Cornelius Amann
October 06, 2026
5/5
Croatia and the Balkans: Zagreb, Plitvice, Sarajevo, Belgrade and Budapest
12 days from Zagreb to Budapest: Plitvice Lakes in the quiet late afternoon, three nights in Sarajevo, three in Belgrade with Novi Sad by fast train, and two on the Danube in Budapest.
12 days · Zagreb to Budapest · up to 12 guests
A Zagreb tram in the Lower Town Photo: Sharon Hahn Darlin, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zagreb,_Croatia_July_2022_-_Blue_Tram.jpg)
The facts
At a glance
- Length
- 12 days, 11 nights
- Start and end
- Zagreb to Budapest
- Group size
- 7 to 12 guests
- Activity level
Moderate
Mostly easy to moderate walking on cobbles and old-town hills, about 5 to 10 km on city days. Plitvice is the longest walk, about 8 km on boardwalks and gravel paths with some steps, cut short by the park boat and panoramic train. Two road days of about 6 hours. Every climb (the Jajce fortress, Petrovaradin's tunnels, the Fisherman's Bastion towers) has a sit-out.
- Meals included
- 11 breakfasts, 8 lunches, 4 dinners
- Room of your own
- + CAD 800 (estimated price)
- Season
- May to October
Highlights
Why this trip
- Plitvice Lakes after the day coaches leave, with the Great Waterfall at opening the next morning
- The Pliva waterfall in the middle of Jajce and a long lunch beside it
- Three nights in Sarajevo: Baščaršija, the Latin Bridge, the Tunnel of Hope and the Trebević cable car
- The Mehmed Paša Sokolović bridge at Višegrad, the bridge on the Drina
- Kalemegdan above the meeting of the Sava and the Danube, then a boat on the rivers at sunset
- Novi Sad and Petrovaradin Fortress by Serbia's fast train
- Subotica's Art Nouveau town hall on the way to Budapest
- The Castle District at 8:30 am and a tour inside the Hungarian Parliament
What makes this trip different
Free time is part of the plan
Free time and choices are marked on the days they fall.
Solo without the penalty
A room of your own is + CAD 800 (estimated price).
Day by day
Itinerary
Tap any stop on the map to open that dayClick any stop on the map to open that day
Arrive in Zagreb
Zagreb Airport to your hotel in central Zagreb
- Dinner
- Stay in Zagreb
- Drive about 30 min
Fly into Zagreb Airport (ZAG), about 17 km south-east of the city. A driver meets you in the arrivals hall whatever time you land and takes you to your hotel in the Lower Town, about half an hour away.
Afternoon
The afternoon is yours: Zagreb is compact and easy to walk, and the blue trams cover the rest. At 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the route ahead, the four countries, the borders and how the long road days are paced. Then we walk together through the Green Horseshoe, the chain of parks and squares the city laid out in the late 19th century, from King Tomislav Square in front of the main railway station up to Ban Jelačić Square.
Evening
Dinner tonight is a welcome dinner at a local restaurant: try štrukli, baked dough with fresh cheese, and a glass of Croatian wine.
Included
- Pick-up at Zagreb Airport (ZAG)
- Welcome briefing with your guide
- Evening walk through the Lower Town's Green Horseshoe
- Welcome dinner
Free time: Free until the 6 pm briefing
Zagreb's Upper Town
Zagreb on foot: Dolac market, Kaptol, the Upper Town and the funicular
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Zagreb
We start at 8:30 am at Dolac, the open-air market under red umbrellas above Ban Jelačić Square, while farmers are still setting out cheese, peppers and flowers.
Morning
A local guide then leads the morning: Kaptol and the cathedral, under long restoration since the 2020 earthquake, the cafés of Tkalčićeva street, and the Stone Gate, where a shrine inside the old town gate survived a great fire in 1731. Up in the Upper Town you see St Mark's Church with its tiled roof of coats of arms, and the Lotrščak Tower, where a cannon fires at noon. Then the funicular, one of the shortest in the world, takes us back down to Ilica.
