Best time to visit the Balkans

Stefan Hellmuth from Intrepid:

“My absolute favourite place is Sarajevo. This city is poised to become a major destination in south-eastern Europe in the coming years. So best to go now before the secret gets out.” “Visitors to Bosnia and Herzegovina and The Balkans should go there without prejudice in regards to the causes of the 1990’s war. Listen to stories from different angles and from people of different ages in different regions, and stay open minded. After all, the majority of the people suffered, and no one wanted this to happen in the first place.”

"Kosovo is a small country and one of the most undiscovered in Europe. It has lots of interesting sites including UNESCO Decani Monastery and the architectural heritage of picturesque Prizren. Anyone who is interested in both modern and ancient European history will be fascinated by Kosovo. One can also enjoy beautiful scenery and walking in the Rugova Valley and also do some wine tasting at a local vineyard. We would recommend combining visiting Kosovo with Albania and Macedonia for a wider look at the region.”

“I think that Belgrade is well worth a visit. On the journey from the airport it may not look like the prettiest of cities but when you get into the centre things vastly improve. Belgrade Fortress & Kalemegdan Park is a very nice place to explore with some good views of where the Sava & Danube rivers meet. Outside of Belgrade, I enjoyed the train ride to Mokra Gora and my stay in the village of Sirogojno. Sirogojno is a little village to the west of the country where you can enjoy the tranquil setting as well as learn about how the community used to live.”

Joanna Simmons, travel writer at Responsible Travel:

“Don't come expecting Montenegro to be sleek and well organised. It's a small country with a tiny population and beyond the coast people live a pretty simple, basic life. It's not like a vacation to France, say, where the roads are great and you will always find a hypermarket or massive local market where you can stock up on food. Here, there isn't much in the way of shops (people are quite self sufficient), petrol stations can be miles apart, road signs non-existent and roads narrow and perilous. You don't tend to meet a lot of women, either, as the culture seems to be fairly male-orientated.

Olly Pemberton, from our supplier Exodus, shares his Albania travel tips:

“The passion’s evident from all our guides. All of them are really passionate people and they’re so concerned about people leaving Albania having had the best time of their life. They really want people to realise how great it is. So they’ll go overboard talking about the history and taking them to places that visitors wouldn’t normally go to. Albanians wear these white felt hats, and in the rural areas people wear more traditional dress, you see it every now and again. They like to cling onto their culture – and quite rightly so. No one’s been able to see their culture for so long, and they’re not about to change it any time soon just to cater for tourists. The fact that you’re still in Europe and you’ve got so much culture and tradition is always quite nice to see. They’re very proud of it, and so they should be.”