The Balkans with a private guide

For our trip to the Balkans, May 14-30, 2015, my wife, Nita, and I wanted to hire Patrick Peneff (bulgariaprivate guide@gmail.com) to be our private guide. We had previously employed Patrick as a driver/guide for a Bulgaria tour that we took in May 2012 (Jan. ’13, pg. 32).

When we contacted Patrick, he said he would be glad to drive us but that he couldn’t serve as a guide in the Balkans in the same way he had done in Bulgaria, since he wasn’t as familiar with the history and sites there. Nevertheless, we hired him again.

We paid $100 a day for 17 days, which also covered his hotels, his food and gasoline for his SUV.

Nita and I started in Skopje, Macedonia, where we stayed in an apartment that we found through Airbnb.com. Our location on Makedonija Street, a pedestrian street, was within walking distance of restaurants, museums, theaters, shopping malls and the old Turkish city center.

After four days, Patrick joined us and we proceeded to Ohrid in Macedonia, Berat and Kruje in Albania and Kotor in Montenegro, the latter a town with a medieval wall and a fort high above.

In Croatia we stayed in Cavtat, a small seaside town. We took a bus from there into Dubrovnik and a water taxi back to Cavtat. This proved to be much cheaper than staying in Dubrovnik, where there was limited parking. Be warned that Dubrovnik is overrun with tours.

We had planned to proceed to Mostar, Bosnia, but we were warned by Croatians and several Americans staying in our villa that Bosnian police were harassing people driving foreign cars and were extracting outrageous fines (bribes).

Instead, we went to Trogir, Croatia, a small, interesting seaside city only an hour away from Split by water taxi. In Split there is a large, magnificent Roman fortress, Diocletian’s Palace, just yards from the water taxi stop.

We then visited Plitvice Lakes National Park, a very beautiful, mountainous area with numerous lakes — a hiker’s paradise. 

On the way to Belgrade, Serbia, where we ended our tour, we stopped at Osijek, Croatia, a small Roman city on the Drava River.

Except for Croatia, where there were more tourists, the food and lodging were quite inexpensive in these Balkan countries. Overall, the roads were good. Despite Patrick’s claim, he did quite well as a guide, and his Bulgarian guide license was honored in the countries we visited.

As the trip progressed, I suffered from extreme hip pain, and Nita hobbled due to an ankle injury, but Patrick did a great job of taking care of us by minimizing walking distances. I don’t know how we could have completed the trip without his help.

We said a tearful good-bye to our friend Patrick in Belgrade, where we stayed for four more days before making our journey home.

Patrick has ideas for additional trips, and as soon as I recover from hip-replacement surgery, we’ll, hopefully, be off again.

CHARLES SWARTZ

Las Cruces, NM