Afternoon
Lunch is a sit-down meal in the old town.
Evening
In the afternoon your ticket to the Museum of Broken Relationships is included, a small museum of objects left behind by ended love affairs; the rest of the day and the evening are free.
Included
- Dolac market
- Zagreb walk with a local guide: Kaptol, Tkalčićeva, the Stone Gate, St Mark's Church and the Lotrščak Tower
- Zagreb funicular
- Sit-down lunch in the old town
- Museum of Broken Relationships
Optional experiences
- Mirogoj cemetery and arcades (free; a short tram or taxi ride)
- Croatian Museum of Naïve Art
More active option: Walk on to Mirogoj, about 2 km uphill from the cathedral, for its arcades and trees in the afternoon.
Free time: Afternoon and evening free
Activity: The Upper Town is a short climb on cobbles; the funicular saves the steps down.
Rastoke and Plitvice Lakes
Zagreb to Rastoke (Slunj), then Plitvice Lakes National Park
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Stay in Plitvice Lakes
- Drive about 2 h
We leave Zagreb at about 8:30 am and drive south for an hour and a half to Rastoke, a hamlet of old watermills at Slunj where the Slunjčica river breaks into small falls before it joins the Korana.
Afternoon
A short walk among the mills and footbridges, then a sit-down lunch there, with trout from the river. By about 1:30 pm we are at Plitvice Lakes National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979: sixteen terraced lakes joined by waterfalls over travertine dams, in beech and fir forest. Most visitors arrive by coach in the morning; we come as they leave, so the boardwalks are quieter. Our guide leads a walk of about 8 km past the upper lakes, crosses the long Kozjak lake on the park's electric boat, and follows the lower lakes towards the Great Waterfall, about 78 m high, with the panoramic train to save the climb back.
Evening
Dinner is at our hotel by the park.
Included
- Rastoke watermill village at Slunj
- Sit-down lunch in Rastoke
- Plitvice Lakes National Park ticket, with the electric boat across Kozjak and the panoramic train
- Guided walk of the upper and lower lakes with your guide
- Dinner at the hotel
Easier option: Take the boat and panoramic train for most of the way and walk only the lower lakes boardwalks, about 3 km.
Free time: Evening free at the hotel
Activity: Boardwalks have no railings and can be slippery when wet; some steps on the lower lakes.
Across Bosnia to Sarajevo, by way of Jajce
Plitvice to Bihać, across the border to Jajce, then Sarajevo
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Sarajevo
- Drive about 6 h
Morning
If you like, walk out with your guide at 7 am, when the park opens, to the viewpoint over the Great Waterfall before breakfast. At 8:30 am we leave for Sarajevo.
Evening
This is one of the two long days, about 360 km and six hours of driving: there is no practical train, and breaking it with a night in a small town would cost a night in Sarajevo. So we break it twice. The border into Bosnia and Herzegovina is twenty minutes away, at Ličko Petrovo Selo and Izačić, and our first stop is coffee by the green Una river in Bihać. Then three hours east to Jajce, where the Pliva river falls about 20 m into the Vrbas in the middle of town. Lunch is a long sit-down meal near the falls, then a walk past the wooden watermills on the Pliva lakes and up to the fortress, and the AVNOJ museum, where Tito's partisans met in 1943. Jajce time is flexible: if the border is slow, we shorten the stop rather than arrive late. We reach Sarajevo by about 5:30 pm.
Included
- Coffee stop by the Una in Bihać
- Jajce: the Pliva waterfall, the watermills, the fortress and the AVNOJ museum
- Sit-down lunch in Jajce
Optional experiences
- Early walk to the Great Waterfall viewpoint at Plitvice, from 7 am when the park opens
Easier option: Skip the fortress climb in Jajce and stay by the waterfall and the mills.
More active option: The early walk to the Great Waterfall at Plitvice, about 3 km there and back.
