Sadly, I won’t be able to run any tours in 2023 but hope to start again in 2024 with the following tours:
For the past 30 years I have been organising cycling holidays in the UK and the rest of Europe for family and friends. Since meeting my wife in Sofia in 2006 Bulgaria is a country I’ve got to know well and love. In total I’ve spent about 5 years in the country, getting to know the landscapes, the culture and the language; I also discovered what a fantastic country it is for cycling! I love sharing what I’ve discovered with others, so since 2015 I’ve been organising tours in Bulgaria for CTC Holidays.
Other countries I know well are Switzerland and Germany; I’m half Swiss, speak German and have lived in both countries. In the future I’d also love to share my favourite bits of those countries’ cultures and landscapes by organising holidays there; however that will have to wait until my son is a bit older!
For me, a holiday should be relaxed, sociable, fascinating and enjoyable. So that I can be relaxed on tour too I make sure I’m super organised in the background - that means trying to think of everything before the tour starts but remaining flexible for anything that happens on the tour. Everyone has their own individual requirements and their idea of what a perfect holiday is, so I aim to accommodate these as far as possible, from preferred cycling style to dietary requirements. For those who are about enjoying the scenery we use a human signpost system at junctions so you don’t have to navigate and always have a leader at the back to sort out any eventuality; nobody gets left behind! For those who like to push themselves I provide GPS tracks and additional routes where appropriate. In the mountains it’s important everyone can ride at their own pace on the climbs. I time the route so there’s no need to hurry, unless that is you want to be first to the top! Personally I prefer to drop into a low gear and enjoy the scenery. To keep it fascinating I provide lots of information about the places we go through and involve local people so you can follow your interests en route and have the chance to chat with someone from the country. Remember, it’s important to carefully read the holiday description before booking to make sure the holiday is suitable for you.
I like to stay in interesting and varied places so expect to stay in a mixture of town centres, villages and remote locations in the mountains. Hotels are chosen on the basis of being good quality and comfortable with en suite facilities; beyond that I try to find the most interesting options. For staying more than one night I’d look for perhaps a spa hotel, or one located in a town that's interesting to explore. They can sometimes be smaller family run establishments where we’re treated as friends, or there are the large, renovated old communist town centre hotels, or occasionally even a hotel that was a luxury retreat for the old regime. Some hotels will be quirky and others will be in historic buildings; all will be carefully chosen. Evenings are spent relaxing, we’ll generally sit together at a large table and dine in the Bulgarian way – slowly, sociably and sharing the wide choice of high quality food.
I’ve been developing a series of linked up routes that cover the most interesting parts of Bulgaria. Across the centre of the country lie the Balkan Mountains, I’ve devised a series of 3 two-week routes covering the eastern, central and western parts of the mountains. All these routes link together so on 3 visits it’s possible to cycle across Bulgaria from the coast in the east to the Serbian border in the west. Sometimes I’ll run more than one route consecutively giving the possibility of a 4 week continuous route - maybe in the future I’ll even do 6 weeks!
The south of the country is also very mountainous and I’m likewise developing another series of 3 linked two-week routes which cross the country. Two of these have already been run taking in the Rodopi and Pirin Mountains. In future the route in the east would start at the coast and the Strandzha Mountains, probably take a shortcut across Turkey and then finish in the Eastern Rodopi Mountains. I’m also devising a route which starts in the south-west of Bulgaria, takes in Greece and North Macedonia before finishing in the Rila Mountains of Bulgaria.
Bulgaria is such a varied country that I’ve found each route has its own special character and is sufficiently different that lots of people enjoy coming back to try a different route. For the future I have plenty of ideas. For example there’s the Sredna Gora, a range of lower hills (up to 1604m) just south of the Balkan Mountains; this would have to be done during the rose harvest as it’s the region where much of the world’s rose oil is produced. Then there’s the Danube valley in the north which I’ve yet to explore; as well as the same river as it passes through Serbia where I have cycled and which is definitely worth seeing. Then there’s the possibility of really getting away from it all on the myriad of off road tracks found throughout Bulgaria...
So far I have organised tours in several parts of Bulgaria and I’m working on adding more to the list. Things that make it a great country for a cycling holiday include the very quiet roads, beautiful scenery, high quality accommodation, mountain springs and fabulous food to keep you refreshed. Apart from that each region brings its own unique scenery, culture and character to keep things varied. My favourite Bulgarian photos