July 26, 2007

Europe | Bulgaria

Happy Feet

By Nicole Cotroneo

Country Walkers breaks into Bulgaria with a new tour that’s anything but pedestrian.

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You’ve spent the morning trekking through Devil’s Throat Cave, a stone cavern in southern Bulgaria with the longest waterfalls on the Balkan Peninsula. Then you arrive at a village pastry shop where the baker’s been expecting you, ready with Turkish tea and insanely sweet lokum. This is how it rolls when you’re on Country Walkers’ newest tour — you get to explore Bulgaria on foot, and then get waited on hand and foot. Like a burgeoning crop of outfitters now, the veteran trekking specialists are geared to anything but the granola set; these excursions are for well-heeled travelers seeking an experience far from pedestrian.

In fact, Country Walkers has created the first U.S.-operated foot tour through the EU’s newest (along with Romania) member state. Departing September 2, you can spend eight days exploring World-Heritage monasteries (hello Rila, pictured) and glacial lakes; crossing the “sand pyramids” of Melnik; and hiking the Valley of Roses — which yields 70 percent of the world’s rose oil, Bulgaria’s largest export. Nightly recuperation includes bedding down in a renovated Renaissance mansion in Plovdiv — Bulgaria’s second city, known for its impossibly beautiful people. Plus, you’ll get to stop in the spa town of Devin — where you can plunge your faithful feet in hot mineral springs.