8-day bear and bird watching in Bulgaria

We will meet at Sofia’s Airport and travel straight away to Devin. This town is located in the Rhodope Mountains and it is well known for its healing mineral waters. Devin is also famous due to the brown bear population. They can be seen at nighttime from the special hideouts where we will take you to enjoy watching them live in the wild. At night we will enjoy a traditional meal while we discuss the main aspects of our tour.

As bears can mainly be seen at night, during the day we will observe the bird biodiversity of the region. There are 141 nesting species – 68 of them are endangered. The Corn Crake, the Saker Falcon and the Lesser Kestrel, are some of the species we will go after. Also the conservation of the Goldcrest, the Black Woodpecker, the Hazel Hen, the Western Capercaillie, the Grey-headed Woodpecker, the Peregrine Falcon, and the Golden Eagle among many more, is of great importance in the region.

Depending on how much time we have left, we can also visit the Trigrad Gorge and the Devil’s Throat Cave which is famous for its high underground waterfall (worth of seeing). There are also some walking routes around Devin, so let me know if that may be of any interest to you.

At dusk, 4×4 jeeps will take us to a spot in the forest boundaries from which we will have to continue by foot in order to reach the best observation point. Our special hideout will let us observe bears in their natural habitat. We will be returning to Trigrad for overnight. This return can be very late depending how long we stay in the hideouts.

During the day you will have some optional activities to choose from. At the end of the day we will go on another bear watching tour.

Optional day activities:

– Horse-back riding in the forests of Rhodope Mountain. – A hike on the Devin-river Eco-path. – Swimming pools and spa-centers in Devin.

We will be traveling from Devin to Eastern Rhodope Mountains. This is quite a long transfer. During this trip we will enjoy amazing sights of Bulgaria’s nature. On the way we will stop for some bird-watching at Studen Kladenets Dam. In the afternoon we will visit the nature information and conservation center in Madjarovo. There we will learn about the ongoing conservation projects of local people and their work for preserving the vultures. We will enjoy a special traditional meal for dinner at a family-run guesthouse in The Wild Farm. We will be making out night stop at Gorno Pole Village.

We stay in Madjarovo area for some bird-watching. An important part of this area is declared a nature reserve. We will be able to observe bird species such as Griffon Vultures, Black Storks, Black and Egyptian Vultures, Long-legged Buzzards, Golden and Short-toed Eagles, Peregrine Falcons. This activity can be combined with hiking.

We travel to Topolovgrad to do some bird-watching in Sakar Mountains. Species like Black Stork, Goshawk, Eastern Imperial Eagle, Woodchat, Lesser Grey and Masked Shrikes, Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler, Wheatearn, and Black-headed Bunting will be likely to be seen during the breeding season.

Enjoy the morning in Sakar Mountains for more bird-watching there. Early in the afternoon we will be heading back to Sofia. I’ll show you around in Sofia and suggest some of my favorite places for dinner.

Our tour ends today in Sofia. We will go sightseeing to the main cultural highlights of the city. No visit to Sofia is complete without visiting the mighty Alexander Nevski Cathedral. We will say our final farewell at Sofia’s Airport hoping to see you again soon.