Free time: Evening free in Sarajevo
Activity: The longest driving day. Border waits are added to the drive time; carry your passport.
Sarajevo, east and west
Sarajevo on foot: Baščaršija, Ferhadija and the Latin Bridge, then Trebević
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Sarajevo
Morning
A local guide meets us at 9 am for a morning walk through Sarajevo's old town. In Baščaršija, the Ottoman bazaar, copper-smiths still work along the lanes around the wooden Sebilj fountain. We go into the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, built in the 1530s, and walk along Ferhadija street, where the paving changes from Ottoman to Austro-Hungarian at a line marked in the stone, past the Catholic cathedral, the Old Orthodox Church and the synagogue, all within a few minutes of one another. At the Latin Bridge you stand where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot on 28 June 1914, and we finish at the City Hall, the Vijećnica, burned in 1992 and reopened in 2014.
Afternoon
Lunch is a sit-down meal at an aščinica, a traditional cookhouse. In the late afternoon your ticket for the Trebević cable car takes you up the mountain for the view over the city and a walk along the abandoned 1984 Olympic bobsled track.
Included
- Sarajevo old town walk with a local guide: Baščaršija, Sebilj, Ferhadija, the Latin Bridge
- Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque
- City Hall (Vijećnica)
- Sit-down lunch at an aščinica
- Trebević cable car return ticket
Optional experiences
- Svrzo's House, an Ottoman family house
- Gallery 11/07/95
Easier option: Stay at the cable car's top station terrace instead of walking to the bobsled track.
More active option: Walk down from Trebević through the woods to the old town, about 5 km.
Free time: Afternoon until the cable car and the evening free
Activity: Cover shoulders and knees in mosques; scarves are lent at the door.
The siege of Sarajevo
Sarajevo to the Tunnel of Hope at Butmir and back
- Breakfast
- Stay in Sarajevo
- Drive about 45 min
Today is about the siege of Sarajevo, from 1992 to 1996, the longest of a capital city in modern war, told by a local guide who grew up in the city. We drive out at about 9 am, before other groups arrive, along the wide boulevard once called Sniper Alley to the Tunnel of Hope museum at Butmir, in the house whose cellar hid the entrance. The tunnel, about 800 m long and dug under the airport runway, was the city's only way in and out; you walk through a short preserved stretch. Back in town we visit the War Childhood Museum, which tells the siege through objects and memories of people who were children then.
Morning
It is a heavy morning, so the rest of the day is free and slower: coffee in Baščaršija, the markets, or a museum of your choice.
Evening
Your guide can suggest a place for burek and for dinner.
Included
- Siege history tour with a local guide, along the former Sniper Alley
- Tunnel of Hope museum at Butmir
- War Childhood Museum
Optional experiences
- National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Sarajevo Brewery and its restaurant for dinner
Free time: Afternoon and evening free
Activity: The tunnel stretch is low and narrow; you can watch from the entrance instead.
The bridge on the Drina, then Belgrade
Sarajevo to Višegrad, across the border to Mokra Gora, then Belgrade
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Belgrade
- Drive about 6 h
Evening
The second long day, about 370 km and six hours of driving: there is no practical train between Sarajevo and Belgrade, and the alternative is a one-night stop in a small town. We leave at 8:30 am and drive east through the hills to Višegrad, two and a quarter hours away, for the Mehmed Paša Sokolović bridge, eleven stone arches over the Drina finished in 1577 and listed by UNESCO in 2007. It is the bridge of Ivo Andrić's novel The Bridge on the Drina. We cross into Serbia at Vardište and Kotroman and stop at Mokra Gora, where the film director Emir Kusturica built Drvengrad, a hilltop village of log houses, for a walk and a long sit-down lunch; you may see the narrow-gauge Šargan Eight heritage train in the valley below. Then it is motorway most of the way to Belgrade, arriving at about 6 pm, with the evening free.
