We meet you at Sofia Airport and transfer you to Bansko where you will spend the next four nights (transfer time is appr. 2,30-2,45hrs). Each day you will have transfers to the beginning of the trailhead and back later in the afternoon. During the holiday you will be able to explore two different parts of the Pirin Mountains: the Karst regions around Mt. Vihren, comprising mighty cliffs and steep slopes (and housing the century-old spruce forest of the Yulen Reserve) and the more green areas around Mt. Polezhan and Mt. Bezbog (where you could find also numerous glacial lakes).
Pre-arranged transfer brings you up to the Vihren Hut (appr. 30min) where you set off on a hiking trek through the pretty Cirque of the Banderishki Lakes. From there, you go across into the neighbouring valley and the Todorini Ochi Lakes and thence through the thick spruce forests of the Yulen Nature Reserve on to the valley of the playful Demyanitsa River. Stunning sceneries will be expecting you behind every corner.
Easier and shorter version is also available for that day in case of bad weather conditions or if you don’t feel confident enough for the original route above. Loop walk among the lakes in the Bunderishki Lake Cirque will take you to all five of them, where you can have rest on their shores and enjoy the serenity of the rocky outcrops around you.
Today, you visit one of the Pirin’s greenest parts near the Bezbog Hut (transfer time each way: 0,50 hrs). The car will drop you off at Gotse Delchev hut, from where you need to board the chairlift to Bezbog hut. This is the setting-off point for an extraordinarily panoramic walking trek to the Polezhan summit (2851m/9354ft). The summit offers perhaps the most wonderful view in the Pirin, with no fewer than 17 lakes visible, including the largest and deepest glacier lake in the mountain: the Popovo Lake.
Again easier walk is available if you wish to relax that day before the hardest Day 4. Instead of climbing Mt. Polezhan, you can continue on to Popovo Lake and spend the day there. (3hrs of walking; 7,6km/4,72miles; climbing and descending 396m/1299ft). . Or of course you can combine both hikes (12,50 km; 5,30hrs).
Time to attempt the Pirin’s premier summit, Vihren (transfer time each way: appr. 30min). You trek through the Golem Kazan (The Giant Cauldron) area beneath the breathtaking sheer 300m/1000ft northern wall of Vihren, whose dolomite precipices offer shelter to rare edelweiss flowers and fretful herds of Balkan Chamois (wild goats). The views are genuinely overwhelming, yet they are just the prelude to the panoramas that open up from the summit over a sea of jagged peaks all around. (6hrs of walking; 7,3km/4,5miles; climbing and descending 960m/3150ft.). On the way back to Bansko you can stop for a short visit to the oldest Bulgarian tree – the Baikushev’s Pine Tree (more than 1300 years old, situated just above the road).
Transfer from Bansko to Sofia Airport in connection with your flight (appr. 2,30-2,45hrs).