Offroad tour season 2019 will be a breath of fresh air in the Rustika Travel routine of traditional overland expeditions – many of you have been to all the places we’ve been taking you so far, so we desparately need completely new, 100% undriven tours for our faithful visitors.
Here they are – Rhodopean Quest (Bulgaria), Overlanding Ancient Trails (Central Serbia) and Morocco Desert Adventure (Morocco) are three journeys that are completely new in our 2019 programme! So we have a bit of everything – all of our traditional tours in the Balkans are still here for newcomers who’ve heard raving reviews about them to enjoy, but there’s plenty more to choose from.
Another change is that we’ve abandoned organizing winter tours. After several seasons of (luckily successful) winter tours, we’ve concluded that the unpredictable weather (snow) conditions during winter months are too much of a risk in our efforts to guarantee a quality experience to our clients. And we just don’t want to take any chances in an environment where too much is beyond our control. We’ll concentrate on improving the first class experience of our visitors in the other three seasons instead.
So lets go to the offroad tours, one by one!
Homolje Gold Rush (April 14th – 20th 2019)
We moved one of our best known and most popular traditional tours from the beginning to mid April in order to avoid the risk of coping with winter conditions. Mud is ok as well as sun, flowers and green sprouting all over the place. And the legends and stories of the golden rivers around Majdanpek you can enjoy in comfortable accomodation of quiet little hotels. Click on image or heading for more info!
Secret Carpathians – forest edition (May 4th – 10th 2019)
We decided to give this name to the first of the 2019 Secret Carpathians tours with a clear reason – it will be concentrated mostly on the heavily forested areas of the northeastern part of the Serbian Carpathian mountains. It will practically be a replacement of the previous Iron Gate and the Stone arches tour, but building on a much more potent concept that allows venturing further southwards to include a broader variety of scenery. At the same time this will be a fantastic way to experience the Carpathian springtime. Also for people who’ve previously taken part in the Secret Carpathians tours it will be a chance to visit places thay haven’t seen before, in a tour that has a distinctively different appeal than what they’ve experienced before. Check it out by clicking on the image or heading!
Overlanding Ancient Trails (June 3rd – 12th 2019)
Another completely new tour covering the only part of Serbia that we’ve never officially toured yet, between the well known trails in the east and the west. The beauty of the mountains surrounding the big central valleys will surprise you, with trails and memorable wild campspots that are on par with those that you know and love so much in eastern Serbia. A scenery that is full of medieval sites and other fragments of ancient history of Serbia, and a landscape that offers us everything – from deep forest travel to some of the most picturesque meadows in Serbia. Try it for a completely new experience of Serbia!
Secret Carpathians – main summer tour (July 1st – 10th 2019)
This is probably our most praised and hyped tour, the one that springs to mind first when you say Rustika Travel or Serbianoutdoor 4×4. It is the tour that we’ve conducted the most times so far (under various names). It gives us many possible variations to experience the wild and uninhabited Serbian Carpathians, turning it into pure overlanders bliss. Regarding the scenery, trail quality and wild campsites, there’s simply nothing that could go wrong with this certain win tour. As it’s usually the first one to be fully booked out, don’t hesitate if you want to reserve your place!
Rhodopean Quest (July 15th – 24th 2019)
If you’ve ever been (or at least saw the pictures) at some of our Secret Carpathians tours, you’ve driven on Stara planina (Old mountain) along the border between Serbia and Bulgaria, your sight probably wandered into the distance along the ridge, and we told you that Bulgaria lies beyond, in the part of this grand mountain that we’re not going to see in this tour. Well, this competely new tour programme is intended to satisfy those desires – to find out what lies beyond. And what you’ll find there is really a highland territory unimaginably big, spreading all the way to the Black Sea. About halfway through Bulgaria we’ll turn southwards, soon reaching Rhodopean mountains – quite different, but not less mesmerizing. This tour has a clear potential of becoming a hit, and you won’t regret registering for it!
Balkans Wild Tracks (August 4th – 16th 2019)
Spanning the three southernmost countries (Albania, Macedonia, Greece), this tour could likely be the ultimate overlanding adventure in the Balkans. Passing through mind-boggling mountainous scenery, this 13-day tour reaches the highest point accessible on wheels in the Balkans (2600 m). It features incredible wild campspots, deep canyons, vast riverbeds and attractive water crossings. Click on the image or heading to find out more and watch the tour video. You’ll certainly be seriously tempted to sign up!
Montenegrian Highlands (September 16th – 25th 2019)
The Highlands of Montenegro feature a unique mountainous area covering huge territory above 1300 m (average campsite altitude 1500-1800 m). It gives you a feeling of a central Asian mountain adventure – but it is actually in the heart of Europe. No other territory will offer you so many incredible sights. Overwhelmingly beautiful scenery concentrated in one of the smallest countries in Europe. Although situated in perhaps the most exotic scenery, the Montenegrian tour is technically probably the easiest tour that we organize. So it’s well suited as a family tour, or tour for vehicles that are not really “hard-core” offroaders. However, good quality tyres, with strong sidewalls, are mandatory, because the terrain is extremely rocky. The tour ends with the last two days in northern Albania, with a journey to the Theth valley.
Secret Carpathians – hotel tour (21th – 26th October 2019)
The legendary Secret Carpathians tour is finally available to the admirers of comfortable, hotel grade accomodation! By connecting the rare, but good accomodation spots in eastern Serbia we made a unique tour, that lets you experience the key attractions of the Serbian Carpathians. We’ve planned the trails in such a way that there’s no compromise regarding the attractiveness of the landscape. So come and see for yourself what it is about eastern Serbia that everyone is talking about!
You might also be interested in:
2019 calendar page on Rustika Travel website
Photo album with galleries from our tours
Videos from our tours
Impressions of our customers