Included
- Mehmed Paša Sokolović bridge in Višegrad
- Drvengrad at Mokra Gora
- Sit-down lunch at Mokra Gora
Easier option: Skip the walk up through Drvengrad and wait over coffee by the lunch tables.
More active option: At Višegrad, walk across the bridge and along the Drina embankment and back, about 2 km.
Free time: Evening free in Belgrade
Activity: The second-longest driving day. Border waits are added to the drive time; carry your passport.
Kalemegdan and a river evening
Belgrade: Kalemegdan, Knez Mihailova, St Sava and the House of Flowers, then the Sava and the Danube
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Stay in Belgrade
- Drive about 30 min
At 9 am, before the heat, a local guide walks us up to Kalemegdan, Belgrade's fortress park on the ridge where the Sava meets the Danube. From the walls beside the Victor monument you look across the confluence to Zemun and the flat plain of Vojvodina.
Afternoon
We walk down Knez Mihailova, the pedestrian street, past Studentski trg and the university buildings to Republic Square, and stop for a sit-down lunch at a kafana. In the afternoon the vehicle takes us to the Church of Saint Sava, one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world, with its gold mosaic dome, and to the Museum of Yugoslavia, where Tito is buried in the House of Flowers.
Evening
In the early evening we board a boat for a slow cruise on the Sava and the Danube as the sun sets behind New Belgrade, then sit down to dinner together at a riverside restaurant.
Included
- Belgrade walk with a local guide: Kalemegdan fortress, Knez Mihailova and Republic Square
- Sit-down lunch at a kafana
- Church of Saint Sava
- Museum of Yugoslavia and the House of Flowers
- Sunset boat on the Sava and the Danube
- Dinner at a riverside restaurant
Optional experiences
- Nikola Tesla Museum (guided visits only, often sold out; we book on request)
Activity: The Museum of Yugoslavia is closed on Mondays; we swap days 8 and 9 when needed.
Novi Sad by fast train
Belgrade to Novi Sad by train and back
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Belgrade
- By train
Morning
After breakfast we take the Soko, Serbia's fast train, from Belgrade to Novi Sad, about forty minutes across the Vojvodina plain. A local guide walks us through the centre of Serbia's second city: Liberty Square with the town hall and the Name of Mary Church, the pedestrian streets of Zmaj Jovina and Dunavska, and the Art Nouveau synagogue. Then we cross the Danube to Petrovaradin Fortress, built by the Habsburgs in the 18th century, for the view back over the city and the clock tower whose hands are reversed, so that the big hand shows the hour for boatmen on the river.
Afternoon
Lunch is a sit-down meal in Novi Sad, and in the afternoon the train takes us back to Belgrade by about 5 pm.
Evening
The evening is free: your guide can point you to Skadarlija, the cobbled bohemian street, or to Zemun's fish restaurants by the Danube.
Included
- Soko fast train Belgrade to Novi Sad and back
- Novi Sad walk with a local guide: Liberty Square, Zmaj Jovina, the synagogue
- Petrovaradin Fortress and the clock tower
- Sit-down lunch in Novi Sad
Optional experiences
- Sremski Karlovci, a baroque wine town 12 km from Novi Sad, with a tasting (priced at booking)
Easier option: Stay in the old town for coffee instead of climbing to the fortress.
More active option: A guided visit to Petrovaradin's underground military galleries, about an hour in the tunnels.
Free time: Evening free in Belgrade
Subotica and on to Budapest
Belgrade to Subotica by train, then across the Hungarian border to Budapest
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Budapest
- Drive about 3 h
We take the Soko fast train north from Belgrade to Subotica, about 70 to 80 minutes, near the Hungarian border, while the vehicle carries the luggage ahead, so you travel with a day bag only. Subotica was a prosperous Austro-Hungarian market town, and around 1900 it built in the Hungarian Art Nouveau style. A local guide shows us the City Hall, finished in 1912, with its tower and coloured glass, the Raichle Palace, and the Synagogue of 1902, restored and reopened in 2018.
Afternoon
Lunch is a sit-down meal in town. In the early afternoon the vehicle takes us on across the border at Kelebija and Tompa and north over the Great Hungarian Plain to Budapest, about 215 km and under three hours plus the border, where waits can be long on summer weekends. We reach our hotel in Pest by about 6 pm.
Evening
The evening is free: a walk along the Danube to see the Parliament lit up is a good first look.
Included
- Soko fast train Belgrade to Subotica
- Subotica walk with a local guide: City Hall, the Raichle Palace and the Synagogue
- Sit-down lunch in Subotica
- Drive to Budapest with your guide
Easier option: Skip the Subotica walk: ride the train, then rest over coffee on the main square until lunch.
More active option: Climb the City Hall tower in Subotica for the view over the town, when it is open.
Free time: Evening free in Budapest
Activity: If the train timetable does not suit the date, we drive the whole way and stop in Subotica as planned. Border waits are added to the drive time.
Budapest: the Castle District and Parliament
Budapest: Buda Castle District, the Chain Bridge, Parliament and the Great Market Hall
- Breakfast and dinner
- Stay in Budapest
We start at 8:30 am on Castle Hill in Buda, before the tour coaches, with a local guide: Matthias Church with its patterned tile roof, the white towers of the Fisherman's Bastion looking over the Danube to Parliament, and the courtyards of Buda Castle. Then we walk down and cross the river on the Chain Bridge, the first permanent bridge between Buda and Pest, reopened in 2023 after restoration. In Pest our timed tour goes inside the Hungarian Parliament to see the grand staircase and the Holy Crown, and outside on the embankment we stop at the Shoes on the Danube Bank, a memorial to Jews shot into the river in 1944 and 1945.
Afternoon
Lunch is your own choice, and the Great Market Hall, built in 1897, is a good place for it.
Evening
The afternoon is free, for a thermal bath perhaps, and in the evening we meet for a farewell dinner together.
Included
- Castle District walk with a local guide: Matthias Church, the Fisherman's Bastion and Buda Castle
- Walk across the Chain Bridge
- Hungarian Parliament guided tour
- Shoes on the Danube Bank memorial
- Great Market Hall
- Farewell dinner
Optional experiences
- Széchenyi thermal bath (ticket priced at booking)
- Great Synagogue on Dohány Street
- House of Terror
Easier option: The vehicle takes you up to Castle Hill and back down across the river.
More active option: Climb Gellért Hill in the afternoon for the view over both banks, about 45 minutes up.
Free time: Afternoon free
Activity: Parliament tours run in fixed timed slots with a security check; bring your passport.
Depart from Budapest
Budapest to Budapest Airport
- Breakfast
- Drive about 30 min
Morning
The trip ends after breakfast in Budapest.
Evening
If your flight is in the afternoon or evening, the morning is free: walk to the Central Market or the Danube embankment, visit the Great Synagogue on Dohány Street, or take a last coffee in one of the old coffee houses on the Pest side. The hotel keeps your luggage after check-out. At a time set by your flight, our driver takes you to Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD), about 25 km and 40 minutes from the centre, longer in the evening rush. Your guide says goodbye at the hotel and checks that everyone's transfer is booked. If you want to stay longer in Budapest, ask us when you book and we add hotel nights at the same hotel, with the transfer moved to your new departure day. Plan to fly out any time on day 12; a flight after about noon gives you the morning in the city.
Included
- Drop-off at Budapest Airport (BUD)
Free time: Free until your airport transfer
Activity: Fly out any time on day 12; a flight after about noon leaves the morning free.
- Zagreb2 nights
- Plitvice Lakes1 night
- Sarajevo3 nights
- Belgrade3 nights
- Budapest2 nights
- Overnight stop
- Day trip
- By boat or train
Wildlife and weather: May and June bring the fullest waterfalls at Plitvice and Jajce and mild city days. July and August are hot inland, often over 35°C in Sarajevo, Belgrade and Budapest, and Plitvice is at its busiest, so we start early in the cities and enter the park in the afternoon. September and early October are the best balance of warm days and thinner crowds; late October can be cool and wet.
