A complete day - Wonderful monastery , rich in history . Memorable place in the mountains . Nice time in thermal waterpiol. Guided by Georgi , verry good guide , who made our day perfect.

Great day trip - Definitely recommend this day trip. Our tour guide Ivan was brilliant and made the day great. First stop on our tour was the Rila Monastery. Ivan pointed us in the direction of all the different bits we could see whilst here and gave us some information about the monastery before leaving us to explore. It's worth knowing that because this is a working monastery you need to be dressed appropriately. Shoulders must be covered and if wearing shorts/skirt/dress your knees must be covered. I wore shorts but brought a pair of leggings to wear on this part of the trip. After this we stopped off for some lunch at a traditional Bulgarian restaurant. My friend and I just had a drink but the location of this place is lovely. The other couple on the trip said the food was lovely too. After this, we went on to see the Geyser and to the thermal spa pools. Again, Ivan was really informative about the area and it's geography. When we got to the pools it was busy and they had stopped letting people in. We had to wait a little while but this wasn't a problem and Ivan was kind enough to allow us more time there to allow for the delay, meaning we didn't miss out at all. There's changing and shower facilities plus bars serving drinks, food and cocktails. You'll need money for entry, for any snacks/drinks and as a deposit for lockers/towels/robes. It was really nice to spend some downtime hear and enjoyed all the different temperatures of the pools. Big thanks to Ivan for making it a great day!

Best tour we ever had - The tour was really nice and our tour guide was the best tour guide we ever had. We didn't know the price of the Thermal baths was not included in the price of the tour, so we had to buy these tickets for an extra 40 lev (€20) per person.

I highly recommend this - We have booked this tour and I can say that we were left speechless with all the beauty of the place. However luckily we were with Alex and he was more than helpful. He is very knowledgeable about the History and the place itself and different villages. Alex explained everything into detail and he was also acting as a translator for us as the villagers do not speak in English. Unfortunately Magdalena wasn’t available however Alex went out of his way to make the most of our tour and took us to different locations and local restaurant. We asked him to choose food from the menu for us and we weren’t disappointed at all. I would highly recommend to ask for Alex when booking for a tour as he’s so good at what he does and he takes his job so seriously that he goes out of his way to accommodate the tourist. Also, the company should consider to also add tours to the villages rather than touristic areas only and most of the beauty of the place is found there.

Although this tour may not appeal to... - <p>Although this tour may not appeal to everyone, we found it to be informative and very interesting. We firstly visited the Krakra fortress remains and our guide, who was very interested in archaeology, was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the history of the same. We then visited a very authentic coal mining museum in Pernik, which gave us an idea of the underground working conditions of the miners....once again, our guide was excellent on this subject. Finally, we had an authentic Bulgarian lunch in a remote village, at a house belonging to Magdalena. She was very hospitable and provided large amounts of delicious food. All in all, we found this trip to be good value for money....it is ideal for travellers who are interested in the culture/history of a country.</p>

Great trip - well worthwhile - We had a great day out entertained by our guide Philip who was most knowledgeable about Bulgarian history and he also Had a great sense of humour. Philip - don’t forget the philosophy of St John who got to know himself in the cave.