors around a great courtyard, with Hrelyo's Tower from the 14th century in the middle. Your guide shows you the painted porch of the Church of the Nativity, with its scenes of heaven and hell, and the old monastery kitchen. Lunch is a sit-down meal of river trout near the monastery, then we drive back to Sofia. At about 4:30 pm a licensed local guide walks us through the centre in the cooler hours: the excavated streets of Roman Serdica beside the metro, the 4th-century Rotunda of St George in a courtyard behind the presidency, the Banya Bashi Mosque, the mineral-water taps where locals fill jugs, and the gold domes of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The evening is free.

   Included

   • Rila Monastery with your guide: the courtyard, the Church of the Nativity and Hrelyo's Tower (entry included)
   • Sit-down lunch near the monastery
   • Sofia walk with a licensed local guide: Serdica, the Rotunda of St George, the Banya Bashi Mosque and the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

   Optional experiences

   • Rila Monastery museum
   • Boyana Church, if you add a night in Sofia

   Easier option: Skip the late-afternoon Sofia walk and rest at the hotel; the cathedral is a short walk away for later.

   More active option: Walk the forest path to the cave of St John of Rila, about 40 minutes each way from the road, while the others stay at the monastery.

   Free time: Evening free in Sofia

   Activity: Two drives of about 2 hours each. Cover shoulders and knees in the monastery church.

   

7. Day 7: To Veliko Tarnovo and the Tsarevets fortress

   Sofia to Veliko Tarnovo along the Balkan Mountains

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Veliko Tarnovo
   Day 7 details

   We leave Sofia at 9 am and drive about three hours east, along the foot of the Balkan Mountains, to Veliko Tarnovo, the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire from the 12th to the 14th century. The old town clings to the cliffs above a loop of the Yantra river, its houses stacked one above the other. We arrive for a sit-down lunch with a view over the river bend, then walk the Samovodska Charshiya, the old craft street of potters, coppersmiths and icon painters. In the late afternoon, when the day groups have gone and the light is low, a local guide takes us up Tsarevets hill through the gates of the medieval fortress to the walls of the royal palace and the Patriarchal Church on the summit, painted inside with modern frescoes. On evenings when it is staged, the Sound and Light show lights up the hill after dark and is seen free from the viewpoints in town. Dinner is your choice; this is our single night here.

   Included

   • Sit-down lunch in Veliko Tarnovo
   • Samovodska Charshiya craft street
   • Tsarevets fortress with a local guide (entry included)

   Optional experiences

   • Sound and Light show over Tsarevets, on the evenings it runs

   Easier option: Stop at the first gate and walls of Tsarevets instead of climbing to the summit church.

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: Tsarevets is steep, with uneven stone paths and steps to the summit.

   

8. Day 8: Arbanasi, the Shipka Pass and Kazanlak to Plovdiv

   Veliko Tarnovo to Arbanasi, over the Shipka Pass to Kazanlak, then Plovdiv

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Plovdiv
   Day 8 details

   A short drive up to the plateau above Veliko Tarnovo brings us to Arbanasi, a village of walled merchants' houses, for the Church of the Nativity when it opens: from the outside it looks like a barn, but every wall inside is covered in 17th-century frescoes. From there we cross the Balkan Mountains by the Shipka Pass, about 1 hour 45 minutes, stopping at the top below the monument to the battles of 1877 and 1878. On the far side lies the Valley of the Roses and Kazanlak. We visit the copy of the Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak, a UNESCO site whose original 4th-century BC paintings are closed to protect them, and the Rose Museum, which tells how Damascena rose oil is distilled. On late May and early June departures the roses are being picked in the fields around town. After a sit-down lunch in Kazanlak it is about an hour and a half to Plovdiv, where we arrive by about 5 pm for two nights.

   Included

   • Church of the Nativity in Arbanasi (entry included)
   • Stop at the top of the Shipka Pass
   • Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak (copy) and the Rose Museum (entries included)
   • Sit-down lunch in Kazanlak

   Easier option: Stay at the car park at the Shipka Pass rather than climbing the stairs to the monument.

   More active option: Climb the roughly 900 steps from the road to the Shipka Monument for the view over both valleys.

   Free time: Evening free in Plovdiv

   Activity: About 3.5 hours of driving in two legs, with visits and lunch between them.