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Before you book
Right for you?
Good for you if you want
- Travellers who want four capitals and Plitvice in one trip, with three nights in Sarajevo and Belgrade
- Recent history told on the ground: the siege of Sarajevo, Yugoslavia and Tito, the 1914 assassination
- A mix of guided mornings and free afternoons and evenings
- Solo travellers who want a fixed single supplement shown before booking
Not for you if you want
- Step-free access: old towns, fortresses and park boardwalks mean cobbles and steps
- Anyone who cannot sit through two road days of about six hours
- A beach or coast holiday (see our Croatia trip for Split, Hvar and Dubrovnik)
- Travellers who want Mostar and Kotor (see our Balkans trip from Dubrovnik)
Book flights after we confirm your seat.
11 nights
Where you'll stay
Your hotels are named in your trip confirmation.
- Zagreb2 nights
- Plitvice Lakes1 night
- Sarajevo3 nights
- Belgrade3 nights
- Budapest2 nights
One price
What's in the price
Included
Accommodation
- 11 nights: 2 in Zagreb, 1 at Plitvice Lakes, 3 in Sarajevo, 3 in Belgrade, 2 in Budapest
- Central hotels of at least 3-star-plus standard, named when we confirm your dates; a simpler hotel by the park at Plitvice
- Rooms shared, or your own for a supplement
Transport
- Pick-up at Zagreb Airport (ZAG) on day 1, whatever your flight time
- Drop-off at Budapest Airport (BUD) on day 12
- Our own air-conditioned vehicle and driver from Zagreb to Budapest, across all three borders
- Soko fast trains: Belgrade to Novi Sad and back, and Belgrade to Subotica
- The Plitvice electric boat and panoramic train
- The Trebević cable car in Sarajevo
- A sunset boat on the Sava and the Danube in Belgrade
Your guide
- A See Sight Tours guide with the group for all 12 days
- Licensed local guides in Zagreb, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Novi Sad, Subotica and Budapest
Activities
- Zagreb: Dolac market, Upper Town walk, the funicular and the Museum of Broken Relationships
- Rastoke: the watermill village at Slunj
- Plitvice Lakes National Park ticket and guided walk
- Bihać: a stop by the Una
- Jajce: the Pliva waterfall, the watermills, the fortress and the AVNOJ museum
- Sarajevo: old town walk, the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, the City Hall, the Tunnel of Hope, the War Childhood Museum and a siege history tour
- Višegrad: the Mehmed Paša Sokolović bridge
- Mokra Gora: Drvengrad
- Belgrade: Kalemegdan, Knez Mihailova, the Church of Saint Sava and the Museum of Yugoslavia with the House of Flowers
- Novi Sad: old town walk and Petrovaradin Fortress
- Subotica: City Hall, the Raichle Palace and the Synagogue
- Budapest: Castle District walk, Matthias Church, the Fisherman's Bastion, the Chain Bridge, the Hungarian Parliament tour, the Shoes on the Danube Bank and the Great Market Hall
Meals
- 11 breakfasts
- 8 sit-down lunches: Zagreb, Rastoke, Jajce, Sarajevo, Mokra Gora, Belgrade, Novi Sad and Subotica
- 4 dinners: welcome dinner in Zagreb, dinner at Plitvice, riverside dinner in Belgrade, farewell dinner in Budapest
Not included
- International flights into Zagreb and out of Budapest
- Travel insurance
- Visas or travel authorisations, if your passport needs them
- Meals not listed above
- Drinks
- Tips for your guides and driver
- Optional activities such as the Széchenyi bath or Sremski Karlovci
- Personal expenses
- Extra hotel nights before or after the trip
Extras
- Room of your own
- CAD 800 (estimated price)
When you can go
Dates and prices
Pick your start date when you request to book. We check that date and confirm it in your quote.
Prefer to travel without a group or guide? Ask us about arranging hotels, transport and city tours for you to travel independently.
Before you book
Booking terms
Nothing is charged now. Full terms and the cancellation schedule come with your quote, before you accept.
Business addresses
See Sight Tours Trips (USA): 3172 N Rainbow Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89108, United StatesSee Sight Tours Trips (Canada): 5305 50 Avenue, #1091, Red Deer, AB T4N 4B6, Canada+1-888-961-6584Guest reviews
What guests say
Reviews from guests on our day tours.
Jane
October 06, 2026
5/5
Susan
October 06, 2026
5/5
Tom L
October 05, 2026
5/5
MandL83
October 05, 2026
5/5
Darren O
October 05, 2026
5/5
Good to know
Questions
What does the price include?
Eleven nights in central hotels, 11 breakfasts, 8 sit-down lunches and 4 dinners, airport transfers in Zagreb and Budapest, our own vehicle and driver across all three borders, the fast trains to Novi Sad and Subotica, your See Sight Tours guide throughout, local guides in six places, and every visit in the day plan, from the Plitvice ticket to the Hungarian Parliament tour.
How big is the group?
The small-group trip runs with 7 to 12 guests, never merged with another group, so everyone fits in one vehicle, can hear the guide in a crowded bazaar and sits at one table at lunch.
Who leads the trip?
A See Sight Tours guide travels with the group for all 12 days, across all four countries. Licensed local guides join for the walks in Zagreb, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Novi Sad, Subotica and Budapest, including a Sarajevo guide who lived through the siege years in the city.
How long are the drives?
Two days are long: Plitvice to Sarajevo and Sarajevo to Belgrade are each about six hours of driving, because no practical train runs either way. Each is broken by a riverside stop and a long sit-down lunch with a walk. The other drives are under three hours, and fast trains cover Novi Sad and Subotica.
How fit do I need to be?
Moderate. You walk about 5 to 10 km on city days, on cobbles and some hills, and about 8 km at Plitvice on boardwalks and gravel, shortened by the park boat and train. Fortress climbs in Jajce and Novi Sad have an easier alternative, and you can sit any part out.
I am travelling solo. What does a room of my own cost?
A room of your own is from CAD 800 more, a fixed supplement shown before you book, not added at checkout. If you would rather share, ask for a roommate match when you request to book, and we tell you whether another solo traveller of the same gender is on your departure.
When is the best time to go?
May to October. May and June bring the fullest waterfalls at Plitvice and Jajce; July and August are hot inland, often over 35°C, so we start city days early and enter Plitvice in the afternoon. September and early October are the best balance of warm days and thinner crowds.
Do I need a visa, and how do the borders work?
Canadian, US, UK and EU passport holders need no visa for short stays in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia or Hungary. We cross three borders by road with our own vehicle. Croatia and Hungary are in the Schengen area, so the EU's Entry/Exit System applies, and ETIAS is due to start; we confirm what you need when you book.
Why does the trip not include Mostar or the coast?
This trip follows the inland capitals from Zagreb to Budapest. Mostar, Durmitor and Kotor are on our Balkans trip from Dubrovnik, and Split, Hvar and Dubrovnik on our Croatia trip. Both share only one city with this one, so they combine well if you want a longer journey.
Can we travel privately or on our own dates?
Yes. Besides the small group, the trip comes as a private trip for your party only, on a date you choose, with your own guide and vehicle. If you would rather travel independently on your own dates, ask us from the dates section and we quote the same hotels, trains, drivers and local guides.
How does booking work?
Prices are per person sharing a room, with taxes, and differ by style. The small group starts from CAD 4,705 and the private trip from CAD 8,470. Send your preferred dates as an enquiry. We check availability and provide the final quote, itinerary and booking terms before you accept. No payment is taken when you send the request.
See Sight Tours has been providing travel services across North America since 2006. Operating in 20 cities across Canada and the USA, the company specializes in small group tours that offer personalized, high-quality experiences for travelers.
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