9. Day 9: Plovdiv's Roman theatre and old town

   Plovdiv old town on foot

   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Plovdiv
   Day 9 details

   Plovdiv is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe, and it is best walked before the heat, so at 9 am a licensed local guide takes us into the old town. We start at the curved end of the Roman stadium below the main street, next to the 15th-century Dzhumaya Mosque, then climb the steep cobbles past the painted 19th-century merchants' houses to the Regional Ethnographic Museum in the Kuyumdzhiev House. The Roman theatre of Philippopolis, uncovered by a landslide in the 1970s and still used for summer concerts, looks out over the rooftops towards the Rhodopes. The walk ends on Nebet Tepe, the hill where the city began. Lunch is your choice in Kapana, the old craftsmen's quarter, now full of small cafes, studios and street art. The afternoon and evening are free: rest at the hotel through the hottest hours, or come with us to Bachkovo Monastery in the foothills. Nebet Tepe is worth a second visit at sunset.

   Included

   • Plovdiv old town walk with a licensed local guide: the Roman stadium, the Dzhumaya Mosque, the old houses and Nebet Tepe
   • Roman theatre of Philippopolis (entry included)
   • Regional Ethnographic Museum (entry included)

   Optional experiences

   • Afternoon trip to Bachkovo Monastery with our driver, about 40 minutes each way
   • Wine tasting in Kapana

   Easier option: Skip Nebet Tepe, the steepest part, and wait with a coffee by the theatre.

   More active option: Climb Sahat Tepe, the clock-tower hill, in the late afternoon for a second view over the city.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 3 hours on steep, uneven cobbles. The Ethnographic Museum is closed on Mondays, so we set departures so this day is not a Monday.

   

10. Day 10: Into Turkey: Edirne and the Selimiye Mosque

    Plovdiv to the Turkish border at Kapitan Andreevo, then Edirne

    • Drive about 2.5 h
    • Breakfast and dinner
    • Stay in Edirne
    Day 10 details

    We leave Plovdiv at 8:30 am and follow the Maritsa valley east on the motorway, about 175 km and two and a quarter hours of driving to Edirne, plus the border at Kapitan Andreevo, one of the busiest in Europe; trucks queue in their own lanes, but cars can still wait an hour or more, so we leave room in the day. Edirne was the Ottoman capital before Istanbul fell in 1453, and it is a city most Budapest to Istanbul trips drive past. After lunch at your choice in the old bazaar streets, a local guide takes us to the Selimiye Mosque, finished in 1575 and listed by UNESCO, which the architect Sinan called his masterwork: its single dome rests on eight pillars, and the four minarets are among the tallest in Turkey. Restoration has been under way in recent years, and we confirm what is open before you travel. We go on to the Old Mosque and the Üç Şerefeli Mosque, then watch the sun go down from the Ottoman bridges over the Tunca. Dinner together is Edirne's own dish, thin fried calf's liver.

    Included

    • Drive from Plovdiv to Edirne with your guide
    • Edirne walk with a local guide: the Selimiye Mosque, the Old Mosque and the Üç Şerefeli Mosque
    • Sunset at the Ottoman bridges over the Tunca
    • Dinner in Edirne

    Easier option: Skip the bridges at sunset and rest at the hotel before dinner.

    Free time: Lunch on your own in the bazaar streets

    Activity: Mosques close to visitors at prayer times, and we avoid Friday midday prayers. Women cover their hair inside; scarves are lent at the door.

    

11. Day 11: The Bayezid II complex, Istanbul and a ferry to Asia

    Edirne to Istanbul, then a public ferry across the Bosphorus

    • Drive about 3 h
    • Breakfast
    • Stay in Istanbul
    Day 11 details

    Before we leave Edirne we stop at the Complex of Sultan Bayezid II across the river, built in the 1480s with a mosque, a school and a hospital. The hospital, where patients were treated with music and the sound of water, is now a museum of the history of medicine, and it is quiet in the morning. Then we drive about three hours east to Istanbul, about 235 km on the motorway; traffic on the edge of the city can add time. We check into our central hotel in the early afternoon, so you have the rest of the day in the city. In the late afternoon your guide walks you through the Sultanahmet square, the old Hippodrome, past the Egyptian obelisk, and into the Blue Mosque outside prayer time, when its blue Iznik tiles are easiest to see. Before sunset your guide takes us down to Eminönü for the public ferry across the Bosphorus to Kadıköy, on the Asian side, with the old city skyline behind us. Dinner is your choice in Kadıköy's market streets or back on the European side, and the rest of the evening is free.

    Included

    • Sultan Bayezid II complex and the Museum of the History of Medicine (entry included)
    • Drive from Edirne to Istanbul with your guide
    • Orientation walk in Sultanahmet: the Hippodrome and the Blue Mosque
    • Public ferry from Eminönü to Kadıköy and back with your guide

    Optional experiences

    • Galata Tower

    Easier option: Skip the ferry and rest at the hotel after the Sultanahmet walk.

    More active option: Walk from Kadıköy along the shore to Moda before the ferry back.

    Free time: Evening free in Kadıköy or Sultanahmet after the ferry

    Activity: Dress modestly for mosques: covered shoulders and knees, and a scarf for women.

    

12. Day 12: Topkapı, Hagia Sophia and the Grand Bazaar

    Istanbul old city on foot

    • Breakfast and dinner
    • Stay in Istanbul
    Day 12 details

    We are at the gate of Topkapı Palace for its 9 am opening with a licensed Istanbul guide, before the cruise and coach groups. The palace was the seat of the Ottoman sultans for nearly four hundred years; we walk through its courtyards, the kitchens and the treasury, and out to the terrace over the Bosphorus. Next door is Hagia Sophia, built in the 530s as a church, then a mosque, a museum, and since 2020 a mosque again: foreign visitors enter by a separate route to the upper gallery for a fee, which we include, to see the Byzantine mosaics and the great dome. Below the square we go down into the Basilica Cistern, a 6th-century water tank of columns. Lunch is your choice in the lanes around the bazaar; after lunch your guide leads you through the Grand Bazaar, and then the afternoon is yours: shop, rest at the hotel, or book a Turkish bath. In the evening we sit down to a farewell dinner together.

    Included

    • Istanbul old city with a licensed local guide: Topkapı Palace, Hagia Sophia (upper gallery) and the Basilica Cistern (entries included)
    • The Grand Bazaar with your guide
    • Farewell dinner

    Optional experiences

    • Topkapı Harem (separate ticket)
    • Turkish bath (hamam)

    Easier option: Skip the Grand Bazaar and rest at the hotel before the farewell dinner.

    More active option: Walk on from the bazaar up to the Süleymaniye Mosque and its terrace over the Golden Horn.

    Free time: Afternoon free after the Grand Bazaar

    Activity: Topkapı is closed on Tuesdays and the Grand Bazaar on Sundays, so we set departures so this day avoids both. About 3 to 4 hours on foot in the morning.

13. Day 13: Istanbul and home

    Central Istanbul to Istanbul Airport

    • Drive about 1 h
    • Breakfast
    Day 13 details

    The last morning is free. Walk across the Galata Bridge in the morning light, with fishermen lining the rails and the mosques of the old city behind you, or go into the Spice Bazaar at Eminönü for Turkish delight, dried fruit and tea. If you would rather see one more building, the Süleymaniye Mosque on the hill above, another work of Sinan, is quieter than Sultanahmet and has a terrace over the Golden Horn. Your guide is at breakfast to help with plans and to check flight times. A driver takes you from the hotel to Istanbul Airport (IST), about 50 km and an hour away, longer in traffic, at a time that suits your flight; leave the hotel about four hours before an international departure. If you fly from Sabiha Gökçen Airport (SAW) on the Asian side, tell us when you book and we arrange that transfer instead. To stay longer, we can book extra nights at the same hotel, or you can continue on our Istanbul and Cappadocia trip.

    Included

    • Drop-off at Istanbul Airport (IST) or Sabiha Gökçen Airport (SAW), timed to your flight

    Optional experiences

    • Spice Bazaar
    • Süleymaniye Mosque

    Free time: Morning free

    Activity: Flights at any time of day work; leave the hotel about four hours before departure.

Wildlife and weather: May, June and September are the most comfortable months, with warm days and cool evenings. July and August are hot on the plains and in Istanbul, often over 30 C, so we walk in the morning and late afternoon. The roses around Kazanlak are picked from late May to early June, depending on the spring. October is mild and quieter, with shorter days.

• Budapest2 nights
• Belgrade2 nights
• Sofia2 nights
• Veliko Tarnovo1 night
• Plovdiv2 nights
• Edirne1 night
• Istanbul